The Colt–Browning M1895, nicknamed "potato digger" because of its unusual operating mechanism, is an air-cooled, belt-fed, gas-operated machine gun that fires from a closed bolt with a cyclic rate of 450 rounds per minute.

It is operated by rotating the lever down and forward, which causes the breechblock to slide rearward away from the barrel and eject the spent round.

Continued motion slides the bolt rearward against the spring, while also operating the mechanism that feeds the ammunition belt and readies the next round.

When it reaches the end of its motion the spring pushes everything forward again, carrying the new bullet with it and seating it in the barrel before locking again.

The earliest prototype developed by Browning in fall 1889 was a .44-40 black powder cartridge rifle, weighing under 12 pounds (5.4 kg).

To minimize heating during rapid fire, the gun used a very heavy straight contour barrel, bringing its weight up to 35 pounds (15.8 kg).

[9] The Colt's unusual method of operation had both advantages and disadvantages compared to competing machine gun designs of the day.

As gunners gained experience with operating an air-cooled machine gun, it became apparent that avoiding long continuous periods of fire materially added to the weapon's reliability and barrel life.

[17] The M1895 proved to be a significant advance in firepower for the Marines, who employed them in the first known use of machine guns by the American military to provide tactical support of infantry forces during an assault.

Colonel Roosevelt's Rough Riders, a dismounted volunteer cavalry regiment that fought in Cuba, also deployed two M1895 Colt machine guns in 7×57mm Mauser caliber (built for export, both guns were privately purchased for the Rough Riders by family members of the troops[18]), but although they did cause some Spanish casualties were reportedly somewhat unreliable.

As Lt. Col. Roosevelt noted, "These Colt automatic guns were not, on the whole, very successful...they proved more delicate than the Gatlings, and very readily got out of order.

[20] The M1895 in 6mm Lee was also utilized by American Naval and Marine forces during the Philippine–American War, and the Boxer Rebellion, where it proved to be accurate and reliable.

In one spectacular rear guard action at the Battle of Leliefontein on 7 November 1900, Sergeant Edward James Gibson Holland of The Royal Canadian Dragoons used a Colt gun mounted on a Dundonald galloping carriage to stop a rare mounted Boer charge, resulting in his being awarded the Victoria Cross, one of three awarded to Canadians in that action.

Winston Churchill, then a young Lieutenant in the South African Light Horse and a war correspondent, was impressed by the effect of the fire of a whole battery of these guns.

By the last months of World War I, almost 50% of the SPAD XIII fighter aircraft used by the United States Army Air Service in France had their Vickers guns replaced with Marlins.

A number of Colt and Marlin-made machine guns was also provided to Italian forces during World War I to replace similar weapons lost in the retreat that followed the massive Austrian-German breakthrough at the Battle of Caporetto.

Besides being chambered for the standard 6.5×52mm Mannlicher–Carcano Italian rifle cartridge, they were converted to liquid cooling with the installation of a narrow brass sleeve around the barrel; M1895/14 machine guns receiving this modification were designated "6.5/80" and employed by the Regia Marina (Royal Italian Navy) as a field weapon for Marine infantrymen defending the mouth of the Piave river.

The MAS used by Gabriele D'Annunzio in the famous Beffa di Buccari and displayed at his former residence (Vittoriale degli italiani) still mounts a Colt M1895.

The last documented use of the type was by the US National Guard against striking miners in the Battle of Blair Mountain, West Virginia, U.S., in 1921.

A contemporary photo illustrates a Colt–Browning gun with one of the aforementioned finned aluminum heat-sink outfitted barrel from the Marlin-Rockwell firm, in the hands of a guardsman supporting sheriff's deputies.

[citation needed] Colt–Browning guns placed in storage by the US military after the First World War were purchased for the British Home Guard in the summer of 1940.

Well into the Second World War they were still being issued to second-line units, namely to MVSN branches such as DICAT (in charge of Flak guns) and MILMART (coastal artillery) for the anti-aircraft defense of Italy proper as late as 1943.