Browning Midas Grade Superposed

Gold bird inlays.

John Moses Browning started a shop with his brother after their father died in 1879. They used steam-powered tools and John received his first patent for the breech-loading single shot rifle. 

Winchester salesman saw one of his single-shot rifles in 1883, starting a mutually profitable relationship as Browning liked being able to concentrate on inventing rather than manufacturing. 

In addition to that first single-shot rifle, other guns that John Moses designed and that became best sellers were: Winchester Model 1886 Lever Action Repeating Rifle, Model 1887 Lever Action Repeating Shotgun, Model 1897 Pump Action Shotgun, Model 1894 Lever Action Repeating Rifle and Model 1895 Lever Action Repeating Rifle.

He also invented two machine guns and automatic shotgun, using gas to cycle weapon. The repeating shotgun that John invented was the primary reason for the break between Browning and Winchester. When Winchester denied production of this gun, John Moses, packed a sample of his shotgun into his luggage, crossed the Atlantic, and negotiated an agreement for Fabrique National de Belgique (FN) to produce his gun.

FN was then a young company in dire need of products to produce. Browning's automatic shotgun revolutionized the hunting market. This same shotgun was later produced in in the United States by Remington, as their Model 11. Still later, variants of this shotgun were produced by almost all of the large shotgun manufacturers, including Savage, Franchi and Breda.