John Moses Browning

John Moses Browning

York Guns Ltd, proud to be one of the first companies to sign into the Browning Premium Dealer scheme, and continue to be one of few that hold this status. We’d like to take this opportunity to share some history of Browning and the founder John Moses Browning with you…

John Moses Browning transformed the firearms industry with his innovative designs for sporting rifles, handguns and machine guns. Many of his creations remain in use after more than 100 years. John Browning known as Americas greatest inventor of firearms learnt his trade from his father Jonathan Browning, (1805-1879) who was also a gun-maker. Setting up business in Ogden, near Salt Lake City, in 1825. John Browning spent most of his time in his father’s gun shop and cobbled together his first gun at age 10 from spare parts.

Browning Arms and FN Herstal

In 1880, Browning and his brothers opened the early version of the Browning Arms Company, then known as J.M. Browning and Bro. Guns, Pistols, Amunition & Fishing Tackle, in Ogden, Utah. Following his early collaborations with the Connecticut-based Winchester Repeating Arms, Browning expanded his business overseas in 1897 by authorizing Fabrique Nationale of Herstal, Belgium, to manufacture a 32-caliber semi-automatic pistol.

Since 1907, and at FN’s request, John M Browning had granted the right to use his surname as a trademark, thereby emphasising the common interests and goals that linked his family to the company. He never gave the same permission to any of the large American companies that had commercialised his first inventions, and the full significance of this decision would become apparent over the following decades.

Browning’s Famous Gun Designs

Winchester Model 1885

In 1879, Browning received his first patent, for a single-shot rifle. Four years later, he received a visit from T. G. Bennett, vice president and general manager of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. This marking the start of a 19-year collaboration between Browning and Winchester. His first patent became the basis for the Winchester 1885, reputed to have one of the strongest actions of the time.

Winchester Model 1897

Browning introduced the first pump-action (or slide-action) shotgun in 1893, though it was unable to process the smokeless cartridges that were becoming popular. He made the adjustment for the Model 1897, which also featured the now standard “takedown” design that allows the barrel to be removed. The 1897 later proved a highly effective weapon for Allied forces during WWI.

Browning Auto-5

The Auto-5, marked one of the first collaborations between Browning and Fabrique Nationale of Belgium. This is marked as the first successfully mass-produced semi-automatic shotgun in the early 20th century. It was based on a Browning patent in which the barrel and bolt recoil together following a shot, with the bolt remaining behind to eject the spent shell before moving forward to chamber a new one.

M1911

Also known by other names, including the Colt 45, the M1911 is a short-recoil, single-action hammer-fired pistol. It served as the U.S. military’s standard sidearm from 1911 until 1985, while proving immensely popular among civilians, as well.

The Browning B25 over-and-under shotgun became a twentieth century world-class benchmark in the manufacturing of hunting and sports arms. This is due to the combined efforts of father and son, as well as the technicians of Herstal, Almost 400,000 were produced in Belgium over a 45 year period, 65% of which were destined for the North American market.

Frequently envied and sometimes imitated by competitors, the B25 has never been bettered. More information can be found here

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Man and Gunmaker

In any survey of the history of firearms development, it will quickly become apparent that the inventive genius of one man advanced the state of the art at a totally unprecedented and unsurpassed rate. Nobody, before or since, has had a greater — or even anything approaching an equal — influence on the development of firearms. He was the author of 128 separate patents covering virtually all types of weapon from pistols upwards, and was unique in that his designs constituted virtually the entire output of three major American arms manufacturers in the first half of the last century, and have spawned countless imitations all over the world.

His name was John Moses Browning, whose name is probably most closely linked with the automatic pistols still produced in Belgium by Fabrique Nationale: in fact, in France the name ‘Browning’ has passed into the language and is used as a proper noun and a synonym for a pistol. But Browning was not just a designer of handguns. He also profoundly influenced the development of machine-guns, rifles and shotguns, and it is a measure of the enduring popularity of his designs that so many weapons covered by Browning patents are still manufactured today.

This short book attempts to paint a picture of Browning the man, as well as describe his outstanding achievements in his chosen field. In fact, it could be said that John Browning didn’t choose to become a gunsmith. You could argue that his upbringing and his family, and to some extent his surroundings, chose his profession for him. And it really all started with his father.

2. JONATHAN BROWNING — THE FATHER

John Browning was the son of Jonathan Browning, a Mormon who had been part of the great Mormon Exodus from Nauvoo, Illinois, to Utah in 1852. Jonathan had been born in 1805, and had trained at an early age as an apprentice gunsmith by the unusual device of simply arriving on the doorstep of a Nashville gunmaker named Samuel Porter and offering to work for him for nothing in exchange for lessons in gun barrel-making. Porter was so impressed with Jonathan’s work that he soon started paying him a wage of two dollars a week, in addition to providing bed and board, and when, after three months, Jonathan announced that he was returning to the Browning home at Brushy Fork, Tennessee, he offered him a share of the business if he would agree to stay.

No doubt Jonathan was tempted, but remained adamant. The two men parted as firm friends, Porter supplying Jonathan with rifling and boring tools as well as a selection of mandrels — used for hand-forging gun barrels — of different sizes. Also included in his pack was a rifle made by Porter but carrying a barrel made entirely by Jonathan, and on which the older man had stamped ‘JONATHAN BROWNING 1824’.

