John Browning

For other people named John Browning, see John Browning (disambiguation).

John Moses Browning

Personal Info
Born	(1855-01-23)January 23, 1855 Ogden, Utah USA
Died	November 26, 1926(1926-11-26) (aged 71) Liège Wallonia Belgium
Age	71
Religion	The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Relations	Rachel Child (spouse) Jonathan Browning (father) Val A Browning (son) John Val Browning (grandson)
Awards	John Scott Medal (1905) Order of Leopold (1914)
Company Info
Name	Browning Arms Company
Foundation	1927, Utah
Fate	1977, acquired as a subsidiary by Fabrique Nationale de Herstal (FN)
Company Value	unknown
Headquarters	Mountain Green, Utah
Notable Weapons
Pistols	M1911 pistol, Browning Hi-Power, Colt Woodsman
Rifles	Winchester Model 1892, Remington Model 8
Automatic rifles	Browning Automatic Rifle
Shotguns	Browning Auto-5, Browning Superposed
Machine guns	M2 Browning .50 cal., M1919 air cooled .30 cal., M1895 'potato digger'.30-06 Springfield, water cooled M1917 .30 cal.

John Moses Browning (January 23, 1855 – November 26, 1926), born in Ogden, Utah, was an American firearms designer who developed many varieties of military and civilian firearms, cartridges, and gun mechanisms, many of which are still in use around the world. He is arguably the most important figure in the development of modern automatic and semi-automatic firearms and is credited with 128 gun patents. He made his first firearm at age 13 in his father's gun shop, and was awarded his first patent on October 7, 1879 at the age of 24.

Browning influenced nearly all categories of firearms design. He invented or made significant improvements to single-shot, lever-action, and slide-action, rifles and shotguns. His most significant contributions were arguably in the area of autoloading firearms. He developed the first autoloading pistols that were both reliable and compact by inventing the telescoping bolt, integrating the bolt and barrel shroud into what is known as the pistol slide. Browning's telescoping bolt design is now found on nearly every modern semi-automatic pistol, as well as several modern fully automatic weapons. He also developed the first gas-operated machine gun, the Colt-Browning Model 1895—a system that surpassed mechanical recoil operation to become the standard for most high-power self-loading firearm designs worldwide. Browning would also make significant contributions to automatic cannon development.

Browning's most successful designs include the M1911 pistol, the Browning Hi Power pistol, the Browning .50 caliber machine gun, the Browning Automatic Rifle, and the Browning Auto-5, a ground-breaking semi-automatic shotgun. These arms are nearly identical today to those assembled by Browning, with only minor changes in detail and cosmetics. Even today, John Browning's guns are still some of the most copied guns in the world.

Biography

Browning was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and served a two-year mission in Georgia beginning on March 28, 1887. His father Jonathan Browning, who was among the thousands of Mormon pioneers in the mass exodus from Nauvoo, Illinois to Utah, established a gunsmith shop in Ogden in 1852.

John Moses worked in his father's Ogden shop from the age of seven, where he was taught basic engineering and manufacturing principles, and encouraged to experiment with new concepts. He developed his first rifle, a single-shot falling block action design, then founded his own manufacturing operation, in partnership with his younger brother Matthew Sandifer Browning, and began to produce this firearm.

John M. Browning and Winchester Repeating Arms Company

Production examples of the Model 1885 Single Shot Rifle caught the attention of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, who dispatched a representative to evaluate the competition. Winchester bought the design for eight thousand dollars and moved production to their Connecticut factory. From 1883, Browning worked in partnership with Winchester and designed a series of rifles and shotguns, most notably the lever action Winchester Model 1887 and the Model 1897 pump shotgun, the falling block single shot Model 1885, and the lever-action Model 1886, Model 1892, Model 1894, Model 1895 rifles as well as the long recoil operated semi-automatic Remington Model 8 rifle, many of which are still in production today in some form; over seven million Model 1894s have been produced, more than any other centerfire sporting rifle.

