Browning Arms Company (originally John Moses and Matthew Sandefur Browning Company) is an American marketer of

firearms A firearm is any type of gun that uses an explosive charge and is designed to be readily carried and operated by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see legal definitions). The first firearms originated ...

and fishing gear. The company was founded in

Ogden, Utah Ogden ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Weber County, Utah, Weber County, Utah, United States, approximately east of the Great Salt Lake and north of Salt Lake City. The population was 87,321 in 2020, according to the United States Census ...

, in 1878 by brothers John Moses Browning (1855–1926) and Matthew Sandefur Browning (1859–1923). The company offers a wide variety of firearms, including

shotgun A shotgun (also known as a scattergun, peppergun, or historically as a fowling piece) is a long gun, long-barreled firearm designed to shoot a straight-walled cartridge (firearms), cartridge known as a shotshell, which discharges numerous small ...

rifle A rifle is a long gun, long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting and higher stopping power, with a gun barrel, barrel that has a helical or spiralling pattern of grooves (rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus o ...

s, and

pistol A pistol is a type of handgun, characterised by a gun barrel, barrel with an integral chamber (firearms), chamber. The word "pistol" derives from the Middle French ''pistolet'' (), meaning a small gun or knife, and first appeared in the Englis ...

s. Other products include

fishing rod A fishing rod or fishing pole is a long, thin rod used by angling, anglers to fishing, catch fish by manipulating a fishing line, line ending in a fish hook, hook (formerly known as an ''angle'', hence the term "angling"). At its most basic ...

s and reels, gun safes, sport bows,

knives A knife (: knives; from Old Norse 'knife, dirk') is a tool or weapon with a cutting edge or blade, usually attached to a handle or hilt. One of the earliest tools used by humanity, knives appeared at least 2.5 million years ago, as evidenced ...

and

bicycle A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike, push-bike or cycle, is a human-powered transport, human-powered or motorized bicycle, motor-assisted, bicycle pedal, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, with two bicycle wheel, wheels attached to a ...

s. Initially, the company marketed the sporting (non-military) designs of John Browning, one of the world's most influential and prolific firearms inventors. Nearly all of John Browning's innovative designs have been manufactured under license by other companies, including

Winchester Winchester (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs N ...

, Colt, Remington,

FN Herstal , trading as FN Herstal and often referred to as Fabrique Nationale, or simply FN, is a leading firearms manufacturer based in Herstal, Belgium, and former vehicle manufacturer. It was the largest exporter of military small arms in Europe . FN ...

, and Miroku. Browning is currently a wholly owned subsidiary of FN Herstal. Browning Arms Company is best known for the A-Bolt and X-Bolt

bolt-action Bolt action is a type of manual Action (firearms), firearm action that is operated by ''directly'' manipulating the bolt (firearms), turn-bolt via a cocking handle, bolt handle, most commonly placed on the right-hand side of the firearm (a ...

rifles, the BAR

semi-automatic rifle A semi-automatic rifle is a type of rifle that fires a single round each time the Trigger (firearms), trigger is pulled while automatically loading the next Cartridge (firearms), cartridge. These rifles were developed Pre-World War II, and w ...

, the BPR

pump-action Pump action is a type of manual firearm action that is operated by moving a sliding handguard on the gun's forestock. When shooting, the sliding forend is pulled rearward to eject any expended cartridge (firearms), cartridge and typically to co ...

rifle, the BPS

shotgun, the Auto-5

semi-automatic shotgun A semi-automatic shotgun is a repeating shotgun with a semi-automatic action, i.e. capable of automatically chambering a new shell after each firing, but requires individual trigger-pull to manually actuate each shot. Semi-automatic shotguns use ...

, and the Hi-Power pistol. Browning also manufactures a set of trap shotguns such as the 725 Pro Trap, Citori CX series, and the Cynergy series.

Products

Firearms

Pistols

* Browning BDM *

Browning Hi-Power The Browning Hi-Power is a single-action, semi-automatic pistol available in the 9×19mm Parabellum and .40 S&W calibers. It was based on a design by American firearms inventor John Browning, and completed by Dieudonné Saive at FN Herstal. ...

* Browning Buck Mark * Browning 1911-22 * Browning 1911-380 * Browning BDA 45 ( SIG-Sauer P220) * Browning BDA 380 (manufactured by

Beretta Fabbrica d'Armi Pietro Beretta (; "Pietro Beretta Weapons Factory") is a privately held Italian firearms manufacturing company operating in several countries. Its firearms are used worldwide for various civilian, law enforcement, and military p ...

) * Browning BDA9 ( FN HP-DA)

Rifles

* Browning X-Bolt * Browning A-Bolt * Browning BLR * Browning BAR * Browning BPR * Browning BBR * Browning BL-22 * Browning Semi Auto 22 (SA-22) * Browning T-Bolt in .22LR, .22 WMR and .17 HMR (introduced in 1965 and discontinued in 1975, reintroduced in 2006) * Browning B-92 lever-action

Shotguns

* Browning A-Bolt Shotgun *

Browning Auto-5 The Browning Automatic 5, most often Auto-5 or simply A-5, is a Recoil operation, recoil-operated semi-automatic shotgun designed by John Browning and manufactured by Fabrique Nationale de Herstal. It was the first successful semi-automatic shotg ...