From this small and inauspicious beginning, Jonathan Browning established himself as a competent rural gunmaker, repairing damaged weapons and producing rifles to order, but his aspirations were higher. Following marriage and a family move from Brushy Fork to Quincy, Illinois, in 1834, he concentrated his considerable abilities on the problem of designing a simple but efficient repeating rifle.

The problem he had was that in those days the propellant was black powder and the ignition source a percussion cap. To load a rifle, a suitable measure of black powder was poured down the barrel from the muzzle, usually from a powder flask, to be followed by a small piece of wadding or other material. Then the ball would follow, which would be rammed firmly into place to compress the powder charge. A percussion cap would be placed on the nipple below the hammer, and the weapon was then ready to fire. When the trigger was pulled, the falling hammer struck the percussion cap, which fired a spark down a tube and into the barrel, igniting the black powder and driving the ball down the barrel.

Each barrel of a rifle was a single-shot weapon, and the only way a hunter could have a second shot immediately available was either to have a second weapon to hand, or use a double- or multiple-barrelled rifle, and it was that problem which Jonathan Browning set out to solve. What he did was to approach the problem using lateral thinking. Instead of adding another barrel, he decided to cut off the breech end of the barrel and then designed a kind of multi-chamber breech block.

His endeavour succeeded, and the result was one of the simplest practical repeating weapons ever produced. Known as a Slide Gun, a Slide Repeating Rifle, or sometimes a Harmonica Rifle, its five-shot magazine was fabricated from a solid rectangular bar, each chamber having an integral nipple, and was passed through the breech from side to side. The magazine was moved on after each shot by a thumb-operated lever,which also forced the chamber forward into a gas-tight alignment with the barrel, while the hammer was positioned below the breech in front of the trigger guard. Larger capacity magazines, with capacities of 10 or 25 shots, were available to special order from Jonathan, and each rifle was supplied with at least one spare magazine, thus giving the owner a minimum of ten rapid shots if required.

Crude though this may sound, the weapon was capable of sustained fire at a rate unequalled by any other weapon of the time, and as recently as 1952 an example of the weapon held in the Browning Family Collection was used to fire fifteen rounds without malfunction.

In fact, Jonathan also invented a second type of repeating rifle at about the same time. This was a cylinder repeating rifle, similar in concept to the mechanism of a single-action revolver.

The slide rifle which, like the cylinder repeater, was not patented by Jonathan Browning, was an immediate success in the area, producing far more orders than he could possibly fill, and would no doubt have become a much more popular weapon had Browning’s manufacturing capacity been equal to his design ability.

It’s worthwhile contrasting this weapon, essentially knocked together by a self-taught gunsmith in a blacksmith’s shop, with the Colt Revolving Rifle, produced in 1855 by this fully-equipped and experienced manufacturer of firearms. The Colt weapon was a failure, because its design didn’t address the problem which Jonathan Browning’s prodigious talent had solved: the Colt couldn’t maintain a gas-tight seal between the barrel and the chamber, which led to misfires, gas leakage and indifferent performance.

In 1840 Jonathan Browning, by then an established member of the community and a good friend of the young Abraham Lincoln, became deeply interested in religion and, in particular, the teachings of the Mormon Church. The direct result of this interest was the Browning family’s move, in 1842, to the city of Nauvoo, Illinois, which was being constructed on the instructions of Joseph Smith, the founder and Prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

The Mormons were not popular in the area, being subjected to frequent attacks by armed Illinois and Missouri gangs, and the violence reached a peak in June 1844 when Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum, were assassinated at Carthage, Illinois. This action was the spur that led to the great Mormon Exodus under Brigham Young, which started in 1846 and continued for some years. Though Jonathan Browning was eager to head west with the pioneers, Young recognized his worth and insisted that he stay to provide the weapons so desperately needed by the Saints, and it wasn’t until 1852 that Jonathan was permitted to follow the trail from Nauvoo that led eventually through the Rocky Mountains to Utah and Ogden in the valley of the Great Salt Lake.

The violence at Nauvoo and the long trek west had left their mark on Jonathan Browning, and he never again applied himself to the development of new weapons, contenting himself with repairing and refurbishing not only guns but any kind of mechanical contraption which required attention. The Browning gunsmith building in Nauvoo is now a museum open to the public.

Jonathan Browning settled in Ogden in 1852 with his first wife and eleven surviving children, and embraced the Mormon practice of polygamy. In 1854 he married his second wife, Elisabeth Clark, a Mormon convert from Virginia, and she gave birth to John Moses Browning the following year. In all, Jonathan took three wives and had twenty-two children. John Browning was particularly close to his younger brother, Matt, and his younger half- brothers, Jonathan Edmund (known as Ed), Thomas Samuel (nicknamed Sam), Will and George, who was a son of Jonathan’s third wife.

