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<blockquote data-quote="_CY_" data-source="post: 2913148" data-attributes="member: 7629"><p>a very nice historical read about John Browning ...</p><p></p><p>===========</p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 22px">What’s so special about John Moses Browning?</span></p><p><a href="http://weaponsman.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/j_m_browning_Himself.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.okshooters.com/data/MetaMirrorCache/weaponsman.com_wp_content_uploads_2013_09_j_m_browning_Himself_208x300.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></a></p><p></p><p>We think Browning’s incredible primacy resulted from several things, <em>apart </em>from his own innate talent and work ethic (both of which were prodigious). Those things are:</p><p></p><ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">He was born to the trade</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">He was prolific: his output was prodigious</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">He was a master of the toolroom</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">He lived at just the right time</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">He could inspire and lead others</li> </ol><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong>Born to the Trade</strong></span></p><p>John M’s father, Jonathan Browning, was, himself, a gunsmith, designer and inventor. He made his first rifle at age 13, and despite being an apprentice blacksmith, became a specialist in guns by the time he was an adult. From 1824 he had his own gunshop and smithy in Brushy Fork, Tennessee, and later would move to Illinois (Where he befriended a country lawyer named Lincoln). He joined the Mormons in Illinois and fled with them to Utah, making guns at each way station of the Mormon flight.</p><p></p><p><a href="http://weaponsman.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Jonathan-Browning.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.okshooters.com/data/MetaMirrorCache/weaponsman.com_wp_content_uploads_2013_09_Jonathan_Browning_300x200.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></a></p><p>Jonathan Browning Cylinder Repeater. Image from a <a href="http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2011/07/william-c-montgomery/the-making-of-john-moses-browning/" target="_blank">great article on Jonathan Browning</a> by William C. Montgomery.</p><p></p><p>Very few of Jonathan’s rifles are known to have survived, but he made two percussion repeating rifles that were, then (1820s-1842), on the cutting edge of technology. The Slide Bar Repeating Rifle was Jonathan’s term for what is more widely called a <a href="http://firearmshistory.blogspot.com/2012/09/harmonica-gunslide-gun.html" target="_blank">Harmonica Gun.</a> The gun has a slot into which a steel Slide Bar is fitted. The slide bar had, normally, five chambers; after firing a shot, the user cocked the hammer and moved the Slide Bar to the side to move the empty chamber out from under the hammer, and a loaded chamber into place. When all five chambers had been discharged, the Slide Bar was removed, and each chamber loaded from the muzzle and reprimed with a percussion cap. Jonathan Browning’s gun differed from most in that it had an underhammer, and that an action lever cammed the Slide Bar hard against the barrel to make a gas seal. He also made a larger Slide Bar available — one with 25 chambers, arguably the first high-capacity magazine.</p><p></p><p>The second Browning innovation was the Cylinder Repeating rifle. This was a revolver rifle, with the cylinder rotated by hand between shots. Like the Slide Bar gun, the cylinder was cammed against the barrel to achieve a gas seal — the parts were designed to mate in the manner of nested cones.</p><p></p><p><a href="http://weaponsman.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Young-Browning.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.okshooters.com/data/MetaMirrorCache/weaponsman.com_wp_content_uploads_2013_09_Young_Browning_212x300.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></a></p><p>Young John M. Browning. From the <a href="https://browningcollector.com/index.php?route=information/information&information_id=14" target="_blank">Browning Collectors web page</a>.</p><p></p><p>The designer of those mid-19th-Century attempts to harness firepower sired many children; like other early Mormons, he was a polygamist, and his three wives would bear him 22 children. From age six one of them apprenticed himself, as it were, to his father. Within a year he’d built <em>his </em>own first rifle. This son was, of course, John Moses Browning.