Vintage Saturday: Inventor Afield

John M Browning hunting in Wyoming, ca 1910
Always a good sign when an inventor is willing to use his own invention

John Moses Browning (center) elk hunting near Jackson Hole, Wyoming around 1910. His rifle is a Remington Model 8 in .35 Remington, and he is flanked by his brother Matthew on the right. His skinning knife is in hand – no surprise that a hands-on man like JMB would do his own skinning and cleaning.

Photo from The Great Remington 8 by John Henwood.

4 Comments

  1. Nice rifle. The danish king Frederik IX had one that he used. It was a gift from Remington and it had his cartushe inlaid in gold.

  2. Had a Model 8 in .35 Remington. One of the 2 or 3 MOST UNPLEASANT firearms I’ve ever fired. Recoil was brutal. Right up there with slugs out of a cut down 12 GA H&R topper, and .458 Win.Mag. out of a light mountain rifle. Bought it. took it to the range, put ONE magazine of ammo through it, promptly sold it…(Bought a Savage 99 with the money as I recall)

  3. The Model 8 and 81 are one of the rifles I enjoy. So, thanks for this one today Ian.

    One of my great-grandfathers bought a Model 8 in .35 Remington shortly before WW1. Apparently it was ‘the rifle to have’ if one had the money back then. That branch of my family took hunting, guns and reloading very seriously. I never meet him as he died years before I was born.

    While today that part of Wisconsin is great deer hunting, there were no deer there then. Going deer involved taking a big tent. Taking enough potatoes and sauerkraut to last at least 2 week. Then getting on a train that dropped the family off along the railroad tracks in northern Wisconsin. My great-uncles told me about that.

    One year one of my great-uncle Martin or Hendrick almost froze to death while away from the camp. When he was found he was starting to fall asleep from it. While getting him back to camp, every time he started to doze Grandpa Hermann would slap him hard across the face to keep him awake.

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