Browning Arms Company

Browning Arms
Subsidiary
Industry Firearms/Sporting Goods
Founded 1878 (1878)
Headquarters Morgan, Utah, United States
Products Firearms/Sporting Goods
Parent Groupe Herstal S.A.
Website http://www.browning.com/

Browning Arms Company (originally John Moses and Matthew Sandifer Browning Company) is an American maker of firearms and fishing gear. Founded in Morgan, Utah, the company offers a wide variety of firearms including shotguns, rifles, and pistols. Other manufactured sporting goods include sport bows, knives, fishing rods, and reels.

The company was founded to market the sporting (non-military) designs of John Browning, one of the world's most prolific firearms inventors. Nearly all of John Browning's innovative designs have been manufactured under license by other companies, including Winchester, Colt, Remington, Fabrique Nationale d'Herstal of Belgium, and Miroku. Browning is currently a fully owned subsidiary of FN Herstal.

Browning Arms Company is best known for the Browning BPS shotgun, the A-Bolt rifle, X-Bolt rifle, the Auto-5 semi-automatic shotgun, the BAR semi-automatic rifle, and the Hi-Power 9mm pistol. Browning also manufactures a set of trap shotguns in the Cynergy series.

Browning sells a variety of non-firearms outdoors products, such as gun safes, knives, shooting accessories, and clothing.[1]


Firearms products

Browning BDA 45
Baby Browning .25/6.35 mm
Browning Safari model made in Belgium in .270 Winchester

Pistols

Rifles

Browning T-Bolt .22 Long Rifle

Shotguns

Footwear

Browning introduced a line of hunting boots in 1968 and continued to design and manufacture footwear through outside vendors until 2001. In that year, a license agreement was reached with Connecticut-based H.H. Brown Shoe Company, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, to manufacture Browning Footwear.

The product line included the John M. Browning collection, Field and Game series, and sporting and waterfowl lines. The line has grown to include Kangaroo leather boots, Rubber boots and waders, and upland game boots.[2]

Knives

In 1968, Browning introduced a line of cutlery in the form of 3 fixed-blade hunting knives and a folding knife designed by 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.[3] 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 Knife made by Larry Harley; a Robert E. Lee 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 Knife by Brent Evans.[4] Browning has recently partnered with Big-game hunter, Russ Kommer as their knife designer.[5]

Browning was the make of pistol originally 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 hunting show Goin' Country hosted by Kristy Lee Cook which used to air on the Versus channel before it became the NBC Sports Network. The relationship between Cook and Browning started after she was shown on American Idol wearing a Browning hat.[6]

See also

References

  1. Browning Product lines Archived August 13, 2007, at the Wayback Machine.
  2. Browningfootwear.com
  3. "Browning Introduces Master Knifemaker Series Collection for 2006" (Press release). 2006-01-01. Archived from the original on 2011-07-08. Retrieved 2011-03-12.
  4. Miller, David (2008). The History of Browning Firearms. Globe Pequot. pp. 124–125. ISBN 978-1-59228-910-3.
  5. "Russ Kommer builds a custom knife for Browning TV show host, Stephen LeBlanc" (Press release). 2011-02-22. Archived from the original on 2011-05-14. Retrieved 2011-03-12.
  6. Freeman, MARK (Aug 26, 2010). "Kristy Lee Cook is on the hunt". Retrieved 16 December 2015.
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