“Tag: Anthony Vanderlinden”

Best known for producing the John Browning-designed Auto-5 semi-automatic and Superposed over-under shotguns, Belgium’s Fabrique Nationale also made side-by-side double guns. And they had nothing to do with John Browning.

On June 28, 1914, seven students in Sarajevo set out to assassinate Austria’s Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Armed with bombs and four FN Model 1910 pistols, they set in motion one of the world’s greatest conflicts.

Although the U.S. military snubbed lever-action Winchesters, other nations, attracted by their innovation or just desperate for arms, used them from nearly the company’s inception through the mud and blood of the Great War and into the Spanish Civil War.

With design input from John Moses Browning and most of the work done by FN’s Dieudonné Saive, the Grand Rendement (High Efficiency) pistol found acceptance with the Belgian military. Eighty years later, we know the pistol it adopted as the Grande Puissance—the High Power.

Is it High-Power or Hi-Power? Learn the answer once and for all from one of the world's foremost authorities on the FN Browning Hi/High Power.

Soon after its introduction, Fabrique Nationale (FN) offered an abbreviation for the English speaking world: L.A.R (Light Automatic Rifle). However, this abbreviation never caught on, and instead we commonly pronounce the model by its French language abbreviation F-A-L.

So, what was John Moses Browning really like? America’s greatest gun designer’s inventions speak for themselves, but what kind of man was he?

The FN America FNS series now includes a Compact model that is more than just a full-size with its frame sawn in half—and it is made in South Carolina.

Collectors and dealers frequently confuse the FN Browning Vest Pocket, Baby Browning, Model 1905, and Model 1906 pistols by misidentifying two distinct FN Browning pistols.