it sought submissions for a machine gun. A May 1917 test at Springfield Armory arranged by John Browning saw an example of his M1917 design fire 39,500 rounds before experiencing any parts breakage.

During World War I, 30,582 M1917 Brownings—including ... The legendary inventor John Moses Browning began work on an air-cooled, recoil-operated machine gun of his own design, which resulted ...

While other attempts at building an American heavy machine gun faltered, Browning set to work scaling up the M1917 to fire a heavier round: the .50-caliber ball round. On November 18, 1918 ...

His military designs include the Colt M1911 .45 pistol, the Browning Hi-Power, the M1917 water-cooled machine gun, the M1919 air-cooled machine gun and the Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR).

50 BMG. To fire the .50 BMG, Browning turned to another proven machine-gun design, the M1917. After scaling up the M1917 design and incorporating a few changes, the resulting machine gun was ready ...