At the tail end of August of 2024, I made a trip to the Browning Firearm Museum. I worked down the street from the museum for a hot minute, but had never actually been inside. Well, it was a really cool experience, and I wanted to share photos from the museum. So let’s hop into it!
The Browning Firearm Museum is an exhibit at the historic Union Station in Ogden, Utah. The BFM is one of six exhibits at Union station, and you $7 ticket fee will get you into all of them. I’ll just be showing photos from the BFM, but there is a lot to look at in all of the exhibits at the station.
I would highly recommend heading to the museum if you are passing through Northern Utah, or are somewhat local to the area. While my photos show the guns, it’s certainly not the same thing as going there in person. Mr. Mike at the BFM was quite knowledgeable too, not just about the guns, but also about the history of the Browning family, and the Ogden area.
I took a ton of photos at the museum. However, I’ve had to resize them to work properly on our website. Nearly every photo that I took was anywhere between 10-20MB after cropping them. If I were to drop them into this article, it would likely take 3-4 minutes for the page to load on your computer or phone. As such, I’ve resized all of them down to 1200×900 pixels, however, this leads to a loss of some of the close-up detail on the guns. As such, I made a post on Imgur where you can see the full-size photos. Some of the engraved guns really look stunning when the photo is allowed to be full size.
As a note, I did not photograph every single gun in the museum. It was one part conscious notion, and one part forgetfulness on my behalf.
When we first get to the staircase before the Museum itself, we’re greeted by a cutout of the man himself. Once you head up the stairs, you’re in the museum.
There are a lot of handguns at the Browning Museum.
There is a display with a lot of Browning’s smaller guns. We’ve got some cool prototypes to look at, and two really caught my eye.
The prototype 1900 really caught my eye. I owned one, and really love the design. It was the first commercial handgun with a reciprocating slide, so every handgun with a slide these days can draw a lineage back to this one.
The prototype 1903 is pretty slick too. There were changes the lead into the production 1903, but seeing this iteration is cool.
Moving on over, there is a display on engraved guns.
An engraved Baby Browning….
Engraved P35
And a really cool engraved Hi-Power. I’m not a fan of engraved guns, but I can appreciate it when it looks this good.
They’ve got a big cabinet that is packed full of Browning’s various military handguns, and prototypes of them.
There are some prototype 1905s…
Some early Hi-Power prototypes…
And some Hi-Powers, of sorts. JMB’s last prototype before his death, and a Centennial commercial gun.
The final JMB Hi-Power prototype is pretty slick. Kind of has a SIG P210 look to it, along with a tangent rear sight, an internal extractor (like the 1911), and internal slide rails.
They’ve got a prototype 1911 too, which is really cool. This model only had a grip safety, (so no manual safety), and is still in the white. Very cool to see in person.
They’ve also got a strange, experimental 1911 prototype, with a swept back grip. It’s a weird gun, and chambered in .22 long rifle too.
Springfield Armory (the original one) and Remington Rand 1911s are on display. These are really cool to see, as they are pre-A1 guns.
Moving over to the last display, we’ve got even more early prototypes. Some are from JMB, and some are designs from his sons.
The Colt 1900 prototype is neat to see, as it was part of the basis for many of JMB’s designs.
Rounding out the handguns, there’s serial number #1 million for both the 1908, and the FN 1900. These didn’t photograph the best, but they are incredible to see in person.
How about JMB’s machineguns?
JMB worked on a lot of machineguns, and they’re all here.
There is a massive cutaway BAR as you walk into the back of the Browning Museum. I’ve seen lots of cutaways over the years, but never a BAR.
Behind the cutaway are two BARs, one M1918, and an M1918A2. Both are cool, albeit that I’m much more of a fan of the earlier BAR.
Within the closed-off enclosure, there is a display with an M1918A2, with ammo cans and web gear.
Near the back of the enclosure is a water cooled 1917 A4, and an original T9 37mm cannon, put into production as the M4 cannon in the late 1930s.
The enclosure has even more machineguns, in the form of a 1919 A4, and an M2. Both iconic and important guns, and in great condition at the museum.
Yet another 1919 A4, but this one was retrieved from Iraq during the GWOT.
At the back of the enclosure are an 1895 machinegun, along with a prototype gas operated machinegun. The “Potato Digger” is another classic gun, and the prototype is cool to see too.