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About John Moses Browning, Gunsmith

John Moses Browning (January 21 or January 23, 1855 – November 26, 1926), born in Ogden, Utah, was an American firearms designer who developed many varieties of 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 rifles, lever-action rifles, and slide-action firearms. His most significant contributions were in the area of autoloading firearms. He developed the first reliable and compact autoloading pistols by inventing the telescoping bolt, integrating the bolt and barrel shroud into what is known as the 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’s most successful designs include the M1911 pistol, the Browning .50 caliber machine gun,the Browning Hi-Power, the Browning Automatic Rifle, and a ground-breaking semi-automatic shotgun, the Browning Auto-5. These arms are nearly identical today to those assembled by Browning in the 1920s, with only minor changes in detail and cosmetics.

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.

Jonathan had built a gunsmith in Nauvoo, developing and refining advanced (for the time) repeating firearms and manufacturing techniques. The Browning gunsmith in Nauvoo is now operated as a museum, and is open to the public at no charge.

John Moses worked in his father’s Ogden shop, 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 design, then founded his own manufacturing operation and began to produce this firearm.

Production examples of the Browning single-shot caught the attention of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, who dispatched a representative to evaluate the competition. Winchester bought the design 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 Winchester Model 1887 and Model 1897 shotguns, the falling block single shot Model 1885, and the lever-action Model 1886, Model 1892, Model 1894 and Model 1895 rifles, most 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.

Perhaps the single most infamous Browning-designed firearm was a FN Model 1910 handgun, serial number 19074. In 1914, Gavrilo Princip used the .32 ACP pistol to assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife, Sophia. This event arguably sparked World War I. The pistol was rediscovered in 2004.

A deluxe takedown Winchester Rifle Model 1894On November 26, 1926, while working on a self-loading pistol design for FN in Liège, he died of heart failure in the office of his son Val A. Browning. The 9 mm self-loading pistol he was working on when he died was eventually completed in 1935, by Belgian designer Dieudonne Saive. Released as the Fabrique Nationale GP35, it was more popularly known as the Browning Hi-Power. This name reflects the 13-round magazine—at the time, the largest pistol magazine in the world—not the pistol’s 9mm cartridge, which is less powerful than the .45 ACP round of the M1911, developed two decades earlier.[citation needed] The Superposed shotgun was his last firearm design, marketed originally with twin triggers. A single trigger modification was later completed by his son, Val.

Throughout his life, Browning designed weapons for his own company, as well as for Winchester, Colt, Remington, Savage, and Fabrique Nationale de Herstal of Belgium. In 1977, FN acquired the Browning Arms Company which had been established in 1927, the year after Browning’s death.

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

U.S. M1895 Colt-Browning machine gun

FN Browning M1899/M1900

Colt Model 1900

Colt Model 1902

Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammer (.38 ACP)

Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammerless (.32 ACP)

Colt Model 1905

Remington Model 8 (1906), a long recoil semi-automatic rifle

Colt Model 1908 Vest Pocket (.25 ACP)

Colt Model 1908 Pocket Hammerless (.380 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

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

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

In addition, the cartridges he developed are still some of the most popular in the world. They include:

John Moses Browning: The Forgotten History and Legacy of the Father of Modern Firearms

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John Moses Browning is known to firearms and Second Amendment enthusiasts primarily as a gunsmith, but he was more than that: He was also an inventor, an innovator, and perhaps one of the most successful firearm designers the world has ever seen. It’s without question that he is the father of modern firearms as we know them. John Browning is arguably the man most responsible for modern firearms, including lever-action, pump-action, and auto-loading weapons.

Browning was born into a Mormon settler family in Ogden, Utah, on January 23, 1855. His parents, Jonathan Browning and Elizabeth Clark, were Mormons who settled in Utah after the Mormon Exodus of 1847. A gunsmith himself, Jonathan often had young John in the shop alongside him, where the child learned concepts of manufacturing and engineering. The elder Browning also encouraged experimentation. By the age of 11, John had created his first firearm from castaway pieces and took it hunting, providing his family with three prairie chickens for the family’s dinner. By the time he was 18, John Browning had taken over his father’s business.

In the spring of 1879, John married Rachel Teresa Child, who would eventually bear John 10 children, eight of whom survived infancy. On October 7th of that same year, John received the first of his 128 firearm patents, this one for the Browning Single Shot rifle.

In 1880, John recruited his brothers and built what would become known as the Browning Arms Company. Although the business was successful, John was not satisfied. Rather than mass-producing firearms for commercial sale, Browning wanted to revolutionize the entire small arms industry.

John Browning Makes a Deal with Winchester

In 1883, when Winchester Repeating Arms Company made an offer on Browning’s rifle, John sold it for $8,000, (about $200,000 in 2019). Next, Winchester asked Browning to create a lever-action shotgun. Through this experience, Browning learned that a pump-action shotgun would be more effective. This was his next patent for Winchester, in 1888.

