Posted on 10/17/2013 1:05:37 PM PDT by virgil283
"Browning was not a degreed engineer, but he is, to date, the greatest firearms designer who has ever lived. Consider this: had Browning done nothing but the 1911, he’d have a place in the top rank of gun designers, ever. But that’s not all he did, by any means. If he had done nothing but the M1917 and M1919 machine guns, he’d have a place in the top ranks of designers. If he’d done nothing but the M2HB, a gun which will still be in widespread infantry service a century after its introduction, and its .50 siblings, he’d be hailed as a genius. One runs out of superlatives describing Browning’s career, with at least 80 firearms designed, almost 150 patents granted, and literally three-quarters of US sporting arms production in the year 1900 being Browning designs – before his successes with automatic guns.......[ read it all - its very well writen]
(Excerpt) Read more at weaponsman.com ...
The biggest gun that Browning designed was the M4 (later M9) 37mm cannon. The M4 and M9 were installed on P-39 fighters ans the M9 on WW2 PT boats.
Browning demonstrated the M-1917 belt fed machine gun to the Army. Linking belt after belt, he fed ammunition to it, and it fired, and fired. He topped of the water jacket in between attaching belts. Eventually after 45 minutes of continuous fire, he had exhausted all the ammunition. No stoppages. Nicht, Zero, Nada.
He then pulled out a handkerchief and tied a blindfold over his eyes. He disassembled the gun blindfolded, putting each part on a table in front of the assembled officers, down to the last part. He then reassembed it blind folded and performed a function check. It is important for soldiers to be able to perform maintenance on machine guns in the dark, without lights.
He did it again a few months later, because some of the officers thought it might be a trick.
The Remington Rolling Block was offered from .22 up to 11.43mm. In 1898 in Cuba, there were a lot of them around.
Oops, a couple of typos. Should read “M1905” vice “M1805” pistols. Should be “and” vice “ans”. Blasted fumble fingers!
If you look at the safety lever on the Kalashnikov, you will see an heir to the Auto 5.
No arguing about it. Tesla is, was, and perhaps may always be the greatest human being inventor ever.
They STILL don’t understand some of the things he came up with in 1899.
No arguing about it. Tesla is, was, and perhaps may always be the greatest human being inventor ever.
They STILL don’t understand some of the things he came up with in 1899.
They are still hiding some of the things he came up with.
5.56mm
It is a nightmare to tear down completely. No idea how he designed such an intricate mechanism back then. Hardest gun to assemble I ever came across. Beautifully fitted though.
That amazing “M-1917 blindfolded field stripping and reassembly” trick was also important for Marines, especially GySgt. John Basilone, on Guadalcanal, October 24 - 24, 1942. Seventh Marines, First Division. His Congressional Medal of Honor citation actually read “. . . contributed in large measure to the virtual annihilation of a Japanese regiment.” Those guys ran out of water, though, and so they refilled the water jackets of their guns with urine.
There is a funny story about Maxim and his gun in Russia. Maxim arrived in Russia with his gun to demonstrate to to a bunch of Czarist officers. While he was awaiting the demonstration date and his gun and belted ammunition to arrive at the site, he was shadowed by the Czar's secret police, the Okhrana.
When the demonstration day came, Maxim explained the operation of his gun to the Czar's officers who had no idea what an automatic machine gun was. These officers’ only exposure had been to the manually cranked Gatling (called Gorloff by the Russians). When Maxim explained about the cocking handle and how it cycled with the gun, one officer said he'd like to see a soldier move the handle at 660 rounds per minute!
Maxim inserted a belt, cocked the gun twice to index the belt and chamber a round. He then pushed the trigger bar and fired the whole belt of 300 rounds without touching the cocking handle — that continued flipping back and forth as the gun fired.
The Russian officers were absolutely dumbfounded by what they had witnessed. The recommendation was the Maxim be adopted in numbers for the Russian Army. The Maxim soldiered with the Russian Army from 1910 and into the 1950s before it was replaced by lighter and newer designs.
Don’t forget that his (Maxim’s) son had patents on some of the first suppressors.
That’s a good design. The hammer locks the breech block just before firing. Easy, yet effective!
Her gun had sat in her mother's drawer for decades and had to be completely disassembled for cleaning out the gunk. Getting sear springs and sears back together was insanely difficult.
A friend had a Mk1 but maybe never stripped it, never mentioned anything about it. But then, he was not a gun guy and maybe never was into cleaning things.
I read a different version of that story. I believe the rifle was the "High Wall" model, his first successful design. Browning and his brothers had made and sold a few in Utah before selling the design to Winchester. Anyhow, Browning convinced the store owner to let him examine the rifle. The store owner reluctantly agreed. After a few minutes of handling, the store owner commented that Browning seemed knowledgeable about the rifle. Browning replied, "I should be, I designed it". Then the store owner snatched away the rifle and showed who he believed to be a smartass kid the door.
FMCDH(BITS)
Ahh, the PITA is getting that hammer strut where it belongs after you wiggle and twist the bolt stop/mainspring housing into place. Always a good time, I had to do it over the phone to my boss. Blargh...
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