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| 1855 births | |
| 1926 deaths | |
| american inventors | |
| american latter day saints | |
| firearm designers | |
| people from utah | |
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John Moses Browning ( January 21 , 1855 – November 26 , 1926 ), born in Ogden, Utah , was an American Firearm s designer who developed myriad varieties of Weapon s, Cartridges , and Gun Mechanics , many of which are used in the U.S. Military and elsewhere to this day. He is arguably one of the most important figures in the development of modern automatic and semi-automatic firearms and is credited with 128 gun Patent s—his first (for a single shot Rifle ) was granted October 7 , 1879 . His greatest contribution is probably the Parallel Slide pistol slide design, which is found nearly every modern automatic handgun today, which he invented in the 1890s and introduced on Colt and FN pistols in the early 1900s- such as the M1911 . He also developed the first gas-actuated automatic machine gun, the Colt-Browning M1895 - a system that would surpass recoil-actuated in popularity. Other very famous and succesfull designs include the Browning .50 Caliber Machine Gun , the Browning Automatic Rifle , and a very popular and ground-breaking semi-automatic shotgun, the Browning Auto-5 . HISTORY From 1883, Browning worked in partnership with the Winchester Repeating Arms Company , and designed a series of repeating rifles and shotguns, most notably the Winchester Model 1887 and Model 1897 shotguns and the lever-action Model 1886 , Model 1892 , Model 1894 and Model 1895 rifles, all of which are still in production today. Perhaps the most famous individual Browning-designed firearm was a FN 1910 handgun, serial number 19074. In 1914, the pistol was used by Gavrilo Princip to Assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand Of Austria , an event which arguably sparked the First World War . The pistol was rediscovered in 2004. {Link without Title} Browning belonged to The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-day Saints and served a two year mission for the Church in Georgia beginning on March 28 , 1887 . His father Jonathan Browning , who was among the thousands of Mormon Pioneer s in the mass exodus from Nauvoo, Illinois to Utah , had established a Gunsmith shop in Ogden in 1852. In 1926, while working on a self-loading pistol design for FN in Liege , he died of heart failure. 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 . Until his death, Browning designed weapons for Colt , Remington , his own company and Fabrique Nationale of Belgium . In 1977 FN acquired the Browning Arms Company which had been established in 1927, the year after Browning's death. PRODUCTS Several of his designs are still in production today. Some of his most notable designs include: Firearms
Cartridges In addition, the cartridges he developed are still some of the most popular in the world. They include: MILITARY WEAPONS The Colt 1911, Browning 1917, and the BAR saw action in World War I , World War II and the Korean War , with the 1911 going on to serve as the United States's standard military sidearm until 1986; a variant is still used by Special Operations units of the USMC and FBI 's Hostage Rescue Team , and the design remains very popular amongst civilian shooters. The Browning Hi-Power would have a similarly lengthy period of service outside the United States, and remains the standard sidearm of the United Kingdom's armed forces. The M2 heavy machine gun is still in widespread use throughout the world. SELECTED PATENTS
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