me LOCK STOCK and STAN ds By STUART D. LUDLUM “THE OLD SWEDE” IS LIVING PROOF THAT CRAFTSMANSHIP CAN HOLD ITS OWN IN A WORLD OF MACHINES .. . in New Hat item would have industry. Why should three men ma shooting w these chree men Mort king team is Erie sigh Rite ars enn aNsrifled tubes have beea building Therefore, an his repucation. appraisal of this newcomer on the small-bore firing ine should start with a look at Erie John: Some years ago at 2 dinnes Mrs, Laland Stanford had asked to be seated next to President Lowell of Harvard, so that she could discuss a project she had in mind, 2 new university for West Coast. They dis- cussed buildings, faculties, edu cational standards, everything, and the lady modestly explained that if she went ahead with the idea, money would be no ‘bject, Then she asked, “Presi- deat Lowel, just what would ie take to create a Harvard on the West Coast? ‘Without hesitating, Lowell answered, "Three hundred vents.” Erie Johnson is frequently asked. whae it takes to make rifle barrels of razoredge ac~ curacy. Usually, Eric looks around his thiety-five- by forty-five-foot shop, glances at his steel blanks, his villing ma- chine, his seraig ack, and tries to come up with an answer that will satisfy the curious one. Sometimes he glances back over his sixty years and gives the true answer—forty-three years of specializing. “That's all well and good, Eric, but whae’s the crick—the magic touch—that makes your .22 caliber small-bore barrels 50 bow” He's heard the question all right, His eyes sparkle a bit and be answers by eaking you back to Sweden at the turn of the century. All his wanderings have not washed the accent out of his words “As a kid in Sw and Iwas building a name for myself in Obro, That's twelve miles from Stockholm. Then a pal of mine—Carlson his ing since 1908, jen I shot good—targets as well as game~ In 1929 Eri thon won the metonal ie wi [Bitsy he sil nk ot one of the nation’s top smell bore markamen 8 name is, he lives in Maine now —he came over to chis country and got a job in a guashop in Worcester, Massachusetts ‘That was in'1903." OF course, Carlson wrote Eric and, of course, Erie wwouldn’e be happy until he, too, crossed the Atlantic, which The city of Worcester was just be- ‘coming accustomed to the year 1904 when Eric got a job at the same gunshop, Fyrberg and Son, His first assignments were drilling and milling, operations which he performed to the best he did six months later. of bis ability bue with his heart Gefinitely in che barrel depare- ment... even in those dis- s Roebuck purchased the the following year, > Meriden, Connecti= the name to Firearms Come moving on his own hhook—away frdm che milling and drilling machines. Ale though they dida’e realize i order buyer of yy years ago was buying a Johnson b ing less for a rack of good farm arms than of Eric's small-bore barrel 'So that’s where you learned your robably pay s today for one waey tricks? What did you say they were again?” Eric admits frecly chat even in th an idea he would experiment, and ke hae filed the idea as unworkable or discovered one more bit of pftctical barrel knowledge. The practical, workable knowledge accumulated, and by 1907 Eric was ssistant foreman of the ‘A year later, he For the next eight years Eric made b handguns. He made tight chambers, loo bores, loose bores, deep grooves, and shallow bedding, barrel bands, floating bacre point of view, he was turing out sys when he got menting untill shotguns, rifles, © chambers, right He studied ‘om the commercial «J production barrels, From the specialists point of view, he was acquiring invaluable experience; he was learning In 1915 the New England Westinghouse Company bought cout his employer and retooled to prod 00 Russian army rifles. Without changing his job, Eric was now harided a gold rine of experience on bol When the Russians folded, Colt bought the business and Eric turned co making barrels for Browning automatic shoulder rifles. The 1918 Armistice put an end to the demand for these rifles, and Eric was given the job of liquidating the machinery, most of which he sold to secondhand dealers, He still shakes his head as he recalls the ‘THE AMERICAN RIFLEMAN,be had sending the 117-ton steam engine, which pro- went at it with the determinacion and painstaking, eare-for- ed the power for the business, to a sawmill in Oregon cevery-detail attention it takes to win important matches. Never: Then Eric completed the job of dismantling and selling the theless, he did hold and squeeze with enough care during the chinery, he returned co Colt and set to work on the first winter of 1926 to win the National Gallery Championship. 500 unit production order for ‘Thompson submachine guns. And the Quinnipiac competition stimulated him co win the Here was a new kind of weapon, a new barzel problem. Little National Small Bore Championship in 1929. He almost repeated by litele he was accumulating practical experience in the making in 1930, when he finished as runner-up, | ef barrels and in the solving of barrel problems. “My trouble is,” he will tell you, “I think of shooting as play. In May, 1923, Frank Hoffman called Eric on the phone and I do my careful shooting work at the bench, making guns siked him to meet shoot, and when I get out on the range, fim in a Hareford [get too careless.” Then if his sharp eyes ol the next day. Sy detect that this lat statement is sinking =a Shooter be wil dd quicly, "Bae ve | a ae Joon doh oy St wih the Po of with mixed emo- Eric is not bragging, either. Lase win- sons; anticipation ter he hastily pulled together team ia foc something new New Haven and won the Metropolitan | and misgivings, four-man team match, probably the | | ed round Ray Mor los “it end Crowley's knowledge of custom stock d 00, for he had been in this country ninetoen years, had worked toughest four-man