Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! The J.M. Browning Harmonica Rifle is an extremely rare percussion repeating firearm invented by Jonathan Browning, father of famed gun designer John Moses Browning. Jonathan Browning built these unusual “slide repeater” rifles in the 1840s and 1850s, with this particular example dated 1853. The rifle has a five-round chamber slide bar that allows multiple shots without reloading, making it one of the earliest detachable magazine designs. Browning brought this rifle with him when he led a Mormon pioneer wagon train to Utah in 1852. After settling in Ogden, he continued improving the harmonica gun design before passing away in 1879.
“This Jonathan Browning harmonica rifle features a five round chamber bar, heavy octagon barrel, and brass receiver. According to renowned firearms expert and author Norm Flayderman, very few of these unusual rifles are known to exist and are “rarely seen or traded on the open market place.” Jonathan Browning was the father of the famed American inventor John Moses Browning. This early repeating percussion firearm was advertised as the Slide Repeater in the 1850s. It has a long back action with matching iron side plate. German silver blade front sight, and fixed buckhorn style rear sight are mounted on a barrel that is marked “J.M. BROWNING 1853″ on the top flat. The wooden ram rod is secured by two iron pipes, and the rifle is mounted with a one piece half stock with a pewter forend cap and brass crescent buttplate and trigger guard.”
Lot 1135: J.M. Browning Percussion Rifle 50 – Documented Historic Jonathan M. Browning 1853 Percussion Harmonica Rifle From the Collection of Congressional Medal of Honor Recipient/Gun Designer George E. Albee. (n.d.). Rock Island Auction Company. photograph. Retrieved January 28, 2024, from https://www.rockislandauction.com/detail/65/1135/jm-browning-percussion-rifle-50.