Browning continued to work for Winchester until 1902, when royalty payments caused a rift between the two. While working for Winchester, however, Browning created a number of iconic, best-selling weapons, including lever-action rifles and both lever-action and pump-action shotguns. Many are still favorites of the gun-buying public today, including:

• The single-shot Winchester 1885: Still manufactured today, it can be found in various calibers, including .17 Remington, .243, .30-06, and .45-70 Govt, among others.
• The lever-action Winchester 1894: One of the most popular hunting rifles in the U.S., it was originally chambered to fire .32-40 Win and .38-55 Win. It was also the first long gun to use the smokeless powder .30-30 round (originally called the .30 WCF). Other caliber variations include: .32 Win Special, .444 Marlin, .45 Long Colt, .450 Marlin, .357 Mag, .44 Mag, and .410 bore, as well as other less-known cartridges.
• The lever-action Winchester 1895: A popular military and hunting rifle, it was chambered for full-size ammo like 7.62x54mmR, .30-30, .30-06, and .405 Winchester.
• The pump-action Winchester 1897: Also known as a Trench Gun, this shotgun was offered in various barrel lengths and grades, and came chambered in either 12 or 16 gauge. It was manufactured from 1897 through 1957, and over one million were made.
• The bolt-action Winchester 1900: A single-shot rifle, the 1900 was designed for the .22LR, but could also fire .22 Short and .22 Long cartridges.

John Browning Moves to Fabrique Nationale

After his disagreement with Winchester, Browning went to Belgium, the home of Fabrique Nationale de Herstal. There, he created the Browning Auto-5, the first successful semi-automatic shotgun. Recoil-operated, this firearm was one of the best-selling firearms during the 20th century, and remained in production until 1998.

Browning stayed with Fabrique Nationale until his death on November 26, 1926, when he died of heart failure at the age of 71. His work continued until the very day that he died, working with his son, Van, on a new self-loading pistol design.

The last completed gun Browning designed was the Browning Superposed shotgun, the first over-and-under shotgun that was chambered for 12 gauge, 16 gauge, 20 gauge, 28 gauge, and .410 bore.

John Browning’s Military Legacy

In 1905, Browning earned the John Scott Medal, given to inventors who increased the “comfort, welfare, and happiness of humankind.” In 1914, he received the Order of Leopold medal, granting him the Belgian honorary orders of knighthood.

Although his name isn’t as closely related to America’s Wild West as other 19th-century gun manufacturers, such as Samuel Colt and Oliver Winchester, perhaps it should be. Many of their firearms were based on Browning’s designs.

Not only did he invent the lever-action and pump-action long guns, but he designed the first functional gas-operated firearm. While watching a shooting competition, Browning found inspiration in reeds blown aside when gases released from the gun’s muzzle. He set out to use that force in the repeating mechanism. After three years, Browning received a patent for his first automatic-reloading weapon, what would eventually evolve into the Browning Automatic Rifle, the same rifle U.S. soldiers carried into WWI.

Browning also designed what turned into one of the most popular handguns in America, the Colt 1911. Originally made for the military, the M1911 was the standard issue handgun for the U.S. armed forces from 1911 through 1986. As a civilian handgun, it’s now available in significantly more calibers than the original .45 ACP – including 9mm, 10mm, .22LR, .380 ACP, and .38 Super.

Browning created a number of weapons for the military, including:

• FN M1900 single-action, semi-auto pistol in .32 ACP (the first handgun to feature a modern slide)
• Colt 1903 Pocket Hammerless pistol in .32 ACP (the gun is not actually hammerless, but the hammer is completely covered, making it ideal for a CCW)
• Colt 1908 Vest Pocket Pistol in .25 ACP
• M1917 Browning Machine Gun in .30-06 Springfield
• M1919 Browning Machine Gun in .30 Carbine
• M2 Heavy Machine Gun in .50 BMG

John Moses Browning left a legacy almost as big as the modern firearms industry; since his death, there have been no disruptive developments in gun design. Fundamentally, we’re still using his guns today.

Yet his legacy goes beyond the shooting world. Browning was a modest man, even for his time. He was polite. He was quiet. And although he became a world-famous gunsmith, he still met with the laborers in his factories on the regular and treated them with as much respect as the management.

If you ever find yourself in Ogden, Utah, swing by the John M. Browning Firearms Museum and take a moment to pay homage to one of American’s unsung heroes.

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Man and Gunmaker

In any survey of the history of firearms development, it will quickly become apparent that the inventive genius of one man advanced the state of the art at a totally unprecedented and unsurpassed rate. Nobody, before or since, has had a greater — or even anything approaching an equal — influence on the development of firearms. He was the author of 128 separate patents covering virtually all types of weapon from pistols upwards, and was unique in that his designs constituted virtually the entire output of three major American arms manufacturers in the first half of the last century, and have spawned countless imitations all over the world.

His name was John Moses Browning, whose name is probably most closely linked with the automatic pistols still produced in Belgium by Fabrique Nationale: in fact, in France the name ‘Browning’ has passed into the language and is used as a proper noun and a synonym for a pistol. But Browning was not just a designer of handguns. He also profoundly influenced the development of machine-guns, rifles and shotguns, and it is a measure of the enduring popularity of his designs that so many weapons covered by Browning patents are still manufactured today.

This short book attempts to paint a picture of Browning the man, as well as describe his outstanding achievements in his chosen field. In fact, it could be said that John Browning didn’t choose to become a gunsmith. You could argue that his upbringing and his family, and to some extent his surroundings, chose his profession for him. And it really all started with his father.

