I had heard this story of John M. Browning firing 20,000+ continuous rounds in a demonstration, but I never read the details until now.



Link

Object Name/Title: GUN, MACHINE  
Catalog Number: SPAR 1  
Classification: HISTORY
T&E FOR SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
ARMAMENT-FIREARM
Artist/Maker: BROWNING, JOHN M.  
Eminent Figure/ Organization: SERIAL NUMBER 1  
Place of Manufacture: SPRINGFIELD MA USANEW ENGLAND WESTINGHOUSE  
Medium/Material(s): METAL  
Measurements: OL: 97.7CM 38 1/2" BL: 60.9CM 24" __32.6 lbs. __  
Date Manufactured: 02/01/1918  
Use Date:  
Historical/Cultural Period: WWI  
Cultural ID:  
Key Descriptor: U.S. MACHINE GUN BROWNING MODEL 1917 .30 SN# 1  
Description: U.S. MACHINE GUN BROWNING MODEL 1917 .30 SN# 1
Manufactured by New England Westinghouse, Springfield, Ma. in February, 1918 - Standard short recoil-operated, water-cooled, heavy machine gun. Fed by 250-shot fabric or disintegrating metal belt feed. Adjustable blade front; peep, adjustable leaf rear sight. Muzzle velocity of 2800 fps. Full-auto fire only. Cyclic rate of fire is 450-600 rpm with effective range of 2000 yards and maximum range of 3500 yards. Weapon has an overall length of 38 1/2", a barrel length of 24" and weighs approximately 32.6 lbs. This is the first of 30,150 M1917 machine guns manufactured by N.E. Westinghouse under a 1918 contract. Some 3,500 rounds were test fired through this gun without a single malfunction or stoppage. N.E. Westinghouse manufactured approximately 30,150 M1917s in 1918.

Markings:
Receiver: NO. 1. U.S. INSP./BROWNING MACHINE GUN/U.S. CAL. 30 MODEL OF 1917/MANFD. BY NEW ENGLAND WESTINGHOUSE/PATENTS APPLIED FOR.

Weapon donated to the Springfield Armory NHS by Savage Arms, Westfield, Ma. on October 17, 1978.

Weapon appraised by Gillie & Company, Cos Cob, Connecticut, on May 5, 1978 as follows: "Machine-Gun, Browning, Mod. 1917, Cal. .30 - $3600. Serial number 1, manufactured by New England Westinghouse. Based on the contract of January 10, 1918, New England Westinghouse manufactured a total of 30,150 guns for the Government. This particular gun was made in February of 1918. A total of 56,608 Model 1917's were made by New England Westinghouse, Remington and Colt prior to the end of 1918.
This particular weapon is in overall good outside condition, but is missing the buffer and return spring assembly, the tripod, the bronze trunnion, the steam-tube assembly and condensing can. The gun appears to have been fired considerably with corrosive ammunition and, consequently, the bore is round."





"In May 1917, the name of the mysterious gun designer was revealed. The Machine Gun Board's call for submissions drew two entries from one of the towering figures in gun design, John Moses Browning. When he appeared to present both his candidates, a heavy machine gun and a lightweight portable machine gun (BAR), the board members, walking to the firing line, were not at all prepared for what they would see.
Water-cooled, belt-fed, and weighing thirty-six pounds, the Browning heavy machine gun fired the standard Springfield .30-06-caliber rifle cartridge. During the test, Ordnance men fired twenty thousand rounds of ammunition through the Browning at six hundred rounds a minute. There was not a single jam, not a single hitch. This feat seemed so improbable that the Machine Gun Board appeared to doubt what it had just seen.

To show that this wasn't a fluke, the commanding figure of John Browning himself stepped up to the firing line with another Browning machine gun. He set it to firing automatically while he casually linked together belts of ammunition that fed endlessly through the gun, which fired continuously as the minutes ticked by. Box after box of ammunition belts were opened and attached to the previous belt, and box after box of belts with empty of belts with empty cartridge. Then, as a grand finale, Browning the salesman - the showman - stepped before his machine gun and tied a blindfold around his eyes. With no tools he disassembled the gun, reduced it entirely to its seventy component parts. Then, still completely blindfolded, he reassembled the gun with an elapsed time of fifty-five seconds. So important was this feature in battle, blindfolding became part of the standard military training program when the gun was issued to troops." - Hallahan

Gaston Glock doesn't hold a candle to JMB

QFT

A glock only has 33 parts and many have fired 100's of thousands of rounds without a hitch.



But I agree, JMB was one of the smartest men who ever lived, and his designs were/are a thing of beauty.

I call BS on the dis/re assembly. Breaking it down into 70 parts and putting it all back in less than a 60 seconds

Group buy!!

Each of the buyers can shoot 600 rounds through it, then pass it on to the next "owner"...

Eric  

He was a brilliant man for sure. I honor his skill set regularly with a 1911 at my side.

The action in that guns seems familiar, just in an air cooled gun that uses a larger cartridge, gosh I can't right recall the name...

QFTMFT!!

That's almost beyond belief!

I was just at the JMB Museum in Ogden, UT. two weeks ago.  I was very humbled standing there looking at his work bench then turning around and looking at all the guns he designed from that bench.  Truly one of a kind man!

Been there...

Browning was certainly a pioneer. And truly a good man in every sense...

QFTMFT!

I bet he got some great snatch, too.

He probably re-assembled the weapon in 55 seconds.  I used to be able to re-assemble the M2(including a stripped bolt) barrel and H&T in 58 seconds.  Not blindfolded though...