</p><p></p><p>(Aside: the last gun made by Jonathan Browning was an example of his son’s 1878 single-shot high-powered rifle design, which would be produced in quantity by Winchester starting in 1883).</p><p></p><p>Malcolm Gladwell has popularized the idea that it takes 10,000 hours of hard work to become an expert — that’s roughly five years of fulltime labor. JMB had exceeded this point before puberty.</p><p></p><p>If you aspire to breaking Browning’s records as a gun designer, you need to acknowledge that, unless you started from childhood, you’re starting out behind already.</p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong>Prolific Output</strong></span></p><p>Browning worked on pistols, rifles, and machine guns. He worked on single-shot, lever, slide, and semi-automatic actions, and his semi-autos included gas-operated, recoil-operated, direct-blowback, and several types of locking mechanism. Exactly how many designs he did may not have been calculated anywhere: it’s known he designed 44 rifles and 13 shotguns for Winchester alone, a large number of which were not produced, and some of which may not have been made even as prototypes or models.</p><p></p><p>His military weapons included light and heavy infantry machine guns, aerial machineguns for fixed and flexible installations, and several iterations of the 37mm aircraft and anti-aircraft cannon, the last of which, the M9, would fire a 1-lb-plus armor-piercing shell at 3000 feet per second; an airplane was designed around it (the P39 Airacobra, marginal in US service but well-used, and well-loved, by the Soviets who received many via lend-lease). All the machine guns used by the US from squad on up in WWII and Korea were Browning designs. But these were only his <em>most successful </em>designs; there were others. At his peak, he may have been producing new designs at a rate of one a <em>week. </em></p><p></p><p>If you want to to be the next John Browning, you need to start designing now, and keep improving your designs and designing new ones until the day you die. (Browning died in his office in Belgium).</p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong>Master of the Toolroom</strong></span></p><p></p><p><img src="https://www.okshooters.com/data/MetaMirrorCache/weaponsman.com_wp_content_uploads_2013_09_Browning_Workshop_624x493.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p><img src="https://www.okshooters.com/data/MetaMirrorCache/weaponsman.com_wp_content_uploads_2013_09_Browning_and_Burton_624x452.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p><a href="http://weaponsman.com/?p=10789" target="_blank">http://weaponsman.com/?p=10789</a></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="_CY_, post: 2913148, member: 7629"] a very nice historical read about John Browning ... =========== [SIZE=6]What’s so special about John Moses Browning?[/SIZE] [URL='http://weaponsman.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/j_m_browning_Himself.jpg'][IMG]https://www.okshooters.com/data/MetaMirrorCache/weaponsman.com_wp_content_uploads_2013_09_j_m_browning_Himself_208x300.jpg[/IMG][/URL] We think Browning’s incredible primacy resulted from several things, [I]apart [/I]from his own innate talent and work ethic (both of which were prodigious). Those things are: [LIST=1] [*]He was born to the trade [*]He was prolific: his output was prodigious [*]He was a master of the toolroom [*]He lived at just the right time [*]He could inspire and lead others [/LIST] [SIZE=3][B]Born to the Trade[/B][/SIZE] John M’s father, Jonathan Browning, was, himself, a gunsmith, designer and inventor. He made his first rifle at age 13, and despite being an apprentice blacksmith, became a specialist in guns by the time he was an adult. From 1824 he had his own gunshop and smithy in Brushy Fork, Tennessee, and later would move to Illinois (Where he befriended a country lawyer named Lincoln). He joined the Mormons in Illinois and fled with them to Utah, making guns at each way station of the Mormon flight. [URL='http://weaponsman.