Firearm Books

[Peter Laidler]

The problem with general gun books is that - and I'm going to try hard to be the diplomatic devils advocate now......... - sooooo many of them become just simply picture books or what someone unkindly called them, '....the big boys bumper bedtime book of firearms/guns/pistols/rifles' etc etc. When you think that just reading the thread(s) on No5 bayonets (or even No7 bayonets for a better example.....) you could write a complete book about just those two examples. The Sten is another...... As Harold Turpins daughter said in a letter to me '...we had no idea that here was so much to write about regarding the Sten, but we........'. And while it's not a lot, some new info is STILL coming out!

I have to say that even in the huge supposedly technical library at Warminster, there were some '...big boys bumper.....' type books, best described kindly as 'wanting in detail' that I look at past the first few pages purely out of sheer curiosity! Indeed, two of them from English authors are separately described here.

Please feel free to slate me off of course.

Ooooooops.... sorry. Just had to amend first line. Delete GIN and insert GUN. But it could easily be Gin!!!!!

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[Eaglelord17]

That is part of the intent of this thread, to help guide people to the better books. Not all mostly picture books are bad, for example Ball's Mausers Military Rifles of the World is a great book to have because it has so many pictures which can help someone figure out exactly what type of Mauser they are dealing with (as there is literally thousands of variations), and with that information you can find a more knowledgeable source after the fact.

It is all about acknowledging the limitations of a specific book and helping guide others to what they are looking for. For example Balls Mausers Military Rifles of the World I would recommend if someone was looking for some general information on Mausers and wanted to know about a fair bit of variants (but not know a fair bit about those variants). I wouldn't recommend it to someone who just wanted to know about K98k Rifles as there are much more specific books on that topic. Sometimes the fact that a book is extremely detailed about a specific topic is the limitation if that isn't the information you are seeking.

[Aragorn243]

But I like the big picture books.............................

To be completely honest, I don't often read gun books. Only those that I really generate a serious interest in will I read. I get them so I can find out what I have, what I want, when it was made, who made it and so on. Does it tell me how to fix problems?

I have pretty much read the Scarlotta books cover to cover. My Swiss book I've probably read three times by now. I've read most of the Enfield and 1917/P14 books. And my first Carcano book probably traveled in the car with me more than any other beside Petersons. Other than those, I've only used the others for quick reference.

[Peter Laidler]

There's another thing while we're on about the P'14's....... At Warminster we had the whole tranche of trials and experimental models and others that were one-offs etc etc. But guess what? Nobody who wrote a book about them ever came to see us. If they did, they never took any notice, were asleep or never went into the 'bunker' or store! And it was me that eventually got them out and on display at the Enfield Rifles end of the collection. My o' my.............

In defence of authors, there's always the question of '.....how much do I include'. The naive will always answer '.....EVERYTHING!'. But you have to temper that notion because you can end up with a mish-mash of utterly boring mission creep material. Worse still is the amount of sheer unadulterated plagerism encountered. Who wants to pay good money for a book that contains the full photo-copied contents of the Military Training Pamphlet or handbook.

[Sentryduty]

There is always a balance to strike with military authouring, a storybook or technical precis. For me I typically seek the technical side and am frequently disappointed with an authour's decision to focus too heavily on the storybook side of a firearm.

The history and development is very interesting to read, the how's and why's of a weapon's existence and evolution are of great interest to me, but it can be challenging to trim the fat from the info.

For example I have Ian Skinnerton's Lee Enfield book on hand as a frequent reference volume, but other books on similar topic tell a story that has value, but once told, are never opened again because the information has little critical impact on present operation or collection of the firearm.

[Badger]

Knowledge Library ...

Electronic Books and Articles

Regards,
Doug

[HOOKED ON HISTORY]

My books fall into two catagories fixed & mobile. The general refrences are mobile & the "coffee table" books are fixed as they are not parctical to take to fun shows.
I wish I had them handy for the name & publisher two spiral bound small refrences on the M1 Garand & Carbine. Very handy when looking at Garands & carbines in the wild.
Kind of like hanguns for CC the .38 you have at hand is far superior to the .45 you left at home due to size & weight.

[Eaglelord17]

Well got some new books in I am going to wait until I have reviewed the information of the one before adding it to the list.

Title: The Model 1891 Carcano, A Detailed Developmental & Production History. Author: Giovanni Chegia & Alberto Simonelli with Ralph Riccio. Type of Firearms: Carcano rifles of all sorts. Quality of book: Excellent quality book, I don't think you could find a better one for the Carcano rifle (320 pages with many detailed pictures and production figures). Highly recommended if you want to know anything about the Carcano, and it is only 40$ at the moment (2016).

[Eaglelord17]

Well got far enough in one of the books to do a accurate review.

Title: Swiss Magazine Loading Rifles 1869 to 1958. Author: Joe Poyer. Type of Firearms: Swiss Vetterlis, Schmidt Rubins, Mannlichers and K31s. Quality of book: Not recommended. The author clearly doesn't have much experience actually using Swiss Rifles or understanding much about them. Some of the information is good, however it isn't recommended due to some major and minor errors which go to show this was more a book made to make money than actually educate (something I suspect would be true for most of his books considering the shear quantity he has written). For example in the book he states that you can only remove the magazine on the 1889 Schmidt Rubin by taking apart the trigger guard and magazine cut-off assembly, something that is simply not true (if he had more experience with one he would know you push down the magazine cut-off lever as far as it will go to remove the magazine). It also fails to talk in detail or provide much information about the rarer Schmidt Rubin rifles like the 1889/96 Gewehr, 1900 Kurtz-Gewehr, and Karabiner 1905 (which makes sense as that would require a significant amount of research).

[RASelkirk]

Just bit the bullet and dropped $70 for "Rock in a Hard Place" by James Ballou, an illustrated history of JM Browning's model 1918 BAR. It's a rather large (10" x 14" or so) coffee table book that's been a great read so far...

Russ