eric johnson guns

Don Gill

Howdy Don,
I am certainly no expert on Johnson rifles, but I have some. I have been trying to do some homework on mine too. If you have access to some old American Rifleman magazines you may be able to dig up some info. The Camp Perry results generally got listed in the October edition of the magazine. Try going through as many as you can. You may find match results in any month though. Being from Connecticut, as was Johnson, he could have shot at a variety of places including Sea Girt in New Jersey. I found results of Sea Girt matches in August 1933, along with a photo of Eric Johnson standing beside Charlie Johnson, with Charlie holding the Eric Johnson Straight Pull rifle that I believe is the one a few feet away from me as I type this. It is kinda cool to find a picture of your rifle from many years ago in an American Rifleman!

A guy who goes by 40ezxs has a LOT of shooting experience, and sometimes posts on the Eric Johnson threads. EXTREMELY helpful guy. If he does not post here in a day or two, I would recommend starting a thread about John Sullivan asking for any info anyone could provide.

It is a small world. The rifle that Tom C. is talking about in the first post in this thread, is sitting beside the Straight Pull as I type this. He listed the serial number on the reciever. About a year later I started a thread and asked him about it. Same rifle. It is a Remington 37 that was built for a guy named Charley Whipple of Pennsylvania. 40ezxs had shot against Whipple in the 1950's. Whipple took a job at Winchester shortly after Johnson built his Rem 37.

I found in the October 1946 American Rifleman, that Whipple often took the Rem 37 AND a Winchester 52 to matches and shot them in different events.

I hope you will enjoy the rifle and the search for info. I don't know if Sullivan was famous or not. But if he was, it is cool having a functional piece of history.

How does the 52 shoot, at what distance, with what ammo?

Greg
 
eric johnson barrel

I have an Eric Johnson barreled rifle on a Ballard action, custom stocked with Eric Johnson stamped on the rear end of the forend, that I purchased from Charlie Ebright from New Philadelphia Ohio several years ago. This rifle is in very good condition & is an excellent shooter. Gerry H
 
404tbang said:
Howdy Don,
I am certainly no expert on Johnson rifles, but I have some. I have been trying to do some homework on mine too. If you have access to some old American Rifleman magazines you may be able to dig up some info. The Camp Perry results generally got listed in the October edition of the magazine. Try going through as many as you can. You may find match results in any month though. Being from Connecticut, as was Johnson, he could have shot at a variety of places including Sea Girt in New Jersey. I found results of Sea Girt matches in August 1933, along with a photo of Eric Johnson standing beside Charlie Johnson, with Charlie holding the Eric Johnson Straight Pull rifle that I believe is the one a few feet away from me as I type this. It is kinda cool to find a picture of your rifle from many years ago in an American Rifleman!

A guy who goes by 40ezxs has a LOT of shooting experience, and sometimes posts on the Eric Johnson threads. EXTREMELY helpful guy. If he does not post here in a day or two, I would recommend starting a thread about John Sullivan asking for any info anyone could provide.

It is a small world. The rifle that Tom C. is talking about in the first post in this thread, is sitting beside the Straight Pull as I type this. He listed the serial number on the reciever. About a year later I started a thread and asked him about it. Same rifle. It is a Remington 37 that was built for a guy named Charley Whipple of Pennsylvania. 40ezxs had shot against Whipple in the 1950's. Whipple took a job at Winchester shortly after Johnson built his Rem 37.

I found in the October 1946 American Rifleman, that Whipple often took the Rem 37 AND a Winchester 52 to matches and shot them in different events.

I hope you will enjoy the rifle and the search for info. I don't know if Sullivan was famous or not. But if he was, it is cool having a functional piece of history.

How does the 52 shoot, at what distance, with what ammo?

Greg
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Thank you so much for the info you sent. I will be in touch with your friend, soon. Greg, this old rifle is the most accurate I've shot. It shot circles around many custom rifles. I haven't matched since 2005 but back then I was shooting Tenex. The rifle shoots .1 groups at 50yds all day. I was at first tempted to D & T it for scope mounts and restock it into a flat forearm competition stock, but after shooting it and seeing who smithed it, I left it alone and bought a DKL cantilever scope mount that let me use the existing holes.

