No comments about Cane Curiosa: From Gun to Gadget.

5 comments about Colt's Single Action Army Revolver: The Legend, The Romance And The Rivals.

1. A slim (160-page) coffee table book that will please, but...... O'Meara's setting of the Colt SAA in its historical background is clear, simplified and useful for anyone who has difficulty quite fathoming the sometimes intricate development of and differences between the various Colt pistols -- from the Patterson, Pocket, Walker, Dragoon, Navy, and Army models up to the SAA. The rest of the book covers a broad range of SAA topics -- replicas, rivals, fine-tuning, conversions and variants, cartridges, engraving, cowboy shooting, etc -- all in somewhat simple style and language. I get the impression no new ground is broken with this book. I imagine it is tough to publish such a limited-audience book and have it emerge just as one would wish it to be, however a professional editor (i.e. someone other than the author) could have done much to improve the readability and attractiveness of it. The pokey little b&w photos that litter the text are better than nothing but don't convey the power of thse guns or their historic significance. Any firearms catalogue offers better. And the color photos, which are bigger and better than the b&ws are too amateurish (or badly printed by today's standards) to enthuse any but the already enthused. I don't want to be negative as this book is obviously a labor of love by O'Meara. But I was disappointed that more had not been made of the opportunity to show off this key part of (monument to?) grass roots American history. ( ). That's a bit steep for a book with these limitations IMHO.



2. This was one of,if not the worst, book on Colt SAAs I have ever bought. It appears as a compilation of articles from monthly publications. It has very little info on older, original SAAs. There is lots of stuff on shooting modern replicas and there is not much depth there either. I was very disappointed.



3. Colt Single Action Army revolver... repeats some useful information regarding the evolution of the arm and also provides some useful information regarding dating by serial number. The book would be moderately interesting if the above data were not already widely available from such authorities as Robert Wilson and legions of collectors of the Colt variations.

   This volume will probably be seconded to the bargain section of your neighborhood bookstore in short order. A substantial reduction in price would be worth the wait.




4. An exceedingly strange production: it is really not about Colt's Single Action Army Revolver, but instead associated but irrelevant phenomenon, i.e., Italian clones (who cares?), Rugers (who cares?), forgotten celebrities who were once photographed carrying Colts (who really cares?) It's all there except for, er, you know, the SUBJECT OF THE BOOK, on which, alas, there's very little. It's as if the compositor lost a set of six or eight chapters somewhere and the publishers hoped nobody would notice. When I finished paging through it, I thought, Yes, but where's the stuff on the famed sixgun?



5. I bought this, looking for something about Colt Single Action Revolvers. This book covers mostly copies of Colts, info on quickdraw, Bisleys, Rugers, etc. Much of the book repeats the same info in each chapter. Save your money and get something else. I rated it one star because there was nothing lower. There is a list of Colt SAA serial numbers which was the best part of the book. I wouldn't ever buy a Doc O'Meara book again.

No comments about Browining Machine Gun Caliber 50 HB M2\.

5 comments about The Illustrated Book of Guns: An Illustrated Directory of over 1,000 Military, Sporting, and Antique Firearms.

1. Well I'm pretty neutral on this book. It features many good pictures of good guns, inlcluding some that I've never seen (the Terry Pattern Carbine, Kuntz Air Rifle, and Whitney-Burgess Carbine stick out). However, it has more typos and misplaced photos than you can imagine! Two examples are the editor not knowing how to spell the "Keene" part of the Remington-Keene Rifle and placing the bizarre-looking Webley-Fosbery Semiautomatic Revolver's photo on the description of the conventional Webley & Scott Mark V's description (the weapon is clearly stamped "Webley-Fosbery", too). There are also errors in the statistics of the weapons, but these are probably due to typos more than factual mistakes. The descritions, in some cases, are also too scant (the aforementioned Kuntz Air Rifle needs a little more and the book fails to mention the famous Ferguson Rifle, though many of the photos appear to be taken at the West Point Museum, which has a Ferguson Rifle on display). In summary, if you like over 1,000 gun photos, then get this book. If you don't like over 1,000 typos, then don't get this book.



2. Great illustrated text of the history and details of famous firearms. Although this is not an all inclusive list of firearms it has all of the historical as well as technical innovative firearms of the world, my only complaint is its grouping of firearms by country. This is now one of my favorite books to add to my more technical books on firearms.



3. Despite having good descriptions, the book does not contain enough modern guns, and lists too many ancient ones. For example, there is not a single mention of a Glock handgun in the whole book! Worthless, in my opinion.



4. This is a VERY comprehensive book which runs the gamut from early firearms up to and including (most of) the modern arms found today in sport or military usage. The photos are first rate, as are the descriptives at the beginning of each chapter.
   
