Winchester's engineers made some improvements to Browning's design, including angling the block at six degrees to create a positive breech seal, and released the rifle as the Model 1885. Bennett, Vice-President and General Manager of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, traveled to Ogden and negotiated the purchase of the single-shot design, as well as the prototype of what would become the Model 1886 lever-action – the beginning of the fruitful 20-year Winchester–Browning collaboration. Browning and his brother commenced making the rifles by hand in their second-floor workshop in Ogden, Utah, with limited success. In 1878, the 23-year-old Browning designed a falling-block single-shot rifle, for which he was granted a patent the following year.