2. JONATHAN BROWNING — THE FATHER

John Browning was the son of Jonathan Browning, a Mormon who had been part of the great Mormon Exodus from Nauvoo, Illinois, to Utah in 1852. Jonathan had been born in 1805, and had trained at an early age as an apprentice gunsmith by the unusual device of simply arriving on the doorstep of a Nashville gunmaker named Samuel Porter and offering to work for him for nothing in exchange for lessons in gun barrel-making. Porter was so impressed with Jonathan’s work that he soon started paying him a wage of two dollars a week, in addition to providing bed and board, and when, after three months, Jonathan announced that he was returning to the Browning home at Brushy Fork, Tennessee, he offered him a share of the business if he would agree to stay.

No doubt Jonathan was tempted, but remained adamant. The two men parted as firm friends, Porter supplying Jonathan with rifling and boring tools as well as a selection of mandrels — used for hand-forging gun barrels — of different sizes. Also included in his pack was a rifle made by Porter but carrying a barrel made entirely by Jonathan, and on which the older man had stamped ‘JONATHAN BROWNING 1824’.

From this small and inauspicious beginning, Jonathan Browning established himself as a competent rural gunmaker, repairing damaged weapons and producing rifles to order, but his aspirations were higher. Following marriage and a family move from Brushy Fork to Quincy, Illinois, in 1834, he concentrated his considerable abilities on the problem of designing a simple but efficient repeating rifle.

The problem he had was that in those days the propellant was black powder and the ignition source a percussion cap. To load a rifle, a suitable measure of black powder was poured down the barrel from the muzzle, usually from a powder flask, to be followed by a small piece of wadding or other material. Then the ball would follow, which would be rammed firmly into place to compress the powder charge. A percussion cap would be placed on the nipple below the hammer, and the weapon was then ready to fire. When the trigger was pulled, the falling hammer struck the percussion cap, which fired a spark down a tube and into the barrel, igniting the black powder and driving the ball down the barrel.

Each barrel of a rifle was a single-shot weapon, and the only way a hunter could have a second shot immediately available was either to have a second weapon to hand, or use a double- or multiple-barrelled rifle, and it was that problem which Jonathan Browning set out to solve. What he did was to approach the problem using lateral thinking. Instead of adding another barrel, he decided to cut off the breech end of the barrel and then designed a kind of multi-chamber breech block.

His endeavour succeeded, and the result was one of the simplest practical repeating weapons ever produced. Known as a Slide Gun, a Slide Repeating Rifle, or sometimes a Harmonica Rifle, its five-shot magazine was fabricated from a solid rectangular bar, each chamber having an integral nipple, and was passed through the breech from side to side. The magazine was moved on after each shot by a thumb-operated lever,which also forced the chamber forward into a gas-tight alignment with the barrel, while the hammer was positioned below the breech in front of the trigger guard. Larger capacity magazines, with capacities of 10 or 25 shots, were available to special order from Jonathan, and each rifle was supplied with at least one spare magazine, thus giving the owner a minimum of ten rapid shots if required.

Crude though this may sound, the weapon was capable of sustained fire at a rate unequalled by any other weapon of the time, and as recently as 1952 an example of the weapon held in the Browning Family Collection was used to fire fifteen rounds without malfunction.

In fact, Jonathan also invented a second type of repeating rifle at about the same time. This was a cylinder repeating rifle, similar in concept to the mechanism of a single-action revolver.

The slide rifle which, like the cylinder repeater, was not patented by Jonathan Browning, was an immediate success in the area, producing far more orders than he could possibly fill, and would no doubt have become a much more popular weapon had Browning’s manufacturing capacity been equal to his design ability.

It’s worthwhile contrasting this weapon, essentially knocked together by a self-taught gunsmith in a blacksmith’s shop, with the Colt Revolving Rifle, produced in 1855 by this fully-equipped and experienced manufacturer of firearms. The Colt weapon was a failure, because its design didn’t address the problem which Jonathan Browning’s prodigious talent had solved: the Colt couldn’t maintain a gas-tight seal between the barrel and the chamber, which led to misfires, gas leakage and indifferent performance.

In 1840 Jonathan Browning, by then an established member of the community and a good friend of the young Abraham Lincoln, became deeply interested in religion and, in particular, the teachings of the Mormon Church. The direct result of this interest was the Browning family’s move, in 1842, to the city of Nauvoo, Illinois, which was being constructed on the instructions of Joseph Smith, the founder and Prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

The Mormons were not popular in the area, being subjected to frequent attacks by armed Illinois and Missouri gangs, and the violence reached a peak in June 1844 when Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum, were assassinated at Carthage, Illinois. This action was the spur that led to the great Mormon Exodus under Brigham Young, which started in 1846 and continued for some years. Though Jonathan Browning was eager to head west with the pioneers, Young recognized his worth and insisted that he stay to provide the weapons so desperately needed by the Saints, and it wasn’t until 1852 that Jonathan was permitted to follow the trail from Nauvoo that led eventually through the Rocky Mountains to Utah and Ogden in the valley of the Great Salt Lake.

The violence at Nauvoo and the long trek west had left their mark on Jonathan Browning, and he never again applied himself to the development of new weapons, contenting himself with repairing and refurbishing not only guns but any kind of mechanical contraption which required attention. The Browning gunsmith building in Nauvoo is now a museum open to the public.