A larger photo of the prototype.
There’s also JMB’s 1901 prototype that lead to the 1917. Super cool to see!
Leaving the back area, there’s another machine gun cutaway. I’ve seen a few of these big 1919 cutaways, but they’re always neat to see again.
Out on the museum floor proper, there are two BAR prototypes. You can see that the receiver stayed about the same as the production models, but the barrel profile got much thicker.
The classic receiver lines of the BAR, retained from prototype to production models, albeit with a different bolt mechanism.
A large chunk of the museum is rifles and shotguns, so lets check those out!
I’ve got a checkered past with some of JMB’s rifle and shotgun designs, but I’m always happy to see them in person.
Starting off, we’ve got some early 1886 rifles, with the top one being a prototype. Classic lever gun, and lead to many more to come.
Next up are the prototype 1892, and a production gun.
Close up photo of the receiver on the prototype 1892.
In this display is a bunch of 1894s, including a prototype. I’ve owned the 94, and while I didn’t love it, I can certainly appreciate it.
A close up of the 1894 prototype’s receiver.
Many modern gamers will recognize the 1895 levergun, and here at the museum, they’ve got the prototype, and a 30-40 Krag US Army model.
A close up of the prototype 1895’s receiver.
Above are more prototypes of leverguns, made by JMB during the 1890s.
They’ve got a full display about rollmarks, and how they evolved over the years.
They’ve got a pretty cool gun, in the form of the Flapper Rifle. This was a prototype of a semi-automatic rifle, effectively a semi-auto levergun.
JMB attempted many autoloading rifles, and the gas operated rifle picture here is pretty cool. You can see the bones of his other designs making there way into this gun.
When it comes to early JMB autoloaders and machine guns, I think that the Remington Model 8 is one of the coolest. Plus it was used to shoot down Bonny & Clyde, so I’d say it’s pretty cemented in history.
We cannot forget the pump-action Trombone rifle. Cool rimfire guns, not much more to say.
JMB made a lot of shotguns, and they start with the 1887. They’ve got the prototype model in-house, along with a 1901 in 10 gauge.
Next up is the 1893 pump action shotgun, progenitor to the 1897. They’ve got a prototype gun, along with some highly engraved models.
These two 1893s were respectively owned by John M. Browning, and his son Val.
The Stevens M520 is a cool JMB shotgun, and one that I’ve owned in the past. A cool, classic shotgun!
Featured above are the Remington Model 17, and the Ithaca 37. The 17 was directly designed by JMB, but the Ithaca was not.
While the 1897 is very popular, I’d say that the Auto 5 is even more so. Pictured above are two prototype models…
With a close up of the receiver on the older prototype.
They’ve got two really interesting A5s, serial #1, and the final production shotgun made.
The first A5 has certainly been shot a lot, with a ton of cracks all over the receiver. This is cool as hell.
On display are Remington Model 11s, designed by JMB. The bottom gun was presented to JMB after the guns went into production.
I had never seen this photo of JMB before, but he’s quite the looker here.
John Moses Browning, and the rest of the Browning family, is located not too far away from the museum. I made the trip there to go visit the most important firearm inventor of the modern era.
While not a part of the museum, I’m glad that I made the trip to visit JMB. If you go, be respectful.
The Browning Firearm Museum was awesome. I had a great time, and got to see a lot of rare and prototype models of guns, and there’s nothing quite like seeing that in person. I’d recommend that you make the trip!
To see the full size versions of my photos, check out the Imgur link here.
If you’d like to support me on Patreon, I’ve got the link for that here. Nearly everything that I do on Primer Peak is paid for out of my own pocket, and my content is not shilled or driven by manufacturers or companies. If you decide to donate, I’d really appreciate it, as it would allow for me to continue to bring you quality work.
Back in 2022 I wrote a series of articles titled "How to Choose a Good…
I'm a pretty big fan of the shotgun. While handgun shooting makes up the majority…
Over the past few years I've had the opportunity to learn from several great instructors.…
The Smith & Wesson Bodyguard 2.0. You already know what it is. It's been heavily…
I've been on a .30 Super Carry jihad for the better part of a year…
A few weeks ago I made my way to the desert to perform some ballistics…