Thanks again,
Don
 
Eric Johnson was an expert small bore shooter and also made very accurate small bore barrels. There is no relation between Eric and C. C. Johnson. C.C. was a very well known gunsmith out of Thackery Ohio. Eric was out of New Haven and Hamden Connecticut. There was also a Charles H. Johnson that was known to be an expert small bore shooter, but so far as I know not a gunsmith.

I lived a short distance from Thackery and knew C.C. and at one time owned one of his High Walls, and also some of the reloading tools that he manufactured.

I'm not sure Eric or C.C. actually manufactured barrels. C.C. worked with C. A. Diller out of Dayton who might have made all his barrels. Eric may have also worked with someone else who made his barrels. I thnk Eric was working only with 22 RF while C.C. was in to center fire varmint rifles. In any case both built what are considered to be very high quality guns.
 
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I'm going to go out on a limb and speculate that Eric Johnson may have used some company to manufacture barrel blanks to his specs, and that Johnson probably fine tuned and hand lapped these barrels for his custom work.

The reason I think this is that the stamping of Eric Johnson's name on top of the barrels is different from the stamping he used for his serial numbers and dates on the bottom of the barrels. His name hallmarked on the top is machined, very deep, sharp and clear while the ser# and date on the bottom is also very clear and neatly done but was definitely hand stamped using stencils.

To update the saga of this Winchester's provenance, I am currently corresponding with a Camp Perry teammate of Big John Sullivan, an elderly gentleman from CT who contested 35 Perry Matches. It is quite the honor to be able to trace a vintage, super accurate target rifle, older than myself, back to its original builder and retired Marine competitor, long deceased.

Here follows and excerpt from John Sullivan's Camp Perry team mate:

"One of the pleasures of going to Camp Perry is meeting new people. After 35 Perrys I know a lot of shooters but as a young pup everyone I met was new. One August morning I wandered to my target for the start of the Wimbledon Match eagerly looking forward to making more new friends. Nearing my target I saw a Marine opening the ammo can of supplies while a tall hulk of a man punched holes in the target with his pocketknife to hold the value panel/

My high spirits took a nosedive! Had I just traveled 700 miles to shoot with Big John Sullivan? "
 
Sorry Don, wrong speculation!

Don Gill said:
I'm going to go out on a limb and speculate that Eric Johnson may have used some company to manufacture barrel blanks to his specs, and that Johnson probably fine tuned and hand lapped these barrels for his custom work.

Howdy Don,
Sorry to shoot you down, but Eric Johnson made his own barrels. You will find that your "New Best Friend" has a copy of Eric Johnson's shop records.:D:D Ask him about his Remington 37!:):D:cool:

Eric also made the barrels for Hoffman Arms for 5 years. Some of the finest guns ever made in America. Howe, of Griffin & Howe, left the company with his name in it to work at Hoffman. Eric made barrels for many different calibers while there. If you can find it, the March 1947 American Rifleman has a famous article entitled Lock, Stock, and Barrel. It gives some highlights of Johnson's life and career up to that point.

If you look at the picture where Eric is prone with a rifle, page 2 of the story, I believe that rifle is the straight pull that I own. Underneath the pic is the statement that Eric Johnson won the Smallbore Prone National Championship at Camp Perry in 1929 with one of his own barrels. Nope, he did not use the straight pull to do it. The straight pulls were made in 1933. There is one prototype, which stayed in the family, and there were 5 commercial ones, I have serial #1 of the commercial rifles. The prototype is also serial #1. That made for an interesting discussion with the guy who owns it!!!!!

While Eric is legendary for his rimfires, he made some 30-06 match rifles too. I don't think he did many of them. I just made a seriously complicated trade not long ago and got a 30-06 on a National Match 1903 Springfield. It has double set triggers and an exceptionally strong firing pin spring. I am trying to do some homework to find out if it was actually an International Match rifle. It is near mint. When I saw the rifle, I did not know he built centerfire target rifles. The reciever is from 1931, and I was told that he built 7 1903's in 1935.

