William V. Bruton (the "B" in the B&M) a life long friend and pal that has been closer to me than any brother I might have ever had. Always an inspiration on many occasions, he is responsible for the spark that started the B&M series of rifles and cartridges. The story goes like this;

One evening during one of our regular weekly conversations Billy mentioned he wanted a 500 S&W built on a short, handy lever gun. I told him not possible in my opinion because a Winchester M94 was too small to accommodate the 500 S&W, and the Marlin 1895 and Winchester 1886 too big for the cartridge. I noticed on the shelf in the "gun lab", as we call it, a 338 WSM that I had been playing with. An idea sparked, I took a WSM case, hack sawed it off below the shoulder, trimmed it to 1.65 inches, and stuck a 500 caliber bullet in the end perfectly, placed in a WSM magazine and wham, the 50 B&M Super Short was born at that moment. By the next morning I had thought about the extra length of the WSM magazine and used a RUM case cut and trimmed to 2.25 inches, the 50 B&M was born. This fit into my needs also. I had an altercation with a hippo earlier that year with a Winchester M70 458 Lott, 24 inch barrel. During this altercation I was wishing for something that was shorter, lighter, faster, and handled better for close range encounters. As our bullets developed in .500 caliber, the Winchester M70 WSM action, combined with the 50 B&M and it's .500 caliber bullets fit that niche perfectly. Soon I discovered the Winchester WSSM action perfect for the 50 B&M Super Short, while the 50 B&M was perfect in the WSM action, and the rest is history!

Without that inspiration from Billy, we would not be here today with a successful series of rifles and cartridges that are being put to work in the hunting fields of the world. B&M's are being used throughout North America, Africa, Australia, and are in the works in Europe as I write this.

Thanks Billy!