Jonson Arms

History of Jonson Arms

The Jonson Factor, which is applied to all cartridges designed by Jonson Labs, was the end result of years of interest, study, and finally design. It all began when the inventor visited with a group of bench rest shooters in Caracas, Venezuela, in the late 1970s during a brief R&R from archaeological interests. The subject of discussion was the revolutionary 6mm PPC. Since the PPCs did not include a .30, which was the most popular caliber for long range shooting, the perfect wildcat project was born.

Unfortunately, theoretical ballistics for the proposed round were not favorable. In the face of this challenge and because ballistics calculations can be tedious, a unique approach was needed and computer algorithms to automate the design process were developed. The objective was to emulate PPC performance and accuracy in a larger caliber, therefore precise calculation was critical. Technology coupled with years of perseverance proved enough to crack the problem and the principles of parallactic precision were born in the late 1980s.

In the early 1990s, a discussion of the design was begun through email and various news groups. Basic engineering ideas and characteristics were passed along to interested parties in general, while withholding a few key design attributes, of course. Although the round was finally named the 7.62 Jonson, its initial, experimental name was the 7.8232 Jonson, which is simply the proper conversion of .308 inches to metric. Simultaneously, proprietary documents were shared with Redding, Clymer, CH4D and others to begin testing the feasibility of building a big PPC round. To a scientist, the process of engineering was the most interesting part of the project and some time passed as tweaking occurred. By the middle of the 1990s the first case was completed along with a test rifle, and range results were within expected parameters.

A move to Spain and adventures in Southern Africa and around Europe delayed further development of Jonson cartridges. Now after some years back in America, the work continues and design for two new revolutionary rounds is nearing completion.

It is anticipated that commercial versions of the Jonson cartridges will be available to the public as early as 2008.