Happy 162nd Birthday to John Moses Browning!

Yeah, yeah, everybody knows about the M1911 and the BAR and the Ma Deuce, but how many people remember the M1899? (That's the fourth pistol down in that picture.) It was such a runaway sales success that "Browning" became slang for "pistol" across half a continent.

What about the M1902? It's the second in a chain of pistols that led to the M1911, and its dropping-barrel short recoil system is the direct ancestor to the tilting-barrel short recoil setup that's used in the vast majority of pistols produced to this day.

Striker-fired, hammer-fired, blowback, short recoil, long recoil, gas operated, lever action, slide action, over & under, falling block, pistols, rifles, shotguns, machine guns, autoloading aircraft cannon...

The world is not going to see another firearms designer so prolific; knowledge has gotten too specialized. Hats off and face toward Ogden respectfully, fellow gun nerds, because today is Gun Nerd Christmas.
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