Serial number of a Browning High Power pistol

I don't think anything called "The Browning Arms Company" existed when Browning was alive. The original shop was just called "Browning Brothers". "Company" was later added. Then it became the "J.M. and M.S [Matthew] Browning Company." That company existed until about WWII. The current Browning Arms Company was formed after the war, as an importer; they were first headquartered in St. Louis, MO, and Quebec, Canada, and the guns they imported were so-marked. Later, for marketing reasons, they moved to Ogden, UT, where J.M. Browning's career began. (U.S. law requires the name of the importer to be marked on guns for tracing purposes, in addition to the manufacturer's name usually found on commercially made and imported guns.)

The Inglis pistol was, of course, never commercially marketed anywhere; it was made and sold only to military forces in the British Commonwealth and [pre-Communist] China. The ones in the country today were later sold as surplus, but are scarce since by the time the British declared them surplus they had adopted the policy of destroying ex-military guns rather than selling them on the market.

There was an abortive effort to sell commercially an HP clone made in Canada, but the enterprise was a failure.

Jim
 
Yes the company was the "Browning Brothers" but the jist of my post remains the same. Calling the pistol we know as the Browning Hi Power a BHP was acceptable prior to 1954. IMHO. I brought up Ingilis guns because they are another example of "Browning" marked guns being sold outside the North America.

The Browning name has always been associated with the gun.
 
We have really tapped into a wealth of information here.

Not trying to troll, but does anyone know why Browning roll marked it's recent guns "made in Belgium, assembled in Portugal"?

Browning will not say why. There is no law requiring country of assembly to be stamped on the gun. It is interesting to note that FN Hi-powers imported and sold here in early 2000 were made and assembled in the same facility but were not roll marked "assembled in Portugal".

A long retired supervisor at BATFE with whom I had a once a year lunch, opined that it was a misunderstanding by Browning of a tariff regulation that, in fact, did not exist.

The first BHPs so marked were late production MK IIs, and all MK IIIs (the current model). However, FN, long plagued by labor problems, started assembly in Portugal in the 60s as dictated by the labor instablity. In 1971, they opened their own facility in Portugal and started ALL assembly there of their civilian products, but this long preceeded the MK IIIs so marked.
 
Not trying to troll, but does anyone know why Browning roll marked it's recent guns "made in Belgium, assembled in Portugal"?

Browning will not say why. There is no law requiring country of assembly to be stamped on the gun. It is interesting to note that FN Hi-powers imported and sold here in early 2000 were made and assembled in the same facility but were not roll marked "assembled in Portugal".

A long retired supervisor at BATFE with whom I had a once a year lunch, opined that it was a misunderstanding by Browning of a tariff regulation that, in fact, did not exist.

The first BHPs so marked were late production MK IIs, and all MK IIIs (the current model). However, FN, long plagued by labor problems, started assembly in Portugal in the 60s as dictated by the labor instablity. In 1971, they opened their own facility in Portugal and started ALL assembly there of their civilian products, but this long preceeded the MK IIIs so marked.
Click to expand...

That is the most common explanation for the "assembled in Portugal" rollmark but as you pointed out FN has never publicly explained it to my knowledge so we really don't know if that is the truth or if it is simply the story told most often.
 
I suspect the FN marking was to avoid the kind of trouble Walther ran in to when it had guns made in France but finished and proved in Germany. When they marked them "Made in Germany", BATFE pounced on them for violating the law requiring the guns be marked with the country of origin. Walther argued, to no avail, that Germany was the country of origin, since no pistols were sold directly from France, and that the guns were not completed for sale in France. So FN's "Made in...Assembled in ..." may have been a way to cover their ... well, cover all the bases.

Jim
 
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