Rockwall Gun Club: John Browning

John Browning is regarded as one of the most successful firearm designers of the 19^th and 20^th centuries in the development of modern automatic and semi-automatic fire arms.  Browning is credited with over 125 firearm patents and invented or made important improvements to single-shot, lever-action and pump-action rifles and shotguns.  The bet is on that many of the members’ of the Rockwall Gun Club located at 15950 TX-205 in Terrell, TX have one or more of Browning's inventions in their gun safes. 

His most significant contributions were arguably in the area of auto loading firearms.  It all started in his father's gunsmith shop in Ogden, Utah at the age of seven, where John was eager to learn basic engineering and even manufacturing principles and was encouraged by this father to experiment with new ideas in the gun business.  Later on John designed his first rifle which was a single-shot falling block action and then developed and founded his own manufacturing operation with his brother and they began to produce this new Model 1885 Single Shot Rifle. 

This new invention caught the Winchester Repeating Arms Company attention and then bought the design for $8,000 and moved it's to their Winchester and later designed a series of rifles and shotguns.  Some of those were the popular Winchester Model 1887 and the Model 1897 pump shotgun.  The rifles were the lever-action Model 1886, Model 1892, Model 1895 and well as the long recoil operated semi-automatic Remington Model 8.  Many of which are still in production today in some form and over six million Model 1894's have been produced, more than any other sporting rifle in history. 

John Browning also developed the first gas-operated machine gun Colt-Browning Model 1895 and became the standard for most self-loading high-power self-loading gun designs worldwide.  Browning's designs and Winchester Firearms were synonymous and this collaboration was highly successful until Browning asked for a royalty rather than a front-end payment with this new shotgun. Remington rejected his offer and Browning took the new shotgun design to a gun manufacturer in Belgium and it was labeled as the Browning Auto-5 and became very successful. 

This highly popular shotgun was made throughout the 20^th century and ended the era of Winchester-Browning collaboration.  John refused to retire and continued to design firearms until he died of a heart attack in his shop at the age of 71.  His inventions saw action in the Spanish American war with the Marines, World War 1, World War 11 and even the Korean War.  His firearms are still highly popular with civilian shooters. 

You might see a Browning design at the range under the brand of Savage, Ithaca, and Winchester and even with Browning's label.  Stay tuned for another story about an American gun icon and visit the Rockwall Gun Club at www.RockwallGunClub.com or call (972) 551-0470.