   I can overlook the typos (frequent as they might be) in favor of the sheer history of featured weapons, such as the guns of the old west, and the civil war era.
   
   The book is also sectioned off into pistols/revolvers, rifles/shotguns, submachine guns, light machine guns, and heavy machine guns.
   
   Most every country that manufactures these firearms is covered, although some glaring omissions are present, most notably the Walther P99 auto pistol. Since this volume came out in 2000, it would defy logic that this weapon would NOT be included, since it's appearance in 1998-1999.
   
   Still, this is a nice addition to ANY coffee table (or bookshelf), and is well worth the paper it's printed on.



5. I found this a really stunning intro into the world of guns and gunsmithing. Everything is completely clear, and the excellent illustrations mean that even the non-expert can really enjoy the book andget the most from the author's clear and concise information. I would certainly recommend the book to anyone with an interest inthis field.

No comments about Handguns 1994 (Handguns).

No comments about Gun Digest 1995 (Gun Digest).

5 comments about Testing The War Weapons: Rifles And Light Machine Guns From Around The World.

1. Mullins tests all the major rifles of WWI, II, Korea, and Vietnam. His rifle skill and military experience combine for a unique insight into weapon performance and what it must have been like to use them in combat



2. A must have for serious students of history. This book is a no nonsense tresis on standard infantry weapons from an "operator's" viewpoint. The book helps the student to understand the advantages, disadvantages and quirks of each weapon. The remifications of these instruments upon history can then be more fully appreciated. This book is not a "scholarly" work. If the details of the development and deployment of these weapons are needed, then other sources would need to be sought. It is thick enough as it is! This book should be considered a reference of overview and not an in depth analysis of each rifle or machine gun. The text is excellent and the photos appropriate. It would be a worthy addition to any library. I highly recomend it.



3. If you like to !shoot! rifles and want to buy military surplus rifles, this is the book for you. The author covers very practical details - are the sights easy to use, is it well balanced, what is the minimum range on the sights. You might be tempted to buy a wonderful WWI rifle only to discover the minimum distance on the sights is 400 yards!
   
   This is not a 'for collectors only' book with details about how to interpret the serial numbers or the three different types of sling swivels, this is about how they feel to shoot.
   
   Very helpful for the shooter / collector - those with Curios & Relics licenses, or for those shooters who wonder what it was like for soldiers in a particular time period with regard to the weapons they were issued.



4. I'm not sorry I bought this book, yet I was a little disappointed by it.

   First the good news:

   This is a nice thick book that really does cover a lot of weapons from many different countries. The author appears to have begun shooting and collecting military firearms shortly after birth and has actual military combat experience, so his opinions ought to be considered carefully. And he certainly deserves credit for rounding up so many oddball guns in shootable condition. Except for the ordnance museum at Aberdeen Proving Ground, I'd have no idea where to find so many even to look at them in glass cases.

   And now the bad:

   1) This book contains a lot of silly errors. Words spelled wrong, sentences that don't make sense, photographs mislabeled or printed in reverse.

   2) The book's "testing" didn't really amount to much. I had imagined - perhaps unrealistically - that these guns were going to be dragged through mud, submerged in water, buried in sand, and frozen in blocks of ice. In reality, Mr. Mullin seems to have borrowed many of the weapons from his rich collector buddies and couldn't treat them so badly. And uniform accuracy testing procedures would have been nice. Most of the test firing appears to have consisted of informal plinking on warm sunny days, leaving many questions unanswered.

   3) The overall organization of this book leaves a lot to be desired. I would have liked to seen separate sections for combat rifles, sniper rifles and light machineguns, with tables in each section comparing such vital statistics as length, weight, magazine capacity, caliber, bullet weight, muzzle velocity and accuracy test results. This would be handy for comparing the different designs intended to fulfill the same role. Instead, Mullin goes by country, jumbles the different types together, gives no tabulated information, and if you're lucky he might happen to mention in the text how much the gun weighs or how long the barrel is.

   4) In the absence of any real testing, this book basically boils down to one guy's opinion of how these guns "felt" in his hands, or how they measure up overall to his personal concept of what a fighting rifle ought to be. In many cases I tend to agree with his opinions. I never felt that French and Italian guns were total junk. I never was all that impressed with the M1903 Springfield. And the original M60 surely was about the most stupidly designed machinegun ever. On the other hand, Mr. Mullin repeatedly places great importance on rapidity of fire with bolt actions while not seeming to give any special credit to the semi-auto designs. My own personal idea is that the semi-auto's ability to fire multiple shots without attention-attracting arm movements is a priceless advantage for grunts and snipers alike. Opinions are like bellybuttons - everybody's got one.

