#Johnson

In January, just before the 2017 SHOT Show, I got the opportunity to travel to Cody Wyoming to visit the Cody Firearms Museum at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, to see some of their rare firearms and bring photos of them to our readers.

First, let’s talk about The Fix. Sitting at just about five and a half pounds, this rifle needs to be held to be properly appreciated. Even though I have little to no practical use for a .308 bolt gun at the moment, I found myself wanting one almost immediately. The ergonomics are comfortable, the in-house made trigger is dreamy, the operation and controls are smooth and simple and the whole gun just feels right.

I swear, Ian gets to play with all the fun (and obscure) firearms the world has created. While I enjoy my modern doo-dads, sometimes the old designs just look fun to work with. Latest up in Ian from Forgotten Weapon’s ever expanding catalog of old guns is the Johnson LMG

(This is Part 2 of the TFB Rifle Weight Omnibus. You can read Part 1 here.)

The M1941 Johnson Rifle is a strange footnote in US firearms history. Melvin Johnson was a lawyer by trade who decided to break into firearms design by founding the Johnson Automatics company. While his rifle would never see the success enjoyed by the M1 Garand, several M1941s did make their way into the hands of US fighting men in the Pacific during World War II.

This is the second part of a series of posts seeking to describe and analyze the 7.62mm Light Rifle concept promoted by the Americans, and subsequently adopted by NATO in various forms. This series will cover development from before World War II to the present day, but will focus primarily on the period from 1944-1970, which constitutes the span of time from the Light Rifle’s conception until its end in the United States with the standardization of the M16.

Fifty-four years ago plus five days, nearly thirteen hundred troops of the paramilitary Cuban exile group Brigade 2506 landed in Cuba, in an attempt to overthrow the Communist Cuban government, led by Fidel Castro. Sponsored by the CIA, the Brigade was armed with a motley of weapons, many ex-US military examples left over from World War II. Historical Firearms has posted to their Facebook page an album of photographs showing a cross-section of the weapons used by both the Brigadiers and the Communist forces.