doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Johnson Automatics

What exactly was their role in the sporting rifle world? I know what the Johnson Rifle was, but I read several references to them in Michael's book (I think largely pertaining to barrels on sporting rifles.)

And here is a sporter attested to be made by them, although the seller doesn't go into much detail.
http://www.gunsamerica.com/981923904/Gun...NVERSION_2.htm#

Good website on the Johnson Rifle (and they had a sporting model complete with checkering.)
http://www.johnsonautomatics.com/

Just curious what role they played, what their capabilities were, etc.

Thanks.

I don't know if this will help, but here is a link to an auction for one of their catalogs

http://www.ebay.com/itm/GUN-CATALOG-JOHN...=item518609692b

Ryan: I am aware that when Johnson didn't receive large goverment contracts on his Military Automatics, he attempted to sell them as a sporting arm on a limited and temporary basis, 2 to 3 years. The numbers sold were very limited and when seen as Sporters, are rare. The Mauser in the photo you show, was one of a series of rifles Johnson made starting in approx. 1961 and shown in Shooters Bibles. They appear to have been built in 2 grades [checkered and uncheckered], on WWII Surplus 98 Mauser actions with Johnson Automatic Barrels. The stocks were either Bishop or Fajens and the guns were drilled and tapped and had forged bolt handled and Williams sights. To put it plainly, these rifles were exactly the same rifles as were being made in every gunshop in America at that time, SPORTERIZED 98 MAUSERS! I have seen several up close and the workmanship while good is nothing to write home about! HTH WARMEST REGARDS Jerry

I think that Johnson 1941s were for sale as sporters for longer than just 2-3 years. How many sold I have no idea, but I remember seeing them for sale for much of my mis-spent youth in the 1ate '40s and '50s. They may have been sold by other distributors after Johnson gave up the ghost; all I remember is the many ads in gun magazines of the times.

A friend has one of those "sporters," and it is a crude job of sporterizing; neither "fine" nor "custom." More like Bubba with a spec sheet and a ruler by his hacksaw. I read somewhere that many of the "sporters" (the 1941s, not the Mausers) were made from the spare parts left over from the pre-WWII Dutch East Indies military contract. They bring high prices from military collectors now and there is at least one firm that specializes in "re-militarizing" them.

I've also seen several of the Mauser sporters with Johnson Automatics-marked barrels. Both were the plainer model than the one Ryan points out; both were .270s, if I remember correctly. Comparable to the conversions Kimber once did on Swedish M38s; very useful hunting guns, not fine nor truly custom. Would NOT kick one out of my safe....but more appropriate in a truck. (Jerry's evaluation is spot on). Stocks on the plain ones did look like the old Bishop "DIY" specials.

Some very interesting guns emanated from the brain of MMJ. But nothing truly beautiful or classy that I ever saw. "Automatics" kinda says it all about the guns associated with him, even the Mausers have a kind of factory-like uniformity about them.

the semi auto sporters had detachABLE box magzines and were quite different from the rotary mag militariesk whfich were loaded from the side with two sufccessive five shot 1903 clips. It is possible that only onbe or two of these sporters were mnade. I yhVEW H

I have never seen one for sale. damm thiws Ipad

I don't think that I have ever seen a rifle that I knew was stocked at Johnsons. I thought I had one of their catalogs but if I do I've lost it.

I have an early sporter that has a Johnson .257-Roberts barrel on it and a hot blue job. I think the stock is by Singer and if I can ever say for sure I'll pull the barrel and replace it with a period barrel and rust blue it.

The earliest Johnson auto rifles were commercial type semi autos w/detachable magazines, checkered stocks, sporter configuration, etc. They were made in the late 30's by the Taft Pierce Co (sp?) of RI.

They didn't make many. The change to the rotary mag was at the Armys request in '39 for their Ordnance Trials against the Garand. IIRC 7 of those commercial style rifles were built for the trials. The Garand won. It also lost (2nd place) to the Garand in the USMC trials (1940).

Some redesign was done to a more Military looking rifle and a name change to 'Model 1941'
The rotary mag was standard then.
These were Cranston Arms Co, Cranston ,RI mfg rifles.

Holland bought a large number but they never left the docks. The USMC bought a portion of that shipment (they were in cal 30-06) for outfitting Parachute Regiment(s).

The only other contract I've ever heard of was one to Chile during WW2 for around 1k riflesin 7x57 .

After WW2, Johnson Automatics sold out to Winchester in the early 50's. Winchester sold all the parts to Numrich.

Winfield Arms bought most all the remaining Dutch contract rifles from Holland and shipped them to Canada.
Winfield then bought the parts from Numrich.

Winfield built/rebuilt the Dutch rifles and any other J/A rifle they could put together from the parts. Some were 'sporter' models of the Military version. AFAIK all were the rotary mag version.
Some of the Winfield gun building operations probably went on in Canada as well as the USA. The J/A rifles from Winfield pretty much disappeared from the gun magazine ads in the mid 60's.

Melvin Johnson continued to put out different firearms products over the years including the sporterized Mausers, M1 Carbines including his 5.7mm Spitfire version. As I understand it,,those were for the most part made in his custom gunshop at his home in RI.
I don't know if Winchester allowed him to continue use of the J/A name after having sold the business to them. He used 'Johnson Arms Co. New Haven CT' for a time in the 60's.
Perhaps the bbls on some of the Mausers w/ 'J/Automatics' address were mfg'rd earlier. He did make bbls for US Ordnance too.

He did go to work for Winchester after he sold out his J/A Rifle business to them,,that was part of the deal.
He died in the mid 60's I believe.

In 1958-59, I messed about with one in 7x57. This came from Winfield. It had military sights & a rotary magazine and was not very "sporterized". At the time, I thought my 03A3 was decidedly more accurate.

Thanks, Kutter, for the full story. The "sporter" 1941 I handled was obviously a parts gun made up by Winfield, and now that you mention it, those were Winfield Arms ads I was seeing as a kid. (Only thing I ever actually got from them was a $9.95 mail order BSA Cadet action--now a .25-20).

Never saw one of the detachable mag REAL sporters; must be pretty scarce. There isn't even one (prototype military or sporter) at the small arms collection at Aberdeen Arsenal, if I remember correctly.

Weren't all the govt. contract "Johnson Automatics" barrels for the '03A3? I seem to remember seeing one on an '03A3.....or were they also for the rebuilt 1917s we handed out to our Greek, French, and Chinese allies in and after WWII?