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Jonathan-Browning.jpg'][IMG]https://www.okshooters.com/data/MetaMirrorCache/weaponsman.com_wp_content_uploads_2013_09_Jonathan_Browning_300x200.jpg[/IMG][/URL] Jonathan Browning Cylinder Repeater. Image from a [URL='http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2011/07/william-c-montgomery/the-making-of-john-moses-browning/']great article on Jonathan Browning[/URL] by William C. Montgomery. Very few of Jonathan’s rifles are known to have survived, but he made two percussion repeating rifles that were, then (1820s-1842), on the cutting edge of technology. The Slide Bar Repeating Rifle was Jonathan’s term for what is more widely called a [URL='http://firearmshistory.blogspot.com/2012/09/harmonica-gunslide-gun.html']Harmonica Gun.[/URL] The gun has a slot into which a steel Slide Bar is fitted. The slide bar had, normally, five chambers; after firing a shot, the user cocked the hammer and moved the Slide Bar to the side to move the empty chamber out from under the hammer, and a loaded chamber into place. When all five chambers had been discharged, the Slide Bar was removed, and each chamber loaded from the muzzle and reprimed with a percussion cap. Jonathan Browning’s gun differed from most in that it had an underhammer, and that an action lever cammed the Slide Bar hard against the barrel to make a gas seal. He also made a larger Slide Bar available — one with 25 chambers, arguably the first high-capacity magazine. The second Browning innovation was the Cylinder Repeating rifle. This was a revolver rifle, with the cylinder rotated by hand between shots. Like the Slide Bar gun, the cylinder was cammed against the barrel to achieve a gas seal — the parts were designed to mate in the manner of nested cones. [URL='http://weaponsman.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Young-Browning.jpg'][IMG]https://www.okshooters.com/data/MetaMirrorCache/weaponsman.com_wp_content_uploads_2013_09_Young_Browning_212x300.jpg[/IMG][/URL] Young John M. Browning. From the [URL='https://browningcollector.com/index.php?route=information/information&information_id=14']Browning Collectors web page[/URL]. The designer of those mid-19th-Century attempts to harness firepower sired many children; like other early Mormons, he was a polygamist, and his three wives would bear him 22 children. From age six one of them apprenticed himself, as it were, to his father. Within a year he’d built [I]his [/I]own first rifle. This son was, of course, John Moses Browning. (Aside: the last gun made by Jonathan Browning was an example of his son’s 1878 single-shot high-powered rifle design, which would be produced in quantity by Winchester starting in 1883). Malcolm Gladwell has popularized the idea that it takes 10,000 hours of hard work to become an expert — that’s roughly five years of fulltime labor. JMB had exceeded this point before puberty. If you aspire to breaking Browning’s records as a gun designer, you need to acknowledge that, unless you started from childhood, you’re starting out behind already. [SIZE=3][B]Prolific Output[/B][/SIZE] Browning worked on pistols, rifles, and machine guns. He worked on single-shot, lever, slide, and semi-automatic actions, and his semi-autos included gas-operated, recoil-operated, direct-blowback, and several types of locking mechanism. Exactly how many designs he did may not have been calculated anywhere: it’s known he designed 44 rifles and 13 shotguns for Winchester alone, a large number of which were not produced, and some of which may not have been made even as prototypes or models. His military weapons included light and heavy infantry machine guns, aerial machineguns for fixed and flexible installations, and several iterations of the 37mm aircraft and anti-aircraft cannon, the last of which, the M9, would fire a 1-lb-plus armor-piercing shell at 3000 feet per second; an airplane was designed around it (the P39 Airacobra, marginal in US service but well-used, and well-loved, by the Soviets who received many via lend-lease). All the machine guns used by the US from squad on up in WWII and Korea were Browning designs. But these were only his [I]most successful [/I]designs; there were others. At his peak, he may have been producing new designs at a rate of one a [I]week. [/I] If you want to to be the next John Browning, you need to start designing now, and keep improving your designs and designing new ones until the day you die. (Browning died in his office in Belgium). [SIZE=3][B]Master of the Toolroom[/B][/SIZE] [IMG]https://www.okshooters.com/data/MetaMirrorCache/weaponsman.com_wp_content_uploads_2013_09_Browning_Workshop_624x493.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]https://www.okshooters.com/data/MetaMirrorCache/weaponsman.com_wp_content_uploads_2013_09_Browning_and_Burton_624x452.jpg[/IMG] [URL]http://weaponsman.com/?p=10789[/URL] [/QUOTE]
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