M1 Carbine in 5.7 Johnson/.22 Spitfire

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FoMoGo

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Anyone have one?
I ran across a gun shop that has 2, I have been checking into them and it seems like a great little fun rifle.
I have always loved the M1, my first "big boy rifle" was an iver johnson lookalike in .22LR.
I already reload for my pistols, so rolling my own ammo wouldnt be an issue.
Just looking for some firsthand feedback.
Thanks,


Jim
 
They were sort of a flash in the pan in the late '60s or so. Quite a few articles were written about them but they never really took off. don't think I've ever seen one. There is a book out on Melvin Johnson, who was an interesting fellow; it has a little info on them.

I would scrutinize it pretty closely for bore condition, etc. Not sure what reloading for it would involver but RCBS would probably be able to come up with something.

They might have some collector value. Neat little guns and not at all common. That book coming out didn't hurt Johnson-related values any.
 
Neighbor owned one in the 1960s

Neighbor's son bought one at R&S Auto stores in Somerville NJ about 1965. If you reload they are probably a possible shooter. Ammo dried up fairly quickly and so did his interest in the rifle. I can tell you the gun functioned perfectly with the factory load, which used a 40 grain bullet.
 
Curio

Wow! I haven't heard about that for years. When I was a kid, back in the 1960's, it made it into the book Cartridges of the World.

It sounded like a real 'fun gun.' Not particularly accurate, but it certainly should be able to best our old friend the Hornet. Kinda seems like one of those cartridge/gun combos that we should have seen more of. Please do us a favor - buy it, load for it, and give us a little info on how things go.....
 
I am considering it, but I just looked at the price on the dies... damn.
After shipping I would be looking at around $250 for the 3 dies I would want and the shell holder.
Plus the cost of the rifle.
Starter ammo I have found is around $40 a box before shipping... and I would like to have a couple of boxes to test before I started rolling my own.
All said and done it would be around $1000 start up with everything I would want/need to get started with this new endeavor.
So... it may have to wait for taxes. :D


Jim
 
Some more recollections about the Spitfire

I remember that the Spitfire was not very accurate relative to my Mossberg .22 WMR bolt gun, and in fact, was not as accurate as my Plainfield Machine M1 Carbine. The neighbor and I used to sight in at 50 yards on a neighboring farm. Laying in the grass over sandbags I could shoot 1 inch groups with the Mossberg and get 3 inch groups or so with the Plainfield carbine whereas the Spitfire gave minute of hand. All had aperture sights. When we hunted woodchucks, I took the longer shots and Andy ended up shooting at a max of about 75 yards. He actually quit using the rifle and reverted back to his more accurate Marlin .22 rimfire for woodchucks. He came from money and traded it in on an early Colt AR15 Sporter the first time they became available. In short, as a shooter the rifle may be a bust.
 
My father inlaw had a carbine in the spitfire and it wasn't worth a crap he ended up trading it off to some guy that thought it would be a cool gun. It worked fine it just wasn't accurate. Or even semi accurate. He tried all kinds of loads even swapped the barrel out with a spare he got in the trade that was unfired. It never did tighten up more than a pie plate size group at 50 yards.
 
I have one!

Hi just ran across your posting and joined the Highroad today. I have one of the Iver Johnson 5.7 spitfire's. Pretty cool old gun all stainless even the 20 rd. clip, very low SN 0004X. Haven't shot it very much though only a few times to make sure it did shoot. Did find some dies for it on eBay a few years back, but haven't found much on reloading the thing. Anyway cool site!
TD
 
5.7 Spitfire

Eightball, my Spitfire was made by Iver Johnson. All stainless, pretty sure the clip is a 20 rounder?
 
I saw a I-J Spitfire carbine two years ago in a gunshop in north Georgia. It had the Monte Carlo stock, two boxes of ammo. It was priced at $1,195.99 and sat there a good, long time. Someone finally traded them out of it.
 
Ancient Thread
Click to expand...

By that I assume that you are referring to the topic. It is ancient to many of us, but it came up, so to younger people it's new again. (kind of like clothing styles)
 
I form the brass from carbine brass and it works well, I get better accuracy then posted.... maybe a minute or minute and half. I made the gun a few years back and bought the dies, reamer and gages. Trimming the brass is the hardest part, but I have a gracey trimmer and it takes about 5 minutes a hundred to to trim after I form.
 
22 Spitfire 5.7 MMJ

I just aquired a 22 Spitfire with dies. Where can I purchase loaded ammunition?
 
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