Pick your semi auto gun guru

[cold dead hands]

Gaston and his Glock or

JMB and his 1911 and/or Hi Power

Please, no wars about the guns themselves. This about the guys responsible for them.

Who do you think was the superior weapons designer?

If both had started at the same time, who would be lauded as the handgun king?

[paul26]

glock:cool:

[Lurch37]

I'll vote JMB and the 1911.

[Gwyndon]

1911

[Officer's Match]

I really love my G23, but this one isn't close - JMB by a country mile.

[rbrgs]

Gaston Glock designed one pistol, John Browning designed pistols, rifles, shotguns, and machine guns, including the legendary BAR and the M2, which is probably still the best gun our military has. Kalashnikov, Stoner, even John Garand are One Trick Ponies compared to John Moses Browning.

[KyJim]

+1 what rbrgs said.

[Taurus_9mm]

JMB :)

[IdahoG36]

George Luger

[wyohusker]

JMB by far!!!!:p

[JohnKSa]

I'd have to give the nod to JMB, he was the better designer. Glock's talents are manufacturing and marketing.Kalashnikov, Stoner, even John Garand are One Trick Ponies compared to John Moses Browning.Stoner doesn't get as much credit as he deserves. He had some very impressive design skills, it would have been interesting to see what he might have come up with had he lived in JMB's time.

[mountainclmbr]

WWJMBD? That is the only question.

[HisSoldier]

JMB far and away, probably the best firearms designer ever. The question is analogous to asking who wrote the best music, Beethoven or Manilow. Only someone who doesn't know about or understand music would ask about such a comparison.

[denfoote]

Fritz Walther.

Der größte Waffeentwerfer aller Zeit!

[IM_Lugger]

whoever designed Beretta 92! :o

[Chui]

John Moses Browning.

The engineer responsible for the P7M8

Gaston Glock

The engineer responsible for the M&P

[Phast12]

JMB he created the begining for autos, everyone else has stood on his sholders.

[HammerBite]

Fidel, Friedrich and Josef Feederle: Did the preliminary design of what would become the first semiautomatic pistol to see widespread use.
Paul Mauser: Finalized the Feederle design and produced the pistol as the Mauser C-96.
Georg Luger:

Designed the Luger Parabellum semiautomatic pistol, which was the fist semiautomatic pistol to be adopted by any military organization. The pistol was first produced by DWM. It was adopted by Switzerland in 1900 and by Germany in 1908.
Developed one of the world's most popular pistol cartridges, the 9mm Parabellum.

John Moses Browning:

First to enclose a barrel in a slide.
Invented the tilting barrel breech lockup system for semiautomatic pistols.
Designed the first blowback operated semiautomatic pistol, which was produced by FN as the Model 1899.
Developed the design which would become the de facto standard for striker fired semiautomatic pistols.
Designed the Colt M1911, which was the first semiautomatic pistol to be adopted by U.S. military forces.
In 1925 patented design improvements which would eventually evolve into the FN High-Power pistol.
Developed some of the world's most popular pistol cartridges:

.25 ACP
.32 ACP
.380 ACP
.45 ACP
.50 BMG


Fritz Walther:

Designed and produced the first commercially successful DA/SA semiautomatic pistol, the Walther PP.
Designed and produced the first DA/SA semiautomatic pistol to be adopted by military forces, the Walther P38.

Dieudonne Joseph Saive: Updated the SA semiautomatic pistol design improvements which John Browning patented in 1925. The result was the FN High-Power, which in 1935 became the first military semiautomatic pistol to utilize a high capacity staggered column magazine.
Gaston Glock: Designed and produced the Glock 17, the first striker fired semiautomatic pistol that could safely be carried unlocked with a round in the chamber, affording the user a quick first shot, much like a DA hammer fired semiautomatic pistol.

Some of these may not have been great designers, but rather served to prove the viability of various concepts.

[Redneckrepairs]

Well since glock basicly copied brownings recoil system i guess its pretty much self explanatory between the two mentioned . Even school kids only copy work from folks that are smarter than themselves .

[Jim Watson]

Did Gaston Glock personally design the gun his already prosperous company built?

[Sturmgewehre]

Since Brownings design was ultimately copied into the Glocks locked breech design, which comes first? The chicken or the egg?

Browning is the obvious choice.

[curmudgeon1]

John Moses Browning orchestrated small-arms warfare thru two world wars and some of his original designs are still the preferred war-fighting guns. The majority of handgun manufacturers are still copying his 1911 design.
JMB hands down !!

[Pilot]

I can't even believe this question is being asked. JMB, the genius.

[Jack19]

John Moses Browning and Dieudonne Saive for the ultimate creation of the P35/Hi-Power.

And, Don Williams, of The Action Works, for tuning them.

[michael t]

Browning Glock has really done little except market.

[mthalo]

Gaton Glock thought outside the box and came up with one of the most innovative designs of the century. but it still uses the basic locked breech system designed by JMB.

[cold dead hands]

I am amazed at how many have voted for JMB. I really expected a lot more votes for Gaston because there are lots of folks here who love their glocks.

Thanks to HammerBite for the other honorable mentions, but this was intended to judge the standings of Gaston and JMB since the flame wars usually boil down to the ''glock sucks, 1911 rules'' or ''your 1911 is an antiquated unreliable hunk of junk compared to my glock''.

So, I wanted to eliminate the guns and focus on the minds responsible for what could be the two most famous designs of semi auto handguns in all of firearms history to the present time.

Keep voting.

[YukonKid]

JMB. there is nothing more to say the has not been said.

YukonKid

[LUPUS]

HammerBite's list is pretty astonishing. I totally agree with his list, but want to add Koucky Brothers with approximately 126 patents have been approved on them and Helmut Weldle who is the brain behind many innovative HK firearms including the P7.
But if I asked to choose only one guru to follow, hands down, JMB.
Regards.