Day: April 1, 2020

The Browning Firearms Museum

Ogden’s Finest. It was a good morning to be a Harley, I think. A little wet, maybe, but still a good day to be out and about.

You know, you could do a pretty cool adventure ride lasting a couple of weeks without ever leaving Utah.  I know we’re stuck at home, self-isolating and all that, so it’s a good time to share past adventures and photos of great trips.  I’ve traveled a lot, and I think Utah is one of the best destinations on the planet.  It is probably the most scenic and interesting state in the country.

About that photo you see above…Susie and I rolled into Odgen one day back in 2015 to visit their museums, and these Ogden motor officers were parked out front. It was a great photo op, so I asked, they said okay, and the photo you see above is the result.  It was raining that morning, but that never stopped me from riding and it didn’t stop these motor officers, either!

Ogden has four museums and an art gallery in their old railroad station, and it’s one heck of a deal. For a very minimal entrance fee, you get to see the Browning antique car collection, the Browning firearms museum, the railroad museum, the cowboy museum, and an art gallery.  If you don’t have Ogden on your destinations list, maybe you need a new list!

Entering the Browning Firearms Museum. This museum alone makes Ogden a must-see destination.

Our focus in this blog is the Browning firearms museum.  John Moses Browning, who did much of his work in Ogden, was perhaps the world’s most prolific arms inventor.  This museum highlights his creations as well as many other interesting guns. I was in my element here!

Handguns, rifles, machine guns…Browning’s creations cover it all.
An 1886 Winchester. That buttplate is punishing with the 1886’s .45 70 cartridge.
The 1911 .45 ACP semi-auto handgun, one of Browning’s best-known inventions.
A few of Browning’s single-shot rifles.
More cool Browning single-shot rifles. The second one from the top is a Browning B78. I have one of those rifles.
A close up of the Browning 1878 stock.
A display of Winchester rifles.
An ornately-engraved Browning 9mm Hi-Power handgun. It was a later design than the 1911.

The lighting in the Browning museum was dim, and that’s why the photos you see in this blog are perhaps a bit below what I try to present on the blog. I was shooting at a very high ISO without flash, as most of the displays were behind glass.  The photos are not great, but they are pretty good considering the lighting.

There were a lot of interesting firearms on display, and then we migrated over to the car collection and the railroad museum. Those will be the subjects of subsequent blogs. Trust me on this…if you’re ever in Ogden, you don’t want to miss this place.

After a great lunch in downtown Ogden, we talked about where we’d go next, and Susie suggested Promontory Summit. We had learned a bit about it in the railroad museum, and we were only about 45 miles away. It’s where the railroad construction crews completed the railroad that reached across the United States. That’s coming up, so stay tuned!