Have you ever seen a rifle that tripped your “I really want that” trigger the first time you saw a picture of it?

I first saw a photo of the M1941 Johnson rifle probably twenty years ago, and have wanted to get my hands on one ever since. Unfortunately there were only about 35,000 ever made and many of those were destroyed in combat in the South Pacific, so this video is (sigh) probably as close as I’m ever going to get.

I’ll warn you in advance that the cameraman for this video is the owner of the rifle is he’s heard wheezing all the way though the video, and whispers his opinion of firearms designer Eugene Stoner at about the six-minute mark.

Franky, I like the Johnson’s 10-round rotary magazine design better than Garand’s en-bloc clip, because the Johnson could be topped-off via stripper clips or with single rounds while the rifle still had a round in the chamber. I also think that it is neat that Stoner copied the locking lug design of the Johnson that we still see in the AR-15 today.

You can read more about the Johnson rifle at ForgottenWeapons.com.