Winchester manufactured several popular small arms designed by John M. Browning. For decades in the late 19th Century-early 20th Century, Browning designs and Winchester firearms were synonymous and the collaboration was highly successful. This came to an end when Browning proposed a new long recoil operated semi-automatic shotgun design, a prototype finished in 1898, to Winchester management, which ultimately became the Browning Auto-5 shotgun. As was the custom of the time, Browning's earlier designs had been licensed exclusively to Winchester (and other manufacturers) for a single fee payment. With this new product, Browning introduced in his negotiations a continuous royalty fee based upon unit sales, rather than a single front-end fee payment. If the new shotgun became highly successful, Browning stood to make substantially more fee income over the prior license fee arrangements. Winchester management was displeased with the bold change in their relationship, and rejected Browning's offer. Remington Arms was also approached, however the president of Remington died of a heart attack as Browning waited to offer them the gun. This forced Browning to look overseas to produce the shotgun.

Having recently successfully negotiated firearm licenses with Fabrique Nationale de Herstal of Belgium (FN), Browning took the new shotgun design to FN; the offer was accepted and FN manufactured the new shotgun, honoring its inventor, as the Browning Auto-5. The Browning Auto-5 was continuously manufactured as a highly popular shotgun throughout the 20th century. In response, Winchester shifted reliance on John Browning designs when it adopted a hammerless shotgun design of Thomas Crossley Johnson for the new Winchester Model 12, which was based upon design features of the earlier Browning-designed Winchester Model 1897 shotgun. This shift marked the end of an era of Winchester-Browning collaboration.

Later work and life

Browning in his later years.

John Browning was known as a dedicated and tireless innovator and experimenter who sought breakthrough consumer-oriented features and performance and reliability improvements in small arms designs. He did not retire from his career in his elder years, but dedicated his entire adult life - literally to his last day - to these pursuits. On November 26, 1926, while working at the bench on a self-loading pistol design for Fabrique Nationale de Herstal (FN) in Liège, he died of heart failure in the design shop of his son Val A. Browning. Even the 9 mm self-loading pistol he was working on when he died had great design merit and was eventually completed in 1935, by Belgian designer Dieudonne Saive. Released as the Fabrique Nationale GP35, it was more popularly known as the successful Browning Hi-Power pistol, a favorite of sportsmen and law enforcement.

The premium priced Browning Superposed shotgun, an over-under shotgun design for the ages, was his last completed firearm design and possibly his most elegant. It was marketed originally with twin triggers; a single trigger modification was later completed by his son, Val Browning. Commercially introduced in 1931 by FN, Browning Superposed shotguns, and their more affordable cousins, the Browning Citori made in Asia, continue to be manufactured into the 21st Century, and come with varying grades of fine hand engraving and premium quality wood.

Throughout his life, Browning designed a vast array of military and civilian small arms for his own company, as well as for Winchester, Colt, Remington, Savage, and Fabrique Nationale de Herstal of Belgium. Browning firearms have been made, both licensed and unlicensed, by hundreds of factories around the world. In 1977, FN Herstal acquired the Browning Arms Company which had been established in 1927, the year after Browning's death.

Products

Several of Browning's designs are still in production today. Some of his most notable designs include:

Cartridges

• .25 ACP
• .32 ACP
• .38 ACP
• 9mm Browning Long
• .380 ACP
• .45 ACP
• .50 BMG

Firearms

• U.S. M1895 Colt-Browning machine gun
• FN Browning M1899/M1900 (.32 ACP)
• Colt Model 1900 (.38 ACP)
• Colt Model 1902 (.38 ACP)
• Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammer (.38 ACP)
• FN Model 1903
• Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammerless (.32 ACP)
• Remington Model 8 (1906), a long recoil semi-automatic rifle
• FN Model 1906 Vest Pocket (.25 ACP)
• Colt Model 1908 Vest Pocket (.25 ACP)
• Colt Model 1908 Pocket Hammerless (.32 ACP)
• FN Model 1910
• U.S. M1911 pistol (.45 ACP)
• Colt Woodsman pistol
• Winchester Model 1885 falling-block single shot rifle
• Winchester Model 1886 lever-action repeating rifle
• Winchester Model 1887 lever-action repeating shotgun
• Winchester Model 1890 slide-action repeating rifle (.22)
• Winchester Model 1892 lever-action repeating rifle
• Winchester Model 1894 lever-action repeating rifle
• Winchester Model 1895 lever-action repeating rifle
• Winchester Model 1897 pump-action repeating shotgun
• Browning Auto-5 long recoil semi-automatic shotgun
• Browning 22 Semi-Auto rifle
• U.S. M1917 water-cooled machine gun
• U.S. M1919 air-cooled machine gun
• U.S. M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR)
• U.S. M2 .50-caliber heavy machine gun of 1921 (the famed "Ma-Deuce" weapon)
• U.S. M4 37mm autocannon
• FN Trombone pump-action rifle
• Remington Model 8 semi-auto rifle
• Remington Model 24 semi-auto rifle (.22) Also produced by Browning Firearms (as the SA-22) and several others
• Browning Hi-Power (Grand Puissance or GP), the standard sidearm of many military and police forces
• The Browning Superposed over/under shotgun was designed by John Browning in 1922 and entered production in 1931
• Ithaca Model 37 pump-action repeating shotgun

