I love all of FN's products, but am sad that 2 american icons are no longer owned by americans. I am sure most of us here know that winchester and browning are owned by FN. I think that with better marketing in the past, Winchester could have been saved.

Winchester came out with many innovative bullets, like the short magnums. They came out with american icons like the model 94 and 70. Remington was able to hold their own and do well.

Remington tailored their guns to the "tactical and tactical wannabe" crowd by branching off into their LE models, which appeal to the younger crowd. They also made several different models that simply overshadowed Winchester.

Most FN products are simply modified winchesters. Their shotguns, and bolt guns are winchesters with some modern features on them. Their pump shotguns are win 1300's, their semi-auto shotguns are SX2s, their boltguns are model 70's with a fancy stock on it.

I think the sks, and mosins took a lot of business away from the 30-30 lever actions as well.

Mossberg did a good job adjusting to the market, just like remington. Look at their tactical series shotguns, they come with all the features that we look for. They are american products with american quality at a very fair price.

A lever gun isn't the first gun on my wishlist, but I don't want them to go away. Hopefully the shortmagnums aren't a fad and remain. At least their ammo department is doing great. Love those 300 short mags.

The ammo may say Winchester but it is actually used by the Olin Corp for their ammo and the way I understand it not all of Winchester guns are dead.

John Browning and FN have quite a history together, he produced more designs for FN than he did for anyone. He had an office and workshop in the Hestal plant.

"One claim made about Browning is that his designs made Winchester a household name. It is strange to compare the relationship with Winchester and the very different relationship with FN. Despite the obvious importance of the Browning designs to Winchester over the 18 year collaboration, the relationship was cold and unfriendly. FN on the other hand treated Browning as a god. Winchester bought the Browning designs to prevent anyone else getting them. Only a quarter of the designs bought were sold commercially. This coldness was never more evident than when Browning presented Winchester with the "world's first automatic shotgun"; Winchester's did not want to buy it, but equally they did not want anyone else to get their hands on it. Browning then broke his ties with Winchester and the FN relationship was born."

From 1883, Browning worked in partnership with the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, and designed a series of rifles and shotguns, most notably the Winchester Model 1887 and Model 1897 shotguns and the lever-action Model 1886, Model 1892, Model 1894 and Model 1895 rifles, most of which are still in production today in some form.

Perhaps the most infamous singular Browning-designed firearm was a FN Model 1910 handgun, serial number 19074. In 1914, the pistol was used by Gavrilo Princip to assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife, Sophie. This event arguably sparked World War I. The pistol was rediscovered in 2004. [1]

Browning belonged to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and served a two year mission in Georgia beginning on March 28, 1887. His father Jonathan Browning, who was among the thousands of Mormon pioneers in the mass exodus from Nauvoo, Illinois to Utah, had established a gunsmith shop in Ogden in 1852.

A Winchester Rifle, circa 1894On November 26, 1926, while working on a self-loading pistol design for FN in Liege, he died of heart failure in the office of his son Val. The 9 mm self-loading pistol he was working on when he died was eventually completed in 1935, by Belgian designer Dieudonne Saive. Released as the Fabrique Nationale GP35, it was more popularly known as the Browning Hi-Power. The Superposed shotgun was completed by his son Val A. Browning

Until his death, Browning designed weapons for Colt, Remington, his own company and Fabrique Nationale of Belgium. In 1977, FN acquired the Browning Arms Company which had been established in 1927, the year after Browning's death.


I see no better folks in the word to own Browning as a subsidary.

Some of the nicest firearms I own, like my 300Win BAR and over/under guns say:

Browning "Made in Belgium"

They hold a huge premium over the ones they made in Japan

thanks for your knowledge, guess everythings for the better. There is not one product from FN that I do not wish I could own.

I have a browning lever action 7mm-08 i aquired a few years ago, very nice, the finish on the wood was so nice that I only hunted 1 year with it because my hunting rifles tend to get beat up.

JMZ5, I agree. I'm afraid to use my Belgium guns. They are simply too nice. I had a BLR like yours .243 and sold it. It was a Japan gun though. I needed the extra cash at the time and I regret getting rid of it.

mine is a BLR and it is soo nice, altho I haven't shot it in quite some time.