[ USMC Johnson LMG at the Range ]
Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com.
I'm Ian McCollum, and I am out here on the range today
courtesy of Morphy's with a US Marine Corps
documented Johnson light machine gun.
I have been wanting to try shooting one of these
for quite a long time and it's very exciting to get the opportunity today.
So, the Johnson was adopted by the Marine Corps
in particular for use by the Paramarines, the US Marine paratroop regiment.
They needed guns with a lot of firepower that could also be
... disassembled, taken down, for use with parachute drops.
Now the Paramarines didn't end up actually jumping into combat anywhere.
But what they chose for their equipment were Johnson light machine guns
that you can pull the barrel out of easily and quickly,
and folding stock Reising M55 submachine guns.
And the Paramarines, their table of equipment was 50% these and 50% Reisings,
they had a ton of firepower in those units.
And the Johnson would end up doing a lot better than the Reisings in retrospect.
So the Johnsons ended up with a fantastic reputation in combat.
These were on places like Guadalcanal.
Edson's Raiders had these at Bloody Ridge on Guadalcanal.
And by all accounts this should be a very handy, very convenient,
portable, .30-06 light machine gun. So let's give it a try.
We have a rather unique magazine, single stack, 20 rounds.
And it's got this retention catch sort of thing in the front, no feed lips.
And what we do is drop this in here,
and this tab will ride up into that, it lifts the retention spring out of the way,
and now this just feeds straight into the action.
Now one of the other things about the Johnson
is that it will fire from the closed bolt in semi-auto, or from the open bolt in full-auto.
So in semi-auto you can get good controllable accurate single shots.
In open bolt, in full-auto, you get the advantage of not having a round in the chamber,
so you don't have cookoffs, and because the chamber is open the barrel can cool
a little bit faster. Which could be relevant because it's a relatively thin profile barrel.
So we'll start with a few rounds in semi.
OK, one thing that I noticed, and I've heard this from Johnson light machine gun owners before,
and I'm going to say it's true just based on the semi-auto, these guns kick.
Like, they kick more than you would expect.
I would say this has as much or more kick than an M1 Garand,
despite the fact that it weighs 50% more.
And I think that's just a result of high bolt velocity hitting the back of the receiver
and transferring felt recoil into me, the shooter.
So, let's go ahead and switch this guy to full and see how that is.
Now in order to do that, right now I've got a round chambered, it was set to semi.
It's only going to fire full-auto from the open bolt.
So what I need to do is open the action, it's going to eject the one round that was in the chamber.
It's now going to lock open, because in full it fires from the open bolt,
and now I'm good to go in full-auto.
That is definitely a punchy ... gun.
It does in fact have just as much recoil in full-auto as it does in semi.
It is very difficult to keep a good sight picture through this
rather small aperture sight when the gun's bouncing around in full-auto.
Alright, now I'm out of ammunition, the magazine's empty.
I could change the magazine, but the Johnson can also accept 5 round stripper clips.
So we have a little stripper clip guide here.
... We'll put that on safe first.
I should be able to stuff a stripper clip in here.
Load that right up, put it back into auto.
One of the few guns of this period that was set up for topping off
... basically in a live combat condition.
You don't have to pull the mag out, you don't have to open the action.
Whether the bolt's open or closed,
you can reload it by stripper clip right from the other side of the action.
And that was a real help, I think, to a lot of the Marines who were using these guns,
because they didn't really have pouches for these magazines.
There was some web gear for them, but really very little.
And I think a lot of guys probably did a lot of reloading with stripper clips.
Now for the Paramarines the other gun that they could have used
in US service at this time was the BAR.
The BAR certainly a popular gun, a very well regarded gun.
Substantially heavier than the Johnson,
and also not something that was really feasible for paratroops.
And that's the ... biggest reason why the Johnson was adopted
was because of its capability for paratroops.
However, what the Marines found was that this was a really handy, portable, mobile gun.
In fact a lot of them took the bipods off,
ditched the bipods to get rid of even a bit more weight.
Unfortunately, for that reason bipods are really scarce today.
It's not uncommon to find Johnsons that don't have the bipods,
and if you do, well good luck ever finding a bipod for it.
Let's see how this is from the hip.
Nah, start with the shoulder.
Whoo, that's a little tricky to control.
Now I am shooting it right handed and I'm left handed, but it really tends to pull off to the side.
That concussive recoil that you get, that's definitely still a thing from the shoulder.
Let me try it left handed and see if that helps any.
No. It's just as difficult for me to shoot left handed as it was right handed.
I'm also getting a little bit of an issue here with the last round in each magazine.
One of the interesting things about the Johnson is the magazine spring pushes to here.
And you will end up with the last couple of cartridges kind of floating loose in the action.
You can see this one had a little bit of a feed issue.
... We'll pull that out of there and then let's try some shooting from the hip.
Firing from the hip is always something that's been popular.
And I can certainly understand troops in a place like Guadalcanal wanting to do that.
So let's give it a try. Pull it in tight, hopefully tight enough.
There's a tremendous amount of concussion that comes off this thing, like,
it's really kind of surprising in a way, this is the exact same cartridge that the M1 uses.
And yet this just seems like ... it sounds more powerful.
It's not, it's literally the same cartridge, same barrel length
(or very close to the same barrel length).
Why this gun has so much more
But it certainly does. And there are some Marine accounts of the concussion
... and the noise ... of the Johnson had a significant impressive effect on the Japanese.
And that was it, I'm totally out of ammo.
Alright guys, it's been a real treat to get a chance to
actually try out a Marine Corps Johnson light machine gun at the range.
A big thanks to Morphy's for giving me this opportunity.
There are not a lot of guns, I think, ... in the US military that have a better combination
of all of the cool characteristics.
The Johnson looks cool, it was in some of the most iconic battles
of the Second World War for the United States.
It's an effective gun, it's a reliable gun, it was well liked by the men who used it.
Today, sadly but predictably, they are pretty darn rare to find.
And this is a fantastic example of one. So hopefully you guys enjoyed the video.
I have one magazine left, and so there's only one thing I can do with that.
And it doesn't involve the semi-auto switch.
So, thanks for watching. Thanks Morphy's.
I will try using the sight, there we go.
Whoo! That'll rattle your bell.