Military weapons

The M1895 Machine Gun saw action in the Spanish-American War with the United States Marines. The Colt M1911, Browning 1917/19, and the BAR saw action with US forces in World War I, World War II and the Korean War, with the Browning M1911 going on to serve as the U.S.'s standard military side arm until 1985; a variant is still used by special operations units of the United States Marine Corps and the design remains very popular amongst civilian shooters and some police departments. The Browning Hi-Power have a similarly lengthy period of service outside the United States, and remains the standard side arm of the Australian and Canadian armed forces. The M2 Browning machine gun, the timeless .50 caliber "Ma-Deuce", which was developed in 1918, entered service with the US Armed Forces in 1921, and remains in active service for nearly a century with armed forces across the world in a variety of roles. The M4 cannon, a 37mm autocannon, was initially designed by Browning in 1921, and entered service in 1938; it was used both in aircraft and on the U.S. Navy PT boat during World War II.

Selected patents

• U.S. Patent 220,271 Winchester 1885 single-shot rifle, Browning’s first patent
• U.S. Patent 306,577 Winchester 1886 and Model 71 lever action rifles
• U.S. Patent 336,287 Winchester Model 1887/1901 lever action shotgun
• U.S. Patent 385,238 Winchester 1890 pump action rifle
• U.S. Patent 441,390 Winchester 1893 and 1897 pump action shotguns
• U.S. Patent 465,339 Winchester 1892 lever action rifle
• U.S. Patent 524,702 Winchester 1894 lever action rifle
• U.S. Patent 544,657 Colt-Browning Model 1895 machine gun
• U.S. Patent 549,345 Winchester 1895 lever action rifle
• U.S. Patent 580,924 Colt 1900 automatic pistol
• U.S. Patent 632,094 Winchester 1900 bolt action single shot .22 rifle
• U.S. Patent 689,283 Browning Auto-5 shotgun, also Remington Model 11 and Savage 720
• U.S. Patent 659,786 Remington Model 8 semi-automatic rifle
• U.S. Patent 678,937 M1917 Browning machine gun
• U.S. Patent 747,585 Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammerless automatic pistol
• U.S. Patent 781,765 Stevens 520 pump action shotgun
• U.S. Patent 808,003 Colt Model 1905 in .45 ACP (predecessor to the M1911)
• U.S. Patent 947,478 FN Model 1906 and Colt Model 1908 Vest Pocket in .25 ACP
• U.S. Patent 984,519 Colt 1911
• U.S. Patent 1,065,341 Browning 22 Semi-Auto rifle and Remington model 24
• U.S. Patent 1,143,170 Remington Model 17 and Ithaca 37 pump action shotguns
• U.S. Patent 1,276,716 Colt Woodsman
• U.S. Patent 1,293,022 Browning Automatic Rifle Model of 1918
• U.S. Patent 1,424,553 FN "Trombone" pump action .22 caliber repeater (Rare in USA)
• U.S. Patent 1,525,065 37 mm automatic cannons, M1 and M4
• U.S. Patent 1,578,638 Browning Superposed over/under shotgun
• U.S. Patent 1,618,510 FN and Browning Hi-Power pistol
• U.S. Patent 1,628,226 M2 Browning machine gun in .50 BMG

See also

• Browning Arms Company
• John Moses Browning House

References

• Browning, John, and Curt Gentry. John M. Browning, American Gunmaker. New York: Doubleday, 1964. OCLC 1329440

External links

• The Ogden Union Station Browning Museum
• M-1911 Pistol History
• 1911 Pistol Photo Reference Site Past Items Sold at Auction