Amazing man, amazing firearm
The Model 1911A1 .45 Caliber Service Pistol (and all of its subsequent clones) is perhaps the most popular, dependable, and sought-after pistol the world has ever known. But who invented the 1911 and why? Read John Moses Browning, American Gunmaker by John Browning and Curt Gentry to learn about the man and the weapon.
John Moses Browning was the most famous and competent gunmaker the world has ever known. He was the son of Jonathan Browning, himself a highly competent gunsmith, and Elizabeth Clark. John Moses was born January 23, 1855 in Ogden, Utah, U.S.A., where his father settled after the Mormon Exodus of 1847. It was in his father's shop that John Moses first learned the art and secrets of gunsmithing.
Designer extraordinaire
John Moses, however, was much more than a gunsmith in the sense that he was much more interested in designing and building new, innovative, firearms than repairing broken ones. His first creation was a single shot rifle he built at the age of 14 for his brother, Matt. Soon after, John Moses and his brothers started their own shop. John and his brothers began producing this rifle in their Ogden shop but customer demand soon exceeded their shop's production capacity. They were unable to expand the "Browning Gun Factory," as their shop was called, because they lacked the capital required for expansion and didn't have a well-established distribution channel to market their products.
A salesman for the Winchester Repeating Arms Company named Andrew McAusland happened to see one of John's Single Shot rifles in 1883. McAusland immediately bought one and sent it to Winchester's headquarters. The gun drew Winchester's interest and T. G. Bennet, Winchester's vice president and general manager, went to Ogden to buy the rights to Browning's gun. When Bennet arrived in Ogden, it didn't take long for the men to agree on the sale and Winchester paid John Moses $8,000 for the rights to produce the gun.
The agreement was beneficial to both parties. Winchester was happy because they turned competitor into a benefactor, plus they added an excellent rifle to their product line. John Moses was equally happy because the money from the sale and the ensuing relationship with Winchester allowed him to concentrate on inventing things instead of manufacturing them.
John Moses Browning went on to design several firearms for Winchester. He also wanted to invent an automatic shotgun that would use the expanding gases of a fired shell to re-cock the gun and make it ready for the next shot. John got this idea while watching a friend of his, Will Wright, shoot his Browning-made rifle. A clump of weeds just in front of the firing line bent with the muzzle blast. This gave John the idea of using the gases for something productive like cocking the gun.
He designed a testing gun with which he tested his ideas. When the testing validated his theory, John applied the principle on three different guns: two machine-guns and a repeating shotgun. His machine-guns, the first fully automatic guns which used expanding gases for cycling, were later sold to Colt and the U.S. Government and served the U.S. Armed Forces through three wars. One was Colt Model 1895 Peacemaker machine-gun, while the other was the famous Browning Automatic Rifle, affectionately called BAR by GIs. Browning's machine-guns are still used by US and other armies around the world.
Parting of ways
The repeating shotgun that John invented was the primary reason for the break between Browning and Winchester. When Winchester denied production of this gun, John Moses, packed a sample of his shotgun into his luggage, crossed the Atlantic, and negotiated an agreement for Fabrique National de Belgique (FN) to produce his gun. FN was then a young company in dire need of products to produce. Browning's automatic shotgun revolutionized the hunting market.
This same shotgun was later produced in U.S.A. by Remington, as their Model 11. Still later, variants of this shotgun were produced by almost all of the large shotgun manufacturers, including Savage, Franchi, and Breda.
John M. Browning was usually working on more than one project at one time. He started working on automatic pistols before 1900. He was the first to invent the slide which encloses the barrel and the firing mechanism of a pistol. Pistols of his invention were produced by both FN and Colt and they range from baby .25 caliber pistols to the .45 Government Model. The first automatic pistol designed by Browning was produced by FN as FN's .32 caliber Model 1900. The most famous pistols of John's design, however, were Colt's .45 ACP M1911 Government Model and FN's Browning High-Power Model P-35 in 9mm Parabellum.
John Moses Browning passed away in Liege, Belgium, the day after Thanksgiving, 1926. He died of heart failure while in his son Val's office at the FN factory. It was the last day on earth for this ingenious person who invented more firearms than any other gunmaker in the history of the world.