Jonathan Browning settled in Ogden in 1852 with his first wife and eleven surviving children, and embraced the Mormon practice of polygamy. In 1854 he married his second wife, Elisabeth Clark, a Mormon convert from Virginia, and she gave birth to John Moses Browning the following year. In all, Jonathan took three wives and had twenty-two children. John Browning was particularly close to his younger brother, Matt, and his younger half- brothers, Jonathan Edmund (known as Ed), Thomas Samuel (nicknamed Sam), Will and George, who was a son of Jonathan’s third wife.

John Moses Browning

York Guns Ltd, proud to be one of the first companies to sign into the Browning Premium Dealer scheme, and continue to be one of few that hold this status. We’d like to take this opportunity to share some history of Browning and the founder John Moses Browning with you…

John Moses Browning transformed the firearms industry with his innovative designs for sporting rifles, handguns and machine guns. Many of his creations remain in use after more than 100 years. John Browning known as Americas greatest inventor of firearms learnt his trade from his father Jonathan Browning, (1805-1879) who was also a gun-maker. Setting up business in Ogden, near Salt Lake City, in 1825. John Browning spent most of his time in his father’s gun shop and cobbled together his first gun at age 10 from spare parts.

Browning Arms and FN Herstal

In 1880, Browning and his brothers opened the early version of the Browning Arms Company, then known as J.M. Browning and Bro. Guns, Pistols, Amunition & Fishing Tackle, in Ogden, Utah. Following his early collaborations with the Connecticut-based Winchester Repeating Arms, Browning expanded his business overseas in 1897 by authorizing Fabrique Nationale of Herstal, Belgium, to manufacture a 32-caliber semi-automatic pistol.

Since 1907, and at FN’s request, John M Browning had granted the right to use his surname as a trademark, thereby emphasising the common interests and goals that linked his family to the company. He never gave the same permission to any of the large American companies that had commercialised his first inventions, and the full significance of this decision would become apparent over the following decades.

Browning’s Famous Gun Designs

Winchester Model 1885

In 1879, Browning received his first patent, for a single-shot rifle. Four years later, he received a visit from T. G. Bennett, vice president and general manager of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. This marking the start of a 19-year collaboration between Browning and Winchester. His first patent became the basis for the Winchester 1885, reputed to have one of the strongest actions of the time.

Winchester Model 1897

Browning introduced the first pump-action (or slide-action) shotgun in 1893, though it was unable to process the smokeless cartridges that were becoming popular. He made the adjustment for the Model 1897, which also featured the now standard “takedown” design that allows the barrel to be removed. The 1897 later proved a highly effective weapon for Allied forces during WWI.

Browning Auto-5

The Auto-5, marked one of the first collaborations between Browning and Fabrique Nationale of Belgium. This is marked as the first successfully mass-produced semi-automatic shotgun in the early 20th century. It was based on a Browning patent in which the barrel and bolt recoil together following a shot, with the bolt remaining behind to eject the spent shell before moving forward to chamber a new one.

M1911

Also known by other names, including the Colt 45, the M1911 is a short-recoil, single-action hammer-fired pistol. It served as the U.S. military’s standard sidearm from 1911 until 1985, while proving immensely popular among civilians, as well.

The Browning B25 over-and-under shotgun became a twentieth century world-class benchmark in the manufacturing of hunting and sports arms. This is due to the combined efforts of father and son, as well as the technicians of Herstal, Almost 400,000 were produced in Belgium over a 45 year period, 65% of which were destined for the North American market.

Frequently envied and sometimes imitated by competitors, the B25 has never been bettered. More information can be found here

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About John Moses Browning, Gunsmith

John Moses Browning (January 21 or January 23, 1855 – November 26, 1926), born in Ogden, Utah, was an American firearms designer who developed many varieties of 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 rifles, lever-action rifles, and slide-action firearms. His most significant contributions were in the area of autoloading firearms. He developed the first reliable and compact autoloading pistols by inventing the telescoping bolt, integrating the bolt and barrel shroud into what is known as the 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’s most successful designs include the M1911 pistol, the Browning .50 caliber machine gun,the Browning Hi-Power, the Browning Automatic Rifle, and a ground-breaking semi-automatic shotgun, the Browning Auto-5. These arms are nearly identical today to those assembled by Browning in the 1920s, with only minor changes in detail and cosmetics.

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.

Jonathan had built a gunsmith in Nauvoo, developing and refining advanced (for the time) repeating firearms and manufacturing techniques. The Browning gunsmith in Nauvoo is now operated as a museum, and is open to the public at no charge.

John Moses worked in his father’s Ogden shop, 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 design, then founded his own manufacturing operation and began to produce this firearm.

Production examples of the Browning single-shot caught the attention of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, who dispatched a representative to evaluate the competition. Winchester bought the design 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 Winchester Model 1887 and Model 1897 shotguns, the falling block single shot Model 1885, and the lever-action Model 1886, Model 1892, Model 1894 and Model 1895 rifles, most 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.

Perhaps the single most infamous Browning-designed firearm was a FN Model 1910 handgun, serial number 19074. In 1914, Gavrilo Princip used the .32 ACP pistol to assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife, Sophia. This event arguably sparked World War I. The pistol was rediscovered in 2004.

