GUNS Magazine Johnson Model 1941

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Distinctive profile: The recoil-operated Johnson wasn’t as graceful as an M1 Garand,

When the U.S. military selects a new rifle or pistol, some mighty fine “also-rans” are the inevitable result. Want a relatively recent example? In the early 1980s the Beretta M92 beat out the SIG P226 for general issue, although the SIG later achieved cult status as a limited-issue choice for several elite units. Okay, how about an earlier example?

Two Men, Two Rifles

Although Melvin Maynard Johnson (1909-1965) may have lost America’s WWII semi-auto rifle sweepstakes to John C. Garand, his contributions to military small arms outnumbered those of his Canadian-born competitor. Besides his namesake 1941 rifle, he also developed a recoilless mortar, various experimental flash hiders and an aircraft cannon. His Model 1941 Johnson Light Machine Gun was employed by the Marine Raiders, Paramarines and the Army Special Service Force in the European Theater.

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Mid-to-late 1950s ads for surplus Johnsons graced many a vintage gun magazine.

In USMC Service

More than 20 years ago, my shooting buddy Thomas Mackie showed me a Model 1941 Johnson semi-auto rifle he’d acquired. Thomas, to put it charitably, is not a major fan of bolt-action rifles. I guess he’d rather not go through the indignity of having to throw a bolt manually.

However, when my Dad found out about Thomas’ acquisition, his eyes lit up. Until then I’d pretty much assumed the M1 Garand was the only .30-06 semi-auto battle rifle fielded by the U.S. military in WWII. Wrong! I got schooled real quick by my Dad. Relatively few U.S. servicemen got “close and personal” with the Model 1941 Johnson, but my Dad was one of them.

My Dad was a Paramarine until the elite USMC unit was disbanded — along with the Marine Raiders — roughly at the close of the brutal Solomon Islands campaign. After they turned in their parachutes, Dad was reassigned to the 28th Regiment, 5th Marine Division at Camp Pendleton from where he was sent to take part in the Iwo Jima landings on February 19, 1945. There, he served as a flamethrower-operator until he was seriously wounded by a sniper about a week or so after Mt. Suribachi was taken. By then, of course, the Johnson was pretty much out of the picture.

My dad gave Thomas and me a copy of The Opening Shock, the publication of the Association of Survivors of World War II Parachute Units, United States Marine Corps. In the July 1996 issue there was a fascinating article written by Joe Aiello called “The Johnson Was the Best!” Aiello, serving with the 6th Marines at the MCRD in San Diego, was part of a 1939 USMC evaluation between an earlier iteration of the Johnson, the M1 Garand and a Winchester test rifle.

Aiello felt strongly the Johnson was the best of the three. He opined “The only reason the Johnson was not adopted was that the Army had thousands of the Garands and it wouldn’t have been politically correct to throw them out.”

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Comparison: the recoil-operated Johnson (top) and the gas-operated Garand (bottom).
The Garand recoils slightly less and the safety is a bit quicker than the Johnson.

Ugly Ducking

Basically, the Johnson is a short-recoil operated semi-auto with a weight of 9.5 lbs. and a 22" barrel. It feeds from a 10-round rotary magazine loading via side port from 5-round ’03 stripper clips or in single cartridge mode. The rifle’s weight and overall length of just under 46" puts it in a near-identical class size-wise with an M1. However, the Johnson’s bulbous receiver gives it a pregnant look accentuated by its naked, recoiling barrel protruding from a pretty serious looking vented sleeve above the wood forend. Besides the usual .30-06 chambering, the Johnson also was chambered in 7x57 Mauser for export sales.

Although the Johnson may look clumsy — fat middle, skinny barrel — it actually balances pretty well as we found out in offhand shooting berm-bound clay birds at 50 and 100 yards. Although the Johnson does sport a bayonet lug, its recoiling barrel makes the use of a serious M1-style bayonet problematic. The initial solution was a 5" triangular lightweight spike-type bayonet. They were kind of silly and relatively few survived — and now command “tall dollars.”

Here’s how to load the Johnson via a 5-round stripper clip, plus you can also reload
the rotary magazine with single rounds. Try this with your M1!

M1/Johnson Shootout

About a year or so after Dad passed, around late 2000, Thomas and I took the Johnson out to shoot a bit. Nothing serious, no paper targets or sight fiddling — just a couple of pops at a 100-yard gong for giggles. However, Thomas had recently acquired a nice M1 so we decided to see how a WWII-vintage Garand would stack up against the prize Johnson.

We both shot the Johnson and the M1 at 100 yards from a rest, using some 150- and 165-gr. soft points, which weren’t impressive in terms of grouping from either rifle. But when we went to some 1948-vintage GI ball, things tightened up considerably from both rifles. Functioning of both, incidentally, was flawless but the Johnson could be loaded without disturbing your firing position, meaning you didn’t have to lift your head much to ram down an 8-round en bloc clip as was necessary with the Garand.

Our 100-yard groups with the Johnson were, to be honest, over twice the size of those with the Garand. But since neither Thomas nor I are spring chickens in terms of visual acuity, we were pretty stoked with the results. The Garand gave us 3-shot groups slightly over 2″ while the Johnson was over 4″. Funny thing was, the Garand’s trigger was 5.5 lbs., but clean and reasonably crisp for an issue service rifle while the Johnson was a lesser 4.5 lbs. The difference? The Johnson’s was creepy and gritty as hell.

But the Johnson apparently worked and worked well. Bruce Canfield, author of the definitive book on the gun, relates an incident which could well serve as a wry commentary on the overall Johnson/M1 saga:

Any thought that the Johnson rifle was not suitable as a combat weapon was firmly set to rest by Platoon Sergeant Harry M. Tully of the 1st Parachute Battalion. Tully, armed with an M1941 Johnson semiautomatic rifle killed 42 Japanese at ranges up to 800 yards on Gavutu. Tully also earned the Silver Star for his exploits. Sgt. Tully’s story was later printed in the December 1, 1942, issue of Look magazine. Ironically, in the accompanying artwork, Tully was depicted armed with an M1 Garand rifle rather than the Johnson rifle he actually used.

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Parting Shots

The upshot? The M1 went on to earn Gen. Patton’s accolade of “The Best Battle Implement Ever Devised” while the Johnson went on to grace black and white surplus rifle ads in 1950s–’60s magazines, including GUNS. Since then, prices have gone up accordingly, a phenomenon not totally attributable to inflation. After all, they ain’t making any more of ’em!

But there’s something else to explain the distinctive appeal of the Johnson — they’re just plain cool!

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Johnson Model 1941

Long-lost gem from WWII’s “Second String” lineup

Two Men, Two Rifles

In USMC Service

Ugly Ducking

M1/Johnson Shootout

Parting Shots

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