[Rembrandt]

Perhaps the greatest firearm inventor of all time...what do you consider his best work?

[telewinz]

The WW1 and WW2 BAR, even FN made it and adopted some of it's features during the design of the FAL.

[Thumper]

Let me be the first of many to nominate the 1911.

[12.7x99mm]

I second the 1911 .45 ACP Automatic Pistol

then the M2HB 0.50 Cal Heavy Machine Gun

[cool45auto]

1911, with the BAR a close second.

[Deadman]

If I received a dollar every time an American praised the 1911 pistol I'd..... :rolleyes: :p

[Brian Williams]

1885 win hi wall

[ACP230]

Although I am a fan of the 1911, on this I'd have to go with the M2 .50 cal. Developed for World War I, it is still in US service today.
I fired one several years ago and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

[45King]

Man, that would be a hard one to answer. Just about everything JMB did was great. Did you realize that he patented 13 different lever action rifles? Oliver Winchester bought all the patents to stay ahead of his competition, and only produced 5 of those 13.
Browning's first experiment with a gas operated firearm was a modification to one of his lever designs. An endcap on the muzzle allowed the bullet to pass through but still captured enough gas to flipforward. This was attached to a rod underneath the magazine tube which was in turn attached to the lever, causing it to operate itself after the gun fired. IIRC, he dreamed up this modification and produced and installed it in the space of one afternoon.

I'd say the M2 and 1911, followed closely by the M1917, BAR, and M1919, not to mention the P35. The Winchester 1895 was a helluva gun, too.

[BigG]

It's a hard call. I think the Superposed is a really refined scattergun and will last a couple hundred years of normal use. The 45 Automatic Colt Pistol is also a tour de force. What makes Browning unique is that he created a lot of the ammunition concurrent with the guns to shoot it. 50 BMG, 45 ACP, 38 ACP, 32 ACP, 25 ACP, etc.

[Soap]

1911
M2

[Mike Irwin]

The M2.

It is probably the closest thing we've ever had to a truly universal weapon.

It formed the primary armament for almost every US military aircraft from about 1935 until the middle of the Korean war.

Think about those kinds of numbers...

Each B-17, B-24, and B-29 had 10 to 13 M2s.

American light and medium bombers had lesser numbers, unless you're talking about the solid-nose B-25 ground attack, which had as many as 20 M2s in some field rigs.

Each Mustang, Corsair, Wildcat, and Hellcat had 6 of them. Each Lightning had 4, and each Thunderbolt had 8.

It was the primary light AA gun for every service branch from the 1920s until Korea.

The United States and the Soviets were the only two nations ever to latch onto the heavy machine gun as an infantry support and general purpose weapon, and I believe the US fielded the guns in much higher numbers.

It's been part of the armament package of most US tanks since WW II.

And it was, and still is, mounted on quite a few trucks and lighter vehicles.

[kalibear45]

1911 & Hi-Power :)

[Braz]

I love 1911s,

J.B.'s list of accomplishments is a long one, but the M2 has reigned supreme for a long time.

[Rembrandt]

I think some of his finest work was the Superposed and the 1873 lever action....

[Andrew Wyatt]

the 1911. he seems to be the only firearms designer who's designed a pistol that fits my hand, is in a decent caliber, and has a good trigger, and safety.

[BigG]

Rembrandt: The 1873 Win has the old Volcanic (Smith & Wesson/B. Tyler Henry) toggle lock very weak and suitable only to low power pistol type ctgs. The Win 1886 repeater was the first one Browning designed with the vertical sliding locks that were considerably stronger than the Volcanic/Henry action.

[Dave Markowitz]

The M2 .50 caliber machinegun, for the reasons elaborated by Mike Irwin.

[45King]

Mike I., I was watching Mail Call last night and it had a segment on the M2. IIRC, they said that including all the aircraft and anti-aircraft variants, something like 2,000,000 were made during WWII!!

[Mike Irwin]

there would have to have been, King.

Figure, there were something like 15,500 P-47 Thunderbolts produced during the War.

That's a dedicated 124,000 M2s.

10,000 P-51 Mustangs... That's 60,000 M2s...

Hellcats? 11,000 (in just 2 years!), that's another 66,000 guns...

Then the bombers.

Then the Army, the Navy, and the Marine Corps?

Hell, there were nearly 50,000 Shermans made during the war, and most had a .50 mounted.

In some ways I'm really surprised that there weren't a lot more than 2 million made.

[Sean Smith]

M2 .50 had the most historical impact.

Personal fave is the 1911.

[45King]

Mike, it's a damn shame that out of all those glorious old ariplanes, there's only a handful left, especially the P-47. IIRC, there is only one known to be in flying condition. I'd give my last dollar to strap into one of those babies and zoom it for a while.

I wonder what the heck happened to all those aircraft guns? Probably cut and scrapped. That's just as big a shame....

[The Silver Bullet 1719]

My favorite is the P-35, but I'll have to agree with most everyone and go with the M2 as his greatest.

[raz-0]

Well, I'd like to imagine he was a wonderful psychic, and nominate him for inventing the gun forum flame war.
;)

[rock jock]

1911. Then the M2. Definitely NOT the BAR. Way too heavy.

[Rembrandt]

BigG....your right, I meant the 1886 not the 1873, thanks.

[Zip06]

According to the History of the Gun series, Browning considered his best work to be the Over and Under Shotgun.

I have several of his designs; the 1911, P-35, Winchester Model 12; Citori; BSS and many other products that employ his design innovations such as the lock up on the P-35. Of mine, I am overwhelmed with all of them but of all his designs I think the A-5, M-2, BAR and P-35 rise to the top.

[Cannon7mm]

1911 - A good design is forever

[megatronrules]

The 1911 pistol and ofcourse one of my favorites the browning hi power 9mm.

[tex_n_cal]

yeah, also the 1911 and M2.

One story about him still amazes me - 45King referred to the lever action that he converted into a semi-auto, by using a cap to harness the gas and cycle the action...

He had the prototype working the day after he designed it!:what:

[444]

I have actually given this a lot of thought. If I answer this as the question was asked I have to say the M2 Heavy Machine Gun. Most of the reasons have already been listed. It was in ingenious design. It is also amazingly accurate.

Second would be the model of 1911. It is the standard by which all other autoloading handguns are judged.

A close third would be the Model 1894 rifle. Rumored to have taken more deer than all other rifles combined and probably as popular today as it ever was.

[Yohan]

hey there all you HRs :-) I've been busy for a while, but just thought I'd drop by and say hi. Been lurking a bit but I've been on motorcycle forums like a mad man. Anywho, I'd say the .30 and .50 machine gun.

[Thumper]

Oh great...Yohan's on the bike boards. I can see it now:

"What's the best bike to escape from a Balrog on?"

WB, Yohan.

:D

[Dr.Rob]

BAR.. way fun to shoot. Sure its heavy, but it also served from WW1 thru Vietnam.

1911, proof that any handgun that can be hotrodded will be hot rodded, even when it doesn't need to be. Served from WW1 to Desert Storm, still in service with spec ops.

M2, WW1-Present day.. can't argue with succcess.

[jmbg29]

M2

BAR

1911

M1895

A-5

Hi-Power

Lather, rinse, repeat...

[WilderBill]

The M2 had the most impact on history.
The P 35 started the whole hicap trend.
The 1911 is one of the most widely recognized objects in the whole world. An icon if ever there was one!

All JMB's designs are kinda like sex. Even the worst is at least wonderful! :D