Almost missed it (H/T to Weasel at Ace of Spades, the person who does the weekly gun post).
I'm talking, of course, about John Moses Browning, born this day in 1855. Any one of his inventions and/or modifications would have made him a cut above in the gun world, but taken both individually and in their totality - the M1911 semi-automatic pistol, the Winchester 1886, 1892 and 1894 lever action rifles, the Browning Automatic rifle (the BAR), the 1897 pump-action shotgun - just to name a few, his contributions are simply staggering in their diversity and innovative engineering.
If it warms up a little tomorrow, maybe I'll go out to the range and shoot a couple of his inventions.
3 comments:
Back in the 1980s, I bought a Browning Hi-Power, my first handgun larger than 22LR. A good friend who was very knowledgeable about such things assured me it was about as good as you could get in a 9MM pistol, and he was right. I don't think it ever had any kind of misfire or FTF in the few years I had it. Reliable would be the best word for it.
Later on, I read a biography of J.M. Browning. He seemed to be one of those people who could have done a lot of things well, but fortunately ended up doing the exact thing he seemed to be born to do, extremely well.
I've always heard good things about the Hi-Power.
Even my little 1908 Colt vest pocket pistol - made, as I pointed out earlier, in 1915 - works flawlessly, and is an accurate shooter, in spite of its small (.25acp) caliber.
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