Editing John Browning (section)

== Firearm designs ==
[[File:John M. Browning with his Auto 5 shotgun (2).jpg|thumb|Browning with an Auto-5]]

Production examples of the Browning Model 1878 Single Shot Rifle caught the attention of the [[Winchester Repeating Arms Company]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.nramuseum.org/the-museum/the-galleries/the-american-west/case-41-competing-for-the-market/browning-model-1878-standard-single-shot-rifle.aspx|title = NRA Museums}}</ref> who dispatched a representative to evaluate the competition. Winchester bought the design for $8,000 and moved production to their [[Connecticut]] factory. From 1883, Browning worked in partnership with Winchester and designed a series of rifles and shotguns, most notably the lever action [[Winchester Model 1887/1901|Winchester Model 1887]] and the [[Winchester Model 1897|Model 1897]] pump shotgun, the falling-block single-shot [[Winchester Model 1885|Model 1885]], and the lever-action [[Winchester Model 1886|Model 1886]], [[Winchester Model 1892|Model 1892]], [[Winchester Model 1894|Model 1894]], [[Winchester Model 1895|Model 1895]] rifles. After falling out with Winchester, Browning designed the [[long recoil]] operated semi-automatic [[Remington Model 8]] rifle. Many of the models are still in production today in some form; over six million Model 1894s had been produced as of 1983, more than any other sporting rifle in history.<ref name="Wallack" />

Winchester manufactured several popular small arms designed by John M. Browning. For decades in the late 19th century-early 20th century, Browning designs and Winchester firearms were synonymous and the collaboration was highly successful. This came to an end when Browning proposed a new [[long recoil]] operated semi-automatic shotgun design, a prototype finished in 1898, to Winchester management, which ultimately became the Browning Auto-5 shotgun. As was the custom of the time, Browning's earlier designs had been sold exclusively to Winchester for a single fee payment. With this new product, Browning and his brother Matthew sought royalties based upon unit sales, rather than a single front-end fee payment. If the new shotgun became highly successful, the Browning company stood to make substantially more income. Winchester management, which had agreed to royalties for an earlier Browning shotgun design that was never manufactured, now refused to accede to the Brownings' terms. Remington Arms also was approached but the president of the company died of a heart attack while the Brownings were waiting to offer him the gun. Remington would later produce a copy of the Auto-5 as the Model 11 which was used by the US Military and was also sold to the civilian market.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Gorenstein|first=Nathan|title=[[The Guns of John Moses Browning]]|publisher= Simon & Schuster| date=2021|isbn=9781982129217}}</ref>

Having recently successfully negotiated firearm licenses with [[Fabrique Nationale de Herstal]] of Belgium (FN), Browning took the new shotgun design to FN; the offer was accepted and FN manufactured the new shotgun, honoring its inventor, as the Browning Auto-5. The Browning Auto-5 was continuously manufactured as a highly popular shotgun throughout the 20th century. In response, Winchester shifted reliance away from John Browning designs when it adopted a shotgun design of [[T.C. Johnson|Thomas Crossley Johnson]] for the new Winchester Model 1911 SL, (Johnson had to work around Browning's patents of what became the Auto-5{{Citation needed|date=September 2023}}) and the new Model 1912 pump shotgun, which was based in small part upon design features of the earlier Browning-designed Winchester Model 1897 shotgun. This shift marked the end of an era of Winchester-Browning collaboration.