Eric used several different stamps over the years. But he built his own barrels. There is a guy in Mississippi that has all of Eric's shop equipment, got it from Eric's still living son, Carl. Carl is around 80 or 81, and a SUPER nice guy!

I have had more fun finding out about these rifles than you can shake a stick at!

GBH, how does your Ballard shoot, at what distance, with what ammo?

Greg
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I just acquired 2 Eric Johnson barrels from the estate of Karl Kenyon. They say 5star over 8. The 8 means 8 groove. One of the barrels was #1140 with 8/16 and the year missing. I believe it was set back and rechambered. The second says #1537 and was dated 1-20-65. I believe they are chambered for mod 52s as the tenons are different than the mod 37 barrels that I got at the same time. Information on them would be nice.
 
Butch Lambert said:
I just acquired 2 Eric Johnson barrels from the estate of Karl Kenyon. They say 5star over 8. The 8 means 8 groove. One of the barrels was #1140 with 8/16 and the year missing. I believe it was set back and rechambered. The second says #1537 and was dated 1-20-65. I believe they are chambered for mod 52s as the tenons are different than the mod 37 barrels that I got at the same time. Information on them would be nice.
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Howdy Butch,
Congrats on getting the barrels! You are correct on the setback barrel. He did the same on my Rem 37. I can see the date that he did the setback, 1962. But I am pretty sure the barrel is from the 1950's. It is the second or third barrel Johnson put on the rifle. The 1965 barrel would have been among the last he made. He retired sometime in 1965, at age 78. As I understand it, he didn't do to many barrels the last few years. I THINK I have a barrel close to the #1140 you have. I will take the gun apart one day next week to check, and get back with you. It might be close enough to to get you an approximate date for the barrel. If I had a copy of the shop records, I would look it up for you, but I don't.

Do the barrels look to be in good, shootable shape?

Take care,

Greg
 
Greg,
My bore scope has a bad lens. It feels good with a patch. I have many Deltronic pins and a .2177 slides perfectly through it. Feels the same all the way. I'm going to take on to Shilen tomorrow and check it out.
 
Oz Customs said:
Here is a pic of an Eric Johnson he smithed in 1948 - this is a 5-star barrel also stamped "Special" - it is a smooth bore up til the last six inches where there is a 5 groove 1/9...also the barrel has a series of vents in it - GREAT shooter - If I can find my USB adapter for my camera I can put up some pics of a Pope later -

bal8.JPG


bal2.JPG


Also, I have a copy of EJ's shop records so I can provide some info if you have his serial no from the barrel - most of his records show just the date it was produced, what type of gun it was, and the customers name/address;

bal9.JPG
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Did you buy this rifle from a gunshop in Ft. Worth, TX.?
 
to change the thread just a little i have a martini cadet i purchased off g/b it didnt have a stock so i had to have one made. this rifle is 22rf and has a huge barrel on it it was smithed by a guy name sukhalle i think that s close.

anyone heard of this smith?

thanks

bob
 
My Eric Johnson barrel is dated 4-19-65 and is serial number1540, from existing records it was the third barrel he made in that year of the 17 he produced, mine is on a 52C and the stock does have a removable cheekpiece, but do not know who made cheekpiece.
Glen
 
butch

thanks for the interesting site i will do some research on this smith he was featured in one of the nra publications many years ago. a gun shop owner in moberly mo has a high power single shot rifle by him with the same huge barrell. so far i cant get mine to shoot real well i had a smith here look at it and the barrell was loose??? but after that i put it away.

too many rifles too little time.

bob
 
Bob,
You might PM Michael Petrov on that forum. He has written several books on the old masters. He can steer you in the right direction.
 
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serial #.jpg

breech.jpg
i have a Eric Johnson 22 LR that i purchased 30 years ago and only used a few time just after purchase... It was a second gun in a package deal of equipment purchased from a mother whose son had pasted away and she really didnt know to much about the stuff, All i was interested in at the time was the Anschutz Modell Match 54 position rifle and the position equipment.... I was hoping someone here would be able to help identify and value it...
 
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thanks Butch

the only serial number I find is on the top left side of the breech and it is 00713... on the bottom of the barrel is a #515 and a date of 8/4/45
 
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