By the 1890s, America was shifting. The frontier was closing, railroads were stretching across the plains, and the great cattle drives were beginning to wane. But even as barbed wire and telegraph poles stitched the wilderness into something more settled, the need for a reliable, versatile, fast-handling rifle hadn’t gone away. If anything, it had become more pressing.
If there’s one thing John Moses Browning understood better than most, it was that a firearm ought to be not just a tool—but an extension of its user.
From the start, young Ansley had a keen mechanical mind. He built and tinkered and dreamed, never content to sit still. By his early twenties, he was already designing shotguns—and not just any shotguns. These were elegant, strong, and finely tuned machines that felt right in the hands of the serious shooter.
The year was 1899. The century was turning, and so was the tide in handgun design. Revolvers still ruled the roost, but inventors on both sides of the Atlantic were racing to perfect a reliable, practical self-loading pistol. It was John Moses Browning who saw the future most clearly.
To understand the .38 ACP, you’ve got to put yourself in the boots of a U.S. cavalryman at the turn of the 20th century. The sidearm of the day? Likely a Colt Army revolver in .38 Long Colt. Trouble was, that round just didn’t get the job done.
There’s something mythic about the early days of automatic pistols—something mechanical, experimental, and undeniably American.
In the dust and thunder of America’s post-Civil War expansion westward, one cartridge rose above the rest to carve out a name for itself—not only in leather holsters and cavalry belts, but in the folklore and firearms legacy of a young and unruly nation.
Your guide to the iconic Winchester Model 1873, “The Gun that Won the West”, curated by Turnbull Restoration.
By the late 1890s, John Moses Browning was already a known name in firearm design circles. He had given Winchester some of its most iconic lever-actions, including the Model 1885, 1886, 1892, and 1895. But by the time 1896 rolled around, Browning was ready to tackle a new frontier: the semi-automatic pistol.
By the early 1880s, Winchester was at a crossroads. Their popular Model 1876, an enlarged version of the classic Model 1873, had made a name for itself as a solid rifle, but it had one big limitation—it wasn’t quite strong enough to handle the big-bore, high-power cartridges that were becoming essential for serious hunting and long-range shooting. The toggle-link action, which had served Winchester well since the days of the Henry rifle, simply wasn’t up to the task. Enter John Moses Browning.