I've always loved stories of how one man's grit and perseverance makes something happen, against serious odds.
Such a man was U.S. Marine Captain Melvin M. Johnson, who, as Marine observer to the Springfield Company, thought he saw a couple of design flaws with the M1 Garand and thought he could design a better combat rifle.
Using bits and pieces (the prototype's firing pin was a knitting needle), Johnson designed the rifle which would come to be known as the M1941 Johnson, firing a .30-06 cartridge from a fixed 10-round rotary magazine, through a 22" barrel:
The M1941 weighed the same as a Garand, and in its initial tests for the Army in 1939, actually outshot the Garand (82% - 71% hits). The Garand reloaded quicker, but the Johnson held its point of impact better (perhaps because more of its barrel length was exposed, and cooled more quickly?). Interestingly enough, though, the Johnson tended to "string" (create vertical lines of holes in the target) because of the recoiling barrel action.
In addition, the M1941 had about a third less recoil than the Garand, and could be "topped up" with single rounds or a 5-round stripper clip while there were still rounds left in the magazine -- which the Garand could not do (you have to remove the Garand clip altogether and reload with a full one).
What doomed the Johnson was the fact that it was a bear to field-strip -- lots of teeny pieces to be dropped and lost, which normally spells doom for the owner, and it acquired a reputation for requiring lots of cleaning. Also, spares were more plentiful for the Garand, and so in 1940, the Army selected the Garand instead.
Johnson didn't give up, and managed to get his rifle tested by the USMC. In the interim, an order for 70,000 rifles was placed by the Dutch government for issue to soldiers defending their Pacific territories -- later canceled because the Japanese were overrunning the islands too quickly. But this stockpile meant that there was a ready supply for the USMC to issue to Marine paratroopers, who loved the low recoil and reliability of the M1941, and the fact that the barrel could easily be removed for compact storage.
Only about 30,000 M1941 rifles were ever produced. Some found their way to South America, and were re-chambered to 7mm, while others were "sporterized" into calibers like .270.
The Johnson actually evokes two responses from previous users: some found it too finicky, others absolutely loved them. Some time ago, gun writer Robert T. Shimek did a field test on one of these for Guns & Ammo magazine, and his only regret was that he couldn't shoot it more.
If you want one of these, they're expensive. Originals can fetch almost $6,000 (!!), but you can get a remanufactured M1941 from Mil-Tech Arms for less.
Here's the full scoop on the M1941 Johnson -- a testament to a guy who wouldn't quit.
