Sorry, guys, but I just do not understand this almost-slavish adoration of the Works of Saint John Moses Browning.
Sure, he designed and built a gas-operated machine-gun. The Model 1895 was introduced 12 years after Maxim had filed the basic patents.
And he designed a water-cooled, recoil-operated machine-gun, the M-1917. This was 33 years after Maxim had filed the basic patents, 26 years after the British Army had adopted the superb 1891 Maxim. The frames on the 1917 broke in half in service, hence the reinforcing-strip rivetted to the middle of the frames.... and the ensuant redesign of the frame of the gun. Product improvement CAN help a designer at times. But Maxim frames didn't break, mainly because the design of the entire gun was based on controlled motion; there were no big, heavy parts slamming back and forth inside a Maxim.
The legendary, wonderful BAR is a replacement for the CSRG (Chauchat), a gun which has been termed "unquestionably the worst machine gun ever constructed". With this kind of competition, it's no wonder the thing looked good. The Poles and the Belgians did the most effectual mods on this gun. The Bren is a FAR better design.
The 1911 .45? I have one. It is the only firearm I own which RATTLES when it is shaken. Lugers don't rattle. Webleys don't rattle. The 1911/12 Steyr doesn't rattle. I wouldn't want to stand in front of it, but I sure wouldn't be too confident behind it, either. Mark VI Webley is a far better combat gun: it ALWAYS works.
Believe me, you will develop a different appreciation of the genius of John Moses Browning after you have been faced with 200 copies of his designs, all in one lump, all requiring complete disassembly, servicing, cleaning and repair, none of which has been touched in the past half-century, many of which have not been touched in a century! Too many parts, too many odd shapes. A lot of his designs can't even be built today because most machine-shops have scrapped their shapers and there don't seem to be any new ones being built on this continent.
The ubiquity of Browning's designs is down to a couple of factors:
1. They are American, and the WWI propaganda machine still hasn't stopped, the WW2 propaganda machine still is in high gear.
2. PRODUCTION: if you have 3/4 of a million .50-cal guns and a couple of million .30-cal guns already on hand, there's not really a heck of a lot of incentive to make new ones.
The proliferation of the designs can be partly accounted for by American political pressure in the Cold War. Remember, when Eisenhower forced John Diefenbaker to scrap and destroy utterly the Arrow (thus saving the US aerospace industry's butt for it), Canada was forced to purchase the Bomarc ("The World's Fastest Sandbag") ONE WEEK before the US announced its obsolescence..... and a pile of WW2-surplus Brownings which just now are being done away with finally. But even this politically-based proliferation can be accounted for in part by the sheer numbers produced.
We also have to look at the time period and the political climates in the various countries. Maxim was designing in a period in which a new invention was admired and greeted with interest. John Browning was designing in a period in which Americans were free to invent firearms. But times have changed. Place these developments in the Canada of today and you are looking at so many years in jail that you will NEVER see your pension cheque. Does the name Cliff Douglas ring a bell? It should: the last progressive Canadian automatic firearms designer.... nearly 50 years ago. At least he managed to stay out of jail, but he did no more designing.
Just trying to put things in some kind of perspective.
I guess I'm gonna be thrown outta the Church of Saint John Moses Browning, huh?
.