* Browning A5 * Browning A5 20 gauge * Browning B-2000 * Browning Silver * Browning Maxus * Browning Maxus 2 * Browning BPS *

Browning BSS The Browning BSS is a side by side double barrel shotgun made by Browning from 1971–1983. Multiple-barrel firearms References Double-barreled shotguns of the United States {{Shotgun-stub ...

* Browning Cynergy * Browning Citori * Browning Superposed * BT-99 * BT-100 * Browning Recoilless * Browning Gold * B-80 * A-500 * Lightning

Footwear

Browning introduced a line of

hunting Hunting is the Human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, and killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to obtain the animal's body for meat and useful animal products (fur/hide (sk ...

boots in 1968 and continued to design and manufacture

footwear Footwear refers to garments worn on the feet, which typically serve the purpose of protective clothing, protection against adversities of the environment such as wear from rough ground; stability on slippery ground; and temperature. *Shoes and si ...

through outside vendors until 2001. In that year, Browning reached a license agreement with Connecticut-based H.H. Brown Shoe Company, a subsidiary of

Berkshire Hathaway Berkshire Hathaway Inc. () is an American multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska. Originally a textile manufacturer, the company transitioned into a conglomerate starting in 1965 under the management of c ...

, to manufacture Browning Footwear. The product line included the John M. Browning collection, Field and Game series, and sporting and

waterfowl Anseriformes is an order of birds also known as waterfowl that comprises about 180 living species of birds in three families: Anhimidae (three species of screamers), Anseranatidae (the magpie goose), and Anatidae, the largest family, which i ...

lines. The line has grown to include kangaroo leather boots, rubber boots and waders, and upland game boots.

Knives

In 1968, Browning introduced a line of cutlery in the form of three fixed-blade hunting knives and a folding knife designed by the custom knifemaker Gil Hibben. Over the years, the lineup has grown, and Browning has teamed up with other knifemakers such as Jerry Fisk, Bailey Bradshaw, John Fitch, Joseph Keeslar, and James Crowell of the American Bladesmith Society. In 2004 Browning partnered with several custom knifemakers to produce a series of "Living History Knives" honoring famous American generals and battles. The lineup included a

Liberty Tree The Liberty Tree (1646–1775) was a famous Elm, elm tree that stood in Boston, Massachusetts near Boston Common in the years before the American Revolution. In 1765, Patriot (American Revolution), Patriots in Boston staged the first act of def ...

Knife made by Larry Harley; a

Robert E. Lee Robert Edward Lee (January 19, 1807 – October 12, 1870) was a general officers in the Confederate States Army, Confederate general during the American Civil War, who was appointed the General in Chief of the Armies of the Confederate ...

Knife and an Alamo Knife honoring Jim Bowie designed by Jerry Fisk; an Ike Knife honoring Dwight David Eisenhower designed by Jim Crowell; and a

Crazy Horse Crazy Horse ( , ; – September 5, 1877) was a Lakota people, Lakota war leader of the Oglala band. He took up arms against the United States federal government to fight against encroachment by White Americans, White American settlers on Nativ ...

Knife by Brent Evans. Browning has recently partnered with big-game hunter, Russ Kommer as their knife designer.

In popular culture

Browning was the make of pistol initially depicted in the Nazi propaganda play ''Schlageter'', from which the quote "when I hear the word culture, I reach for my gun", often associated with Nazi leaders, originates. The actual line from the play is slightly different: "''Wenn ich Kultur höre ... entsichere ich meinen Browning!''" "Whenever I hear of culture... I unlock my Browning!" (Act 1, Scene 1). Browning is the sponsor of the hunting show '' Goin' Country'' hosted by Kristy Lee Cook, which the Versus channel aired before it became the

NBC Sports Network NBCSN (also known as NBC Sports Network) was an American sports television channel owned by the NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It originally launched on July 1, 1995, as the Outdoor Life Network (OLN), w ...

. The relationship between Cook and Browning started after she wore a Browning hat on ''

American Idol ''American Idol'' is an American Music competition, singing competition television series created by Simon Fuller, produced by Fremantle (company), Fremantle North America and 19 Entertainment, and distributed by Fremantle North America. It a ...

''. A Browning shotgun appears in the Turnpike Troubadours song "The Housefire" and "The Bird Hunters". The latter specifies that the gun was manufactured in Belgium.

References

External links

Official website
{{John Browning Firearm manufacturers of the United States Manufacturing companies based in Utah Companies based in Ogden, Utah American companies established in 1878 Manufacturing companies established in 1878 1878 establishments in Utah Territory

Archives