A deluxe takedown Winchester Rifle Model 1894On November 26, 1926, while working on a self-loading pistol design for FN in Liège, he died of heart failure in the office of his son Val A. Browning. The 9 mm self-loading pistol he was working on when he died was eventually completed in 1935, by Belgian designer Dieudonne Saive. Released as the Fabrique Nationale GP35, it was more popularly known as the Browning Hi-Power. This name reflects the 13-round magazine—at the time, the largest pistol magazine in the world—not the pistol’s 9mm cartridge, which is less powerful than the .45 ACP round of the M1911, developed two decades earlier.[citation needed] The Superposed shotgun was his last firearm design, marketed originally with twin triggers. A single trigger modification was later completed by his son, Val.

Throughout his life, Browning designed weapons for his own company, as well as for Winchester, Colt, Remington, Savage, and Fabrique Nationale de Herstal of Belgium. In 1977, FN acquired the Browning Arms Company which had been established in 1927, the year after Browning’s death.

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

U.S. M1895 Colt-Browning machine gun

FN Browning M1899/M1900

Colt Model 1900

Colt Model 1902

Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammer (.38 ACP)

Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammerless (.32 ACP)

Colt Model 1905

Remington Model 8 (1906), a long recoil semi-automatic rifle

Colt Model 1908 Vest Pocket (.25 ACP)

Colt Model 1908 Pocket Hammerless (.380 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

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

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

In addition, the cartridges he developed are still some of the most popular in the world. They include:

John Moses Browning: The Forgotten History and Legacy of the Father of Modern Firearms

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John Moses Browning is known to firearms and Second Amendment enthusiasts primarily as a gunsmith, but he was more than that: He was also an inventor, an innovator, and perhaps one of the most successful firearm designers the world has ever seen. It’s without question that he is the father of modern firearms as we know them. John Browning is arguably the man most responsible for modern firearms, including lever-action, pump-action, and auto-loading weapons.

Browning was born into a Mormon settler family in Ogden, Utah, on January 23, 1855. His parents, Jonathan Browning and Elizabeth Clark, were Mormons who settled in Utah after the Mormon Exodus of 1847. A gunsmith himself, Jonathan often had young John in the shop alongside him, where the child learned concepts of manufacturing and engineering. The elder Browning also encouraged experimentation. By the age of 11, John had created his first firearm from castaway pieces and took it hunting, providing his family with three prairie chickens for the family’s dinner. By the time he was 18, John Browning had taken over his father’s business.

In the spring of 1879, John married Rachel Teresa Child, who would eventually bear John 10 children, eight of whom survived infancy. On October 7th of that same year, John received the first of his 128 firearm patents, this one for the Browning Single Shot rifle.

In 1880, John recruited his brothers and built what would become known as the Browning Arms Company. Although the business was successful, John was not satisfied. Rather than mass-producing firearms for commercial sale, Browning wanted to revolutionize the entire small arms industry.

John Browning Makes a Deal with Winchester

In 1883, when Winchester Repeating Arms Company made an offer on Browning’s rifle, John sold it for $8,000, (about $200,000 in 2019). Next, Winchester asked Browning to create a lever-action shotgun. Through this experience, Browning learned that a pump-action shotgun would be more effective. This was his next patent for Winchester, in 1888.

Browning continued to work for Winchester until 1902, when royalty payments caused a rift between the two. While working for Winchester, however, Browning created a number of iconic, best-selling weapons, including lever-action rifles and both lever-action and pump-action shotguns. Many are still favorites of the gun-buying public today, including:

• The single-shot Winchester 1885: Still manufactured today, it can be found in various calibers, including .17 Remington, .243, .30-06, and .45-70 Govt, among others.
• The lever-action Winchester 1894: One of the most popular hunting rifles in the U.S., it was originally chambered to fire .32-40 Win and .38-55 Win. It was also the first long gun to use the smokeless powder .30-30 round (originally called the .30 WCF). Other caliber variations include: .32 Win Special, .444 Marlin, .45 Long Colt, .450 Marlin, .357 Mag, .44 Mag, and .410 bore, as well as other less-known cartridges.
• The lever-action Winchester 1895: A popular military and hunting rifle, it was chambered for full-size ammo like 7.62x54mmR, .30-30, .30-06, and .405 Winchester.
• The pump-action Winchester 1897: Also known as a Trench Gun, this shotgun was offered in various barrel lengths and grades, and came chambered in either 12 or 16 gauge. It was manufactured from 1897 through 1957, and over one million were made.
• The bolt-action Winchester 1900: A single-shot rifle, the 1900 was designed for the .22LR, but could also fire .22 Short and .22 Long cartridges.

John Browning Moves to Fabrique Nationale

After his disagreement with Winchester, Browning went to Belgium, the home of Fabrique Nationale de Herstal. There, he created the Browning Auto-5, the first successful semi-automatic shotgun. Recoil-operated, this firearm was one of the best-selling firearms during the 20th century, and remained in production until 1998.

Browning stayed with Fabrique Nationale until his death on November 26, 1926, when he died of heart failure at the age of 71. His work continued until the very day that he died, working with his son, Van, on a new self-loading pistol design.

The last completed gun Browning designed was the Browning Superposed shotgun, the first over-and-under shotgun that was chambered for 12 gauge, 16 gauge, 20 gauge, 28 gauge, and .410 bore.

