#Browning

Miles is at it again on World War II small arms, with the awesome help of Corey, a very dedicated and knowledgable Reenactor who has taken the time to showcase and discuss the “Light Thirty”, or the Browning 1919A4 light machine gun in use by U.S. Infantrymen in the Second World War. Unfortunately we couldn’t get an actual Class III 1919A4 for the video, but the semi-automatic variant in 7.62x51mm NATO is a true dimensioned representation of what the historical fully automatic 1919A4 would have functioned and looked like. Developing from the water cooled Browning 1917, the 1919A4 is essentially the first highly mobile belt fed light machine gun to see service, being replaced by the M60, and then followed on by the current M240B.

The Browning BAR Match is dead. I managed to get one of the last ones, haven’t even sighted in mine yet but it shoots very nicely.

Browning has expanded their Black Label 1911-380 line this year. The standard Black Label and Black Label Pro pistols (with G10 handles and enhanced sights) will now come in a Compact version. The new Compact barrel will measure 3.625 inches, as opposed to the full size 4.25 inches. By reducing barrel length Browning has provided a more user-friendly concealed carry pistol in my opinion. The original full size 1911-380’s were nice, but just seemed a bit too long for CCW purposes.

If you’re in London please take time to visit one of the Imperial War Museums.

Recover Tactical posted a few pictures on their Facebook page of a prototype grip set that they’re working on for the Browning Hi Power pistol. Recover Tactical’s first product was their grip sets for the 1911. They’re a polymer composite two piece system that attaches to 1911s that don’t already have a rail giving the user the option to mount a weapons light or laser onto their 1911. Check out our review of the 1911 grips from last year. They’re super easy to install with no permanent mods done to your pistol, they’re made in Israel and come with a lifetime warranty from Recover Tactical.

Big Green is going “Glock”: Remington is finally introducing its long-in-development polymer handgun. The new handgun is a tilting-barrel striker-fired affair, but it possesses some unique features that hint at a wider family of Remington striker-fired pistols. The pistol will come in two varieties, the first to be launched will be the RP9 followed by the RP45.

Browning announced a new gun safe that it is selling called the Silver SR59. This safe is in the company’s ProSteel line and is a tall, extra wide model. The safe is 72″ tall, 56″ wide and 25″ deep. The company states it has a total long gun capacity of 59 firearms, though that depends on the gun sizes. For example, 59 Ruger 10/22 rifles are doable, but I wouldn’t expect to you would be able to squeeze very many Barrett Model 82 rifles in there.

I was and am still a fan of the Browning 1911-380, the “Right Size” handgun. In my review previously of their “Black Label” version, I found it to indeed by right-sized. The smaller sized, coupled with the .380 caliber made it a great option for 1911 fans the world over to actually concealed carry the platform (cue engraved full-sized 1911 owners).

Imagine an alternate universe in which Hollywood has spent decades making genre movies in which every single main character uses a Borchardt C93, and now factories are cranking out almost nothing but cast steel facsimiles of Borchardts to meet the demand based entirely on these movies. All other semiauto pistol designs never took off in sales and remained curios with the exception of the Roth-Steyr M1907 which had a production run of about a million units over a century, and which hasn’t been made since 1997. The other exception is the Gabbett-Fairfax Mars, which remains in limited production and is used only where people need more power than 7.65mm Borchardt.

Typically, the larger companies do not file intellectual lawsuits with one another for a myriad of reasons.  Both, typically with competent and expensive attorneys, find it prohibitively expensive to defend intellectual property against a similarly sized opponent. This, of course ignores the marketing side of it which is typically never positive.

No line of pump-action shotguns would be complete if it did not have models in camouflage. If that happens to be the metaphorical measuring stick, consider the Stevens Model 320 line complete! They now have three different camo patterns to choose from: two patterns from Mossy Oak and another in pink. You can now purchase them in a Muddy Girl, Mossy Oak Obsession, or  Mossy Oak Shadow Grass Blades pattern. The Mossy Oak Shadow Grass Blades has been a popular choice by such companies as Browning and Beretta, and it is a wise choice for Stevens to utilize it as well.

While the Garand was hailed by Patton as the “best” battle implement ever to hit the field, there arguably were better implements proposed to replace it. While the Johnson & Peterson designs typically gets the most attention, the Winchester company also threw its hat into the ring with the G30M, a weapon originally designed by a Browning… Jonathan “Ed” Browning, that is.

While the current record for the longest “confirmed” sniper kill is over 2,700 yards (just over 1.5) miles, with a .338 Lapua Magnum round, for nearly 35 years the record stood not with a traditional centerfire rifle, but with a modified M2 Browning Heavy Machine Gun, affectionately known as the “Ma Duece”

By this point, most of my readers will be familiar with the fabulous work being done (almost single-handedly) by Ian McCollum for his site ForgottenWeapons.com, and those who aren’t should click through and subscribe to his channel for some of the best gun-related content on the web. However, yesterday Ian released a the first of multiple videos on a rifle family that is very near and dear to my heart, that being the Winchester G30 line of development. For a rare look at the rifle as helmed by Ed Browning (half-brother to the famous John Moses Browning), watch the video below:

While the 1911, Glock, and other handguns are well-recognized, handguns that truly pushed forward technology can often be overlooked. While yes, the 1911 featured a different Browning design that exists to this day, few recognize the impact of the Fabrique Nationale Model 1900.