I joined the church of JMB...

[Guest crytes]

is there any American firearms company that JMB didn't design a gun for?

[Guest Grout]

is there any American firearms company that JMB didn't design a gun for?

Ruger for one.

[Warbird]

Winchester rifles? Hard to beat. Leverguns, right? Know who designed 'em?

Yep. JMB

While JMB was arguably the most prolific gun genius in US History and he did have significant involvement with Winchester lever guns most notably the models 1886, 92, 94 and 95, he did not invent the lever gun.

I don't think anyone in their right mind could ever, in any possible way, discount JMB's influence on gun history and engineering or on modern weaponry. He was among the titans of the industry. The fact that his basic designs are used today is phenomenal. Think of the changes in major designs since the 1911 was designed, automobiles and airplanes for instance.

However others including Colt were also visionary and made monumental designs that again are still used today and the ones today are not fundamentally much different than they were then proving again that sometimes perfection of engineering is hard to ever beat no matter the technology. They can make em better today, better tolerances, stable consistency and more efficiently driving down the costs, but fundamentally they are the same design.

JMB was a phenomenal inventor and his real talent was that he wasn't attuned to only one type of firearm, he influenced everything from lever action rifles to machine guns to auto-loading pistols to over under shotguns. His last invention was in fact an over/under where he invented the single select trigger, later perfected by his son. What a way to end it all, a throwback to the old days, a shotgun, two shots.

Edited July 7, 2008 by Warbird