This rifle is one of a group of five rare 1941 Johnson semi-automatic prototype rifles that Rock Island Auction company has to offer for sale in this auction. These early prototype rifles were used as the basis for the development of the later and highly successful, 1941 Light Machine that was used by the USMC and early 1st Special Forces units during WWII. Each one is a "One of a Kind" design with unique features unto it's self. The 1941 Light Machine was developed during the early stages of WWII and although proved successful from a design stand point but it did have it's drawbacks in the field. One of the advantages of this weapon was that the Light machine gun and the standard Johnson semi automatic rifle used several common components, which helped cut down on the logistics burden and the manufacturing costs by not having to stock multiple configurations of parts. This specific model of rifle is like the others in that it started out as a basic Johnson semi automatic rifle receiver forging although an earlier version since it doesn't have any letter prefix in the serial number and it has the earlier cut-down walnut forend that has a steel block riveted to the underside of the barrel jacket (directly behind the take down latch) that was intended as a mounting position for a folding bipod. Otherwise this rifle has the same basic receiver forging, barrel assembly, and bolt assembly as the other ones, that was just mated to a completely new lower receiver, trigger group and buttstock assembly. As previously noted the standard 10 shot rotary box magazine was removed and replaced with a completely new lower assembly that featured a side mounted, 20 round, flat box magazine. Additionally the right side of the receiver or magazine assembly retained the sheet metal cover that was machined with stripper clip slots allowing the box magazine to be loaded from the right side with stripper clips or with a single round, similar to the original rotary magazine design. The most notable feature was that these light machine guns fired from an open bolt when on full automatic and then fired from a closed bolt when firing in a semi-automatic mode, similar to the German FG42 rifle. These rifles employ a folding rear sight with two rear sight apertures due to the straight line stock configuration. The windage knob for the rear sight was on the base and it had a knurled center ring that raised and lowered the rear sight aperture, similar to the Lyman tang sights. The front sight was a unique high mounted, one-piece base with a blade machined into the top rear. These light machine guns all featured a straight line recoil mechanism with a lowered butt stock to help reduce muzzle climb. As noted this rifle is actually a semi-automatic version of the 1941 LMG and the top of the receiver is marked with the standard, four line patent dates next to "CAL. 30-'06 SEMI-AUTO./"JOHNSON AUTOMATICS"/MODEL OF 1941/MADE IN PROVIDANCE R.I.U.S.A/4969". The front end of the barrel recoil lug is marked "30-06 and 41, with a small letter M" stamped at a 3 0'clock position. The right side of the lower receiver has the two position selector switch that is marked "SAFE" and "SEMI". It has the three-piece walnut stock, short walnut forend and walnut pistol grip plates. It is complete with three, super rare 20 shot spare magazines.

Excellent overall with 98% of a light gray parkerized finish showing light wear and handling marks overall. The walnut stock, pistol grip panels and short forend are all in very good condition, with all three have dark brown color with minor handling marks with a small 2 1/2 inch crack just starting on top of the comb of the butt stock. A nice example of a scarce prototype rifle