indoor eam event in the country. The for four employes vithout changing his job. As one company range is 100 yards indoor, and che hot-shots journey hundreds fcer another bough out the busines, Erie went along asa part of mies to se what they can do without the wind to pester Gf che machinery and good will. What would he doif Hoffman them | Sifered him a job? That was a question he might have to face. When you look at match bulletins thee days, you not only | | ‘The next day he did face it. Hoffman was going to open continue to see Eric's name up near the top, but you're apt to xustom gunshop in Cleveland; was Eric interested? If so, see "Carl Johnson” even a litele higher up the ladder. Carl How much did he want? Eric was interested—it offered a is Eric's seventeen-year-old son, and one of only five shooters hance to see more of America, he now says—and Hoffman to score 400 in the scope Dewar at Sea Girt last summer when Besyed she prion, “Your pey sacs vomocrow. Report in a tricky condions were bounclog. shooters with many. fare couple of weeks. I've got 0 ind the shop nov.” Youre experince not only out of the cenring but into the whive Before kong Esic wer buying tasted cf idling cackiacy,’<." Dusiog to wat, Este enpecience ead til wor wad’ i | which he helped to set up at the East 27ch Street Thop in Cleveland. Although Erie could work with Hood and has made stocks, he really doen’ care for ed. would rather turn the job over to a good sroodworker and ger back 1o his barrels. That's what Hoffman lee him do, For two and 1 half yeas in Cleveland he made custom-built bacrels for custom- Brile Hofman arms. Were they any good? The Sportsmen who paid costom-buile prices seemed <0 Shank so, epectally one group of shooting Oklahoma Gil men who called at the shop one day and were ro Empress they offered to move the whole works to Oliahoma-locks, stocks, Johnson buts, machin- fy, workmen, and everything A chop was awaiting the machinery, homes were Phategraps by HB. Sbste 4 waiting the workers, and money was waiting £0 buy cxstom rifles, According to Eri, they cerned at some excellent arms and the busines began to Grosper, #0 much so that high-alaried. people began f appear on the pay rll in nonproductive jobs Te seasn'e working out, and early in 1928 Erie lefe the STeountry to return to Connecticut, where he went fo work for Winchester as 2 barel-rtesightening Specialist. Once agnin he was storing op experience “Ho marced Lilly Grulich of Meriden, steed down to do- the making of exrbines, But when the need for miliary arms } snetic life, and did ki shooting with the famous Quinnipiac ended, he wasted no time in getsing back vo hie ring machine. Ciab at Winchester. Ie didn’ take long for the ardent smal-bore fans co find him, | Eric had alvays been interested in shoting, though he seldom and his shop is heavy with enopened (Continned om page 18) | lohnson, Morgan, and Crowley compare notet MARCH, NINETEEN FORTY-SEVEN 2) | ocanother reason for a heavy rifle, Tn conclusion, I doubt if my work over the year has proved anything not known to experimenters, but ic did make me a convert to certain principles and no amount of talk could weaken guarantee, ‘This Varminter certainly maintains a constant center of impact. Ie has all che accuracy I can use. Further improvement swill have to be in the rifleman, not the rifle ooe Lock Stock and Barrel (Comtinned from page 9) boxes of rifles and actions awaiting barrels. He's turning out a8 many as he can without taking too much time from his new interest—the Morgan-Johnson small-bore rifle. ‘The Morgan-Johnson should really be called a custom-made rifle because Eric will make any size or shape barrel you want lis standard sizes will be three. Number one is the same as the ‘Winchester heavy barrel—one inch at the breech and seven ighths at the muzzle . . . number two, 11a by Hq. - number three, 134 by 1. Number two is the most popular, but you can specify what you want when you order your Morg: Johnson. Erie suggests a twenty-nine-inch length, bue that’s Lup to the shooter, to. ‘You can also specify stock dimensions, to a certain extent. But don’t put your order in the mail today. Erie and Ray just aren't accepting orders, They ate making twelve rifles right rnow. They hope to have chem finished by the time the out~ door season gets started, but they're making no promises. What's ‘more, they don’t know how much the Morgan-Johnson will cost; probably more than twice as much as the finest small-bore rifles now on the market. 18 Whether oF not shooters will take to the Morgan-Johnson, depends mostly on Ray Morgan’s action, Ray's background includes toolroom work, production engineering and plant ‘managing at High Standard as well as gun work in Freeland, Pennsylvania. He has made an action that he thinks is superior to others because of the precision with which ic is buile. Every piece is milled out of fine stec, even the trigger guard, to pre- Vent trigger vibration. He has placed two lugs in the center of the bolt, looking at ic lengthwise, to insure a tighter lock, and constant, uniform headspace. And he believes chat this bolt, when closed, will hold the rifle more rigid than most actions. ‘The action will be flat on the bottom for better bedding. ‘The wide two-piece trigger has a clean, erisp feel, and it is adjustable on the firing line. Ray and Eric have not rushed into production with some- thing they are not sure of. Bue only time will tell whether ‘oF not their Morgan-Jobnson rifle will live up to their expecta tions, The first model has done some sharp shooting in com- petition, and the Morgan-Johnson shop is beginning to get itself papered wich some interesting all-X groups, But one gon never made an industry. This summer’s matches will settle the fate of those twelve rifles, and of how many more will be made. ooo THE AMERICAN RIFLEMAN