John Browning’s Military Legacy

In 1905, Browning earned the John Scott Medal, given to inventors who increased the “comfort, welfare, and happiness of humankind.” In 1914, he received the Order of Leopold medal, granting him the Belgian honorary orders of knighthood.

Although his name isn’t as closely related to America’s Wild West as other 19th-century gun manufacturers, such as Samuel Colt and Oliver Winchester, perhaps it should be. Many of their firearms were based on Browning’s designs.

Not only did he invent the lever-action and pump-action long guns, but he designed the first functional gas-operated firearm. While watching a shooting competition, Browning found inspiration in reeds blown aside when gases released from the gun’s muzzle. He set out to use that force in the repeating mechanism. After three years, Browning received a patent for his first automatic-reloading weapon, what would eventually evolve into the Browning Automatic Rifle, the same rifle U.S. soldiers carried into WWI.

Browning also designed what turned into one of the most popular handguns in America, the Colt 1911. Originally made for the military, the M1911 was the standard issue handgun for the U.S. armed forces from 1911 through 1986. As a civilian handgun, it’s now available in significantly more calibers than the original .45 ACP – including 9mm, 10mm, .22LR, .380 ACP, and .38 Super.

Browning created a number of weapons for the military, including:

• FN M1900 single-action, semi-auto pistol in .32 ACP (the first handgun to feature a modern slide)
• Colt 1903 Pocket Hammerless pistol in .32 ACP (the gun is not actually hammerless, but the hammer is completely covered, making it ideal for a CCW)
• Colt 1908 Vest Pocket Pistol in .25 ACP
• M1917 Browning Machine Gun in .30-06 Springfield
• M1919 Browning Machine Gun in .30 Carbine
• M2 Heavy Machine Gun in .50 BMG

John Moses Browning left a legacy almost as big as the modern firearms industry; since his death, there have been no disruptive developments in gun design. Fundamentally, we’re still using his guns today.

Yet his legacy goes beyond the shooting world. Browning was a modest man, even for his time. He was polite. He was quiet. And although he became a world-famous gunsmith, he still met with the laborers in his factories on the regular and treated them with as much respect as the management.

If you ever find yourself in Ogden, Utah, swing by the John M. Browning Firearms Museum and take a moment to pay homage to one of American’s unsung heroes.

John Moses Browning

York Guns Ltd, proud to be one of the first companies to sign into the Browning Premium Dealer scheme, and continue to be one of few that hold this status. We’d like to take this opportunity to share some history of Browning and the founder John Moses Browning with you…

John Moses Browning transformed the firearms industry with his innovative designs for sporting rifles, handguns and machine guns. Many of his creations remain in use after more than 100 years. John Browning known as Americas greatest inventor of firearms learnt his trade from his father Jonathan Browning, (1805-1879) who was also a gun-maker. Setting up business in Ogden, near Salt Lake City, in 1825. John Browning spent most of his time in his father’s gun shop and cobbled together his first gun at age 10 from spare parts.

Browning Arms and FN Herstal

In 1880, Browning and his brothers opened the early version of the Browning Arms Company, then known as J.M. Browning and Bro. Guns, Pistols, Amunition & Fishing Tackle, in Ogden, Utah. Following his early collaborations with the Connecticut-based Winchester Repeating Arms, Browning expanded his business overseas in 1897 by authorizing Fabrique Nationale of Herstal, Belgium, to manufacture a 32-caliber semi-automatic pistol.

Since 1907, and at FN’s request, John M Browning had granted the right to use his surname as a trademark, thereby emphasising the common interests and goals that linked his family to the company. He never gave the same permission to any of the large American companies that had commercialised his first inventions, and the full significance of this decision would become apparent over the following decades.

Browning’s Famous Gun Designs

Winchester Model 1885

In 1879, Browning received his first patent, for a single-shot rifle. Four years later, he received a visit from T. G. Bennett, vice president and general manager of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. This marking the start of a 19-year collaboration between Browning and Winchester. His first patent became the basis for the Winchester 1885, reputed to have one of the strongest actions of the time.

Winchester Model 1897

Browning introduced the first pump-action (or slide-action) shotgun in 1893, though it was unable to process the smokeless cartridges that were becoming popular. He made the adjustment for the Model 1897, which also featured the now standard “takedown” design that allows the barrel to be removed. The 1897 later proved a highly effective weapon for Allied forces during WWI.

Browning Auto-5

The Auto-5, marked one of the first collaborations between Browning and Fabrique Nationale of Belgium. This is marked as the first successfully mass-produced semi-automatic shotgun in the early 20th century. It was based on a Browning patent in which the barrel and bolt recoil together following a shot, with the bolt remaining behind to eject the spent shell before moving forward to chamber a new one.

M1911

Also known by other names, including the Colt 45, the M1911 is a short-recoil, single-action hammer-fired pistol. It served as the U.S. military’s standard sidearm from 1911 until 1985, while proving immensely popular among civilians, as well.

The Browning B25 over-and-under shotgun became a twentieth century world-class benchmark in the manufacturing of hunting and sports arms. This is due to the combined efforts of father and son, as well as the technicians of Herstal, Almost 400,000 were produced in Belgium over a 45 year period, 65% of which were destined for the North American market.

Frequently envied and sometimes imitated by competitors, the B25 has never been bettered. More information can be found here