John Moses Browning
(1855 - 1926)

John M. Browning was born in Ogden, Utah on January 23, 1855.
      His father, Jonathan Browning, was a firearms maker and gunsmith. Around the time
his son was born, he stopped making firearms but continued his gunsmithing career.
John grew up helping and working in his father's gunsmith shop, where he learned
the skills that would make him one of the greatest men in the history of firearms.

John M. Browning invented his first firearm in 1878. It was a single shot falling
breech rifle which was to become the Winchester Model 1885.
His next firearm was a lever action rifle which became the Winchester Model 1886.
He then went on to make all of Winchester's lever action and pump rifles and shotguns.
He made a semi-auto shotgun which Winchester didn't want so he sold it to Remington.
He made lots of other firearms and then got the idea for a machinegun which became
the Model 1895 Machinegun which was made by Colt and later also by Marlin.
He got the idea for the semi-auto pistol from making the machinegun and his first
semi-auto pistol was to become the FN Model 1900 and the Colt Model 1903 in
32caliber. He made the Colt Model 1900 in 38acp, which was the first in the line that
would become the Model 1911. The Model 1900 became the Military Model 1902 .
In 1905, Colt and Browning invented the .45acp round to meet the Army's insistence
for a 45 caliber pistol and scaled up the Model 1902 38acp for the new round. This
became the Model 1905 in .45acp and the military showed interest in it but it still fell
short of acceptance. After further work, finally in 1910 the prototype for the 1911 was
submitted to the U.S. Army and on May 5, 1911 was adopted as the Automatic Pistol,
caliber .45, Model 1911. After it's adoption by the U.S. Army, it was also adopted by
the Navy and the Marines. It was also adopted by the Norway military. The demand
for the 1911 was so great that supplemental production was setup at the government's
Springfield Armory and after the U.S. entered World War I, the 1911 was also produced
by Remington/UMC. Further modifications were made to the original Model 1911 and in
1924  the Model 1911A1 was adopted. These changes were the addition of an arched
main spring housing for a better grip, the grips tang safety was extended to reduce recoil bite, beveled cuts behind trigger for finger comfort, trigger cut back and it's front checkered and the front and rear sights widened to improve sight picture. Later during World War II, the 1911A1 was produced by Colt, Remington Rand, Ithaca, Union Switch & Signal Co.and a small number by Singer Sewing Machine Co.. Versions were also produced in Argentina and in Spain by Star and Llama. Versions were even produce in Poland and the Soviet Union. All of Colt's automatic pistols were designed by Browning. His designs are still being made or modified by others into the finest firearms of today.
All this because of the genius of John M. Browning.

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