John M. Browning

[444]

I know that John Browning has been dicussed to no end on forums like this, but I just finished watching one of those NRA tapes on Browning. I guess I was familiar with a lot of Brownings designs, but I never had it all placed in front of me all at once. I actually got choked up at his genius. I found myself wondering where we would be as a country today without him. He may have made a bigger impact for our freedom, and the freedom of peoples all over the world than any other person in the last hundred years or more. During our recent conflicts in Iraq and Afganistan we were still using weapons designed by John Browning. From the taming of the American West and every conflict since that time Browning's designs have been ensuring the safety of American troops.

Just a few of his notable designs:
1892 lever action, still copied today and popular with Cowboy action shooters.
1894 lever action. Has taken more deer than all other rifles combined. Still manufactured today.
1897 pump shotgun copies still being made today, another popular firearm of the cowboy action crowd.
1911 handgun. Still made today and possibly the most copied handgun of all time.
Browning Hi-Power still being made today
Auto 5 shotgun
BAR
30 cal Browning Machine Gun
M2 .50 Browning Machine Gun

This is just the tip of the iceberg. This guy single handedly made guns what they are.

I kick myself for never visiting the Browning museum. I absolutely have to stop there in a couple weeks on my way home from a Montana fly fishing trip.

 

[Mike Irwin]

There was a recent thread in which we tried to name all of Browning's designs.

It was quite a list.

 

[stevelyn]

I find it facinating that at the time Browning was designing guns here in the U.S. he had a foreign counterpart that was just as successful.........Paul Mauser. Both impacted the world of small arms beyond anyones' imagination.
Sort of like the relationship of Eugene Stoner to Mikhail Kalashnikov.

 

[4v50 Gary]

Can you imagine what Browning could do with the modern metallurgy and polymers we have today?

While I give a lot of credit to contemporary designers, none have approached the genius of our gun prophet on earth, John Moses Browning.

 

[Mike Irwin]

There was a very interesting thread a few years ago on TFL that discussed Mauser vs. Browning.

Both very successful, both had a huge impact on the firearms industry, and a world-wide impact on history, as well.

It's interesting to note, though, that Browning actually did the design and development work on all of his designs, whereas Mauser came up with the intial designs, and then kicked back to run his arms industry while a team of engineers took over refinement of the design.

Supposedly there's virtually NOTHING of Paul Mauser's work in the C96 or later handguns -- it was all a company design project.

 

[4v50 Gary]

The C96 was the work of the Federle (sp) bros.

 

[Thumper]

I actually got choked up at his genius.

Brother, I don't believe I'da told that...

but I understand.

 

[USGuns]

History Channel

The History Channel has a very good video you can buy from their website on John Browning from the very beginning.

 

[444]

Thumper, I also get up when I tour the Hoover Dam. Those guys were real men. I get choked up when I realize how far our society has declined.

USGuns, the tape I was watching is one of those NRA tapes that they use as a fund raising effort. It is nothing but tapes of the show aired on the History Channel as "Tales of the Gun".

There isn't a whole lot on the internet about the John Browning museum. Hopefully I can find more about it since I am going to be driving through that area in a couple weeks.

 

[jmbg29]

I get choked up when I realize how far our society has declined.

Feels a bit more like a knife in the guts to me, but I know what you mean.