Reading the other post got me to thinking about John Browning's contributions. During the boom of firearms technology and manufacturing in this country from the Civil War through WWII, every company got into the act of producing guns for the US Military. Winchester, Colt, S&W, H&R, Singer, IBM, General Motors, just about anybody that knew how to work metal was pulled in to build weapons at one time or another. I own many guns that have markings on them from Rockola Juke Boxes to Singer sewing machines to S&W, Colt and other more common gun manufactures. What I don't have much of is US Military hardware made by Browning. I know John Browning designed the 1919 30 cal machine guns, the 30'06 BAR, the still in service M2 50 caliber machine guns that went on tanks, in every allied aircraft, on ships and every other vehicle since WWII. Not to mention the 1911 and Browning Hi Power. Did the Browning Arms Company actually build any of these guns? If not who did? Surely they didn't build them all even if they had the contracts. I love Brownings, but I have to admit I have never researched their actual manufacturing history. Most of the guns I've collected were made by FN after WWII, except for a couple of 22s that they still make in Utah. I just wonder why IBM, Singer and International Harvester were making military guns, but Browning seems to be absent from the field.

Anyone know the story?

this is a good one that got me digging thru my collection of gun books and so far all I can find is what you have already said. They were designed by John Browning who sold the rights to Colt for the USA and FN for the rest of the world now this is only info from his 1903 pistol, but basically the other handguns were merely improvments on the design. like the 1910/22 and the high power 1935. so maybe this is what was done for the machine guns like the 1917,1919a4,m1919a6,M2HB.50, BAR.I might be able to find more later I'll keep looking

I saw a picture of "the inventor's son" posing with a BAR showing how it was intended to be deployed. JMB's son was dressed in WWI Army officers attire. I didn't catch his name. He may be a Jr. I wonder what became of him? It would be a shame if he was killed in the war. Hopefully, he stayed around to run the family business. Obviously, he never lived up to his father's name, but those were incredibly huge shoes to fill. Nobody has filled them yet. The Babe's home run record fell, so did Hank's, but I don't think anyone will ever surpass the high water mark John Moses Browning set from 1865 - 1935. To know his patents are in the 1866 Winchester and the P35 Hi Power really boggles the mind. That's just shy of 70 years of firearms innovations. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs go to sleep at night thinking they are pretty important and have made a contribution to this world. I suppose if you are within reach of an electrical plug and a WiFi Hot Spot, those two guys are pretty important to you. On the other hand, if you are in the middle of nowhere Afghanastan, Alaska, Iraq, or any other place man has found difficulty laying concrete on top of, John Browning's accomplishments are the most important thing in your world, right after a source of water. Think about that. Talk about "don't leave home without it!" Repeating rifles allowed settlers to have the courage to expand to the west. I bet Louis and Clark wished JMB was born just a wee bit sooner. A good BAR would have made their trip a lot easier. So would an Evenrude!