FN Browning Trombone

C

CLASSIC12

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We found this when my father in law passed away, together with some Swiss ordnance handguns (Waffenfabrik 1878 Black powder revolver and Waffenfabrik Parabellum 06/24), a Beretta 1934, and a K11 Swiss ordnance rifle. His father was a LGS in the 50ies.

It was close to NIB. Very elegant little takedown pump action .22 lr.

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And with .22 short you can practice all day long without upsetting the wife or neighbours.

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I believe the FN Trombone was very similar to the earlier Remington Model 12 pump .22. Except the Remington Model 12 was not designed by John Browning but rather John Pedersen around 1909. The Browning Trombone .22 came along somewhat later, after WWI. Winchester's Model 61 .22 pump gun came along even later, around 1932, and it is a very close design to the FN. The Browning Trombone .22 is not very common in the USA, I remember seeing only one of them and that was some years ago.

Regarding the Winchester Model 61, I have always felt that it was the ultimate in a .22 pump rifle. I believe what we see here is Browning's inspiration to modify Pedersen's design of the Remington Model 12 for FN's production for the European market, which was considerably later (1932) manufactured by Winchester for sale in the the U. S. market. Yours would be quite a prize for a US .22 pump gun collector.
 
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Sweet!! I seem to remember that you have quite a few guns that we here in the states would love to get our hands on!!

And you are right about the .22 short....in my experience it has been a little hard to find of late, however.

Best Regards, Les
 
"And with .22 short you can practice all day long without upsetting the wife or neighbours."

I have a Remington Model 550-1. It has the distinction of being one of the two .22 semiautomatic rifle designs I know of which can fire .22 short, long, and long rifle cartridges interchangeably without any adjustments. It seems to handle even the weak .22 short standard velocity cartridge very well. The noise of firing a .22 short SV in it is hardly more than a cough. Regarding availability of .22 short cartridges, I see many of them at gun shows and I am sure they are still in production by CCI, possibly others. But they tend to be more expensive than .22 LR. The .22 Short deserves to be more popular than it is, and probably would be at a lower price, and also if more guns were available which would function with .22 Shorts. I grew up shooting only .22 Shorts because a box of .22 Shorts cost about 60% of the price of a box of .22 LR at the time.
 
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I owned its twin at one time,box and all.Yours is a nice late model,as evidenced by the grooved receiver.The serial number puts it in the mid to late sixties.Mine was circa 1972,with a 144,xxx serial number,which was near the end of production.

There is a fellow in Canada(member of rimfirecentral.com) who is obsessed with these,and has dozens and dozens of them.
A scarce gun in the US.
 
I knew 8 was JMB's design. I didn't know FN made them before
Remington did. The only reason I didn't buy it at the time it was
not a 35cal. I have had many 8, 81, 14 & 141s but I only keep 35s. There was a time not so long ago that 25-30-32s were hard
to give away. I have bought them at auctions dirt cheap just to
get the Tang Sights off them. They use to be worth as much as
the rifle. Now there is collector interest in them and prices are as
much as a 35cal. My 1st deer rifle was a 8 in 35 when I was a kid
Back in 60s even a 35 could be had for $40. A new 742 at the time was a little over $100. Used racks were full of 8s & 81s that
were traded on latest and greatest stuff.
 
Thanks For The Trumbone Photos

Except for the but stock design and the lighter color of the wood it sure favors others that are very classic, wish we could have been exposed to them during the same period! Fine looking rifle.
 
Unlike most pump .22s,which have a rickety nature, the Trombone has a solid design.Like many guns designed by JMB, it has a clever take down that requires no tools.
The only thing that I dodn't like about mine,was the heavy trigger pull.With the gun's light weight, it was difficult for me to shoot accurately.(My main interest being .22 sporters with refined triggers and some heft)
 
Drm50 said:
I knew 8 was JMB's design. I didn't know FN made them before
Remington did. The only reason I didn't buy it at the time it was
not a 35cal. I have had many 8, 81, 14 & 141s but I only keep 35s. There was a time not so long ago that 25-30-32s were hard
to give away. I have bought them at auctions dirt cheap just to
get the Tang Sights off them. They use to be worth as much as
the rifle. Now there is collector interest in them and prices are as
much as a 35cal. My 1st deer rifle was a 8 in 35 when I was a kid
Back in 60s even a 35 could be had for $40. A new 742 at the time was a little over $100. Used racks were full of 8s & 81s that
were traded on latest and greatest stuff.
Click to expand...

I have four 8/81s, in .30 Rem and .300 Savage. .30 Rem cases are not too difficult to come by, and .30-30 brass can be converted to .30 Rem with relatively little trouble if you have a lathe or access to one. And you can handload .30 Rem with .30-30 dies, using .30-30 load data. You can also expand the .30 Rem case to .32 Rem, or neck it down to .25 Rem.

.300 Savage brass and ammo is also not exactly commonplace today, but it is a snap to convert .308/7.62 NATO brass to .300 Savage. Just FL in a .300 Savage die and shorten the neck to the correct case length.
 
I have dies and brass for 30-32-& lots for 35. Never loaded for
25 Rem. I have 25/35 Win dies that I probably could get by with
if I had to load a few 25Rem. I just got a 81 300sav a few months ago. It's a Kreiger conversion to detach mag. It's a nice
gun but I didn't know they never made hi cap mags for them.
I just wanted hi cap to jack the AR & AK crowd around here.
 
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