these project objectives now clearly established, I was at last ready to start the new design layout with a clean sheet of paper. This was the beginning of many decades of long, laborious hours of detailed design work for me. It also involved an intensive study of the competition to analyze their good and bad features.
I was then engaged in making the largest and most complete design layout I have ever made. After countless design studies following the project objectives, the layout consisted of detailed sectional drawings of the action in the locked firing position, the eject position, and the loading position. Full scale outlines of all the action components were illustrated along with a complete parts list and heat-treat specifications.
When the design layout was finally complete, Howie and I were ready to make a presentation to the Browning executives at their beautiful corporate headquarters at Morgan, Utah, in the foothills of the rugged Wasatch mountain range.
We were well received by company president John V. Browning and the owner, Mr. Val A. Browning, a well-known Utah industrialist and son of the great John Moses Browning. Val’s father acquired 126 firearms patents in his lifetime and created a myriad of the world’s most famous commercial and military guns of all types. Needless to say, it was a prestigious moment for me to meet these people. The meeting couldn’t have gone better because they were intrigued by the proposal of adding a quality pump shotgun with a touch of the original Browning heritage in its design. They were well pleased with my design layout.
Val Browning was a Cornell law and engineering graduate and a gun designer in his own right with 48 patents. He pored over my proposed BPS design layout and understood exactly what I was trying to accomplish. Howie and I were more than pleased at their interest, and we all agreed the next step would be to build a prototype for test. Building new model guns from scratch was old hat to us at BJT. We had for years built many first model and experimental guns for Hi-Standard, Winchester, Marlin, Colt, the CIA, and the Springfield Armory. We had a staff of the area’s best tool and die makers. It was agreed that we would make detailed engineering drawings from the layout and actually fabricate and preliminary test the gun. This was right up our alley as we had done this successfully many times before. For this phase, Browning agreed to our building the prototype at their expense. We also agreed on a royalty to be paid on each gun sold in production.
The bottom loading and ejection port opening showing the retracted lifter and the bottom of the locked bolt with an unobstructed access for loading a fresh round with the bolt and slide in the foreword or firing and loading position.
The bottom port opening showing the lifter in the down or eject position with the slide and bolt in the rear position.
Howie and I returned to BJT elated at our success, and we made plans for the final phase of our agreement, the actual building and test of the prototype. This required many hours of concentrated effort by carefully-chosen tool makers. Once again our good fortune held. The prototype went together as planned, and it performed beautifully right from the start. Quite frankly, I was very proud and grateful to the many individuals who made it happen. Usually a new prototype generally requires parts redesign and fabrication due to malfunction, worn or broken parts in test, awkward assembly, etc. – but the BPS required absolutely no rework.
Our involvement in the BPS program was virtually over at this point; it was up to Browning to put the final approval on the gun and get it manufactured in quantity production. For many years Browning guns were manufactured by Fabrique Nationale de Herstal in Liege, Belgium. The Browning Company was required to seek an outside contractor to manufacture the BPS because they lacked the large facility necessary to build the production guns in the U.S.A. A decision was made to make the BPS in production by the Miroku Firearms Mfg. Co. in Japan to Browning’s exacting quality standards. Browning sent an early sample of the production gun to BJT for our examination. We were highly pleased with the performance and high quality of this production gun. Howie gave me the gun as a souvenir for proposing and designing the BPS.
Things had progressed from a dream to a reality. BJT kept their word and shared one half of the Browning royalties with me during the first production phase. Unfortunately for BJT and me, that arrangement would come to an early termination.
The Browning Arms Company was established in the United States in 1927 a year after the death of John M. Browning. Half a century later, in 1977, the Belgium firm of Fabrique Nationale acquired the company. At that time the BPS was in full production and our BJT royalty was in full effect. The new organization wanted to continue to produce the gun but did not want to pay the royalty to BJT. As a result, Browning offered BJT a lump-sum cash buyout to eliminate the royalty agreement. We accepted this offer and our participation and all future communications with Browning regrettably came to a close. I have worked for numerous firearms companies and the military over the years as a designer, court expert witness and consultant, but I have never enjoyed working for anyone more than I did Browning. To me, they have always been a class organization in every respect.
The BPS saga did not die at the ending of our involvement. In fact, it was only the beginning, and the BPS is still being made today with numerous options to meet public demand. It is now available in 10, 12, 28, 20, and .410 gauges with high-post full-vent sighting ribs, Invector choke tubes, various barrel lengths, select model walnut stocks, and engraved receivers. These additions were all added by Browning. My prototype gun consisted of only the basic functional action.
The current BPS suggested retail price ranges from $519 to $780, depending on model. Market sales have steadily improved, and expert critics have given the BPS a top rating for its exceptionally smooth function and reliability, with Browning’s typically fine workmanship and finish.
CREATION OF THE HIGH STANDARD MANUFACTURING CORPORATION
The complex history of High Standard generated from the elementary designs for .22 caliber single-shot and semiautomatic pistols by a Hartford, Connecticut, inventor, Lucius N. Diehm, who patented a series of firearms from 1916 to 1925. The Hartford Arms & Equipment Company was established primarily to produce several of the Diehm-designed pistols. This small company was only mildly successful and produced about 5,000 pistols between 1925 and 1930 before suffering bankruptcy and going out of business. Needless to say, these early Hartford Arms Diehm-designed pistols have become a very scarce rarity for pistol collectors.
The early birth and growth of the High Standard Company in Connecticut was all due to the guiding genius and drive of one man, a very talented and energetic Swede and New Haven, Connecticut, resident, Carl Gustav Swebilius. He was instrumental in the entire concept and the initial achievements of the High Standard Company.
Swebilius had a very extensive background in the firearms business. The son of a Swedish watchmaker, he learned his trade as a young man working as an apprentice toolmaker and designer for the Marlin Firearms Co. in New Haven. During World War I he was instrumental in converting a Colt .30 caliber machine gun into an aircraft weapon. He is also credited for developing a synchronous fire control permitting a machine gun to fire through the moving blades of an aircraft propeller. He became experienced and well-respected at Marlin, both as a tooling expert and as an accomplished designer.
After the war was over, Swebilius joined a Hamden wire company for which he designed machinery for manufacturing insulated wire. In 1921 Marlin rehired him back as the chief engineer for a short time until they temporarily ceased operations in 1923. Swebilius then joined Winchester as a senior gun designer. During this period of unrest in the firearms industry, Swebilius wanted to start and control his own gun company, and he subsequently resigned from Winchester and started his own business in 1926.
This company, the High Standard Arms Manufacturing Company of Hamden, Connecticut, produced deep-hole drills for