   Anyway, I think the reader should regard this book more like a stoveside chat with a respected buddy than the last word on combat rifle reliability. And I highly recommend getting the book "Cartridges of the World" along with "Small Arms of the World" or Smith and Smith's "Book of Rifles" to fill in some of the missing vital statistics.




5. This could have been a really great book on testing current and past military rifles and light machine guns. Unfortunately it is marred by a few glaring errors that place it well down the list of books I think important to the rifle or military enthusiast:

   1) To me, the reviews are quite inconsistent in nature. For example, once in a while a rifle's accuracy at 100 yards may be given, while other rifles aren't tested at all. So when the author describes a certain rifle as 'accurate' you usually have no idea what he means by that term. More seriously, the author sometimes praises a rifle's features in a test, then, in another section of the book, criticises those same features.

   2) I thought the reviews utilize historic background in a selective manner. For example, the author repeatedly praises the M1 carbine and its cartridge as a suitable offensive weapon, and mentions 'real fighting men' subscribe to this viewpoint. But he completely leaves out the carbine's horrible record of malfunctions and poor stopping power during the Korean War conflict, a record that started a intensive Army investigation and ended with the carbine being phased out of service (not to mention continuing problems with poor stopping performance during the Vietnam War with the LRRPs). Presumably these soldiers were no less 'real fighting men.'

   3. I think the book contains insufficient research. I know that the book is intended as a 'current test review', but nevertheless the author frequently wonders what a rifle's design or features must have been intended for, when in fact that fact is already known to history.

   4. Some of the test reviews are just too much to swallow whole. I mean, who could think that the French Chauchat and its 16-round .30 U.S. counterpart (a cartridge that could literally shake the weapon apart) could be anything but a piece of junk, given the well-documented history and obvious design faults? The book shows a closeup photo of the Chauchaut magazine with its huge side cutouts, but there's not even a mention of what trench mud could do and did to cartridge feeding.

   5. Some of the writing contains errors and the photos are really bad. The author needs to use a pro photographer who understands that not using fill flash in daylight for photos of rifles results in shadows and black darkness instead of details.

1 comments about Successful Gun Trading (Outdoorsman's Edge) (Outdoorsman's Edge).

1. I grew up hunting moose in Newfoundland with rifle by driving them to other hunters who lay in wait. I recently switched to solo archery hunting and I wanted to learn more about the other methods to approach my annual moose hunt. There are numerous books out there on deer and elk hunting however information specific to moose hunting is very sparse, to say the least. As such, this book fills a huge gap. I found it to be very informative regardless of your weapon of choice and it specifically covers well the strategies of Calling, Using Decoys and Using Scents to hunt moose. This book will not teach you how to call moose however if you already know how to call then this book will provide you with good information to help you with your calling strategy. One thing in particular that I like about Mr. Kelso's writing is his use of actual hunting scenarios to explain his various strategies. This book is certainly a worthy read. For those that are looking to hunt moose using archery tackle then I would also recommend "The Bowhunter's Field Manual" by Judd Cooney as a good companion to this book as it has an excellent chapter on hunting moose with archery tackle.

4 comments about Encyclopedia of Pistols and Revolvers.

1. This book is very well done, and has a picture for each gun. This book lists several popular firearms from each manufacturer and shows complete statistics. There's no history or information for each individual gun except statistics, but rather information on the company. Before the main part, there is a brief section on firearms, how they work, safety and ammunition. Great book that no firearm enthusiast should go without.



2. Definitely the best on-the-shelf guide to handguns. Comprehensive, many pictures, detailed specs. If you're in some serious studies, this is a must-have.



3. A beginner's guide, clear, concise, with color photos on every page, it reminds me of the excellent Jane's recognition guides to weapons and military equipment. Naturally, its strength is also its weakness: not enough details.

   Nevertheless, I find it very handy and fun to browse through. Published in 1996, it's not entirely out of date. Specialists and gun pros would not have much use for an "encyclopedia" this short, but it would do fine for me. I particularly like the fact that there are no antiques or collectibles here - this book is about current guns, and that's what I'm interested in. Also, slightly more pistols than revolvers are covered here - but few if any machine guns or paramilitary firearms. Hardly any rifles, which is just as well. I also wonder if there is an emphasis on European products. (The author is Dutch.) But no doubt the best-known American guns are well-represented.

   The frightening thing about this kind of book is that it gets you interested to find out more....




4. This book is a travesty! It claims to cover guns of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries, but it is nearly devoid of useful information regarding handguns produced prior to 1970!. For example, there is no entry at all under Luger or DMW! Ironically, although there are a few late model Lugers in the Mauser entry, don't expect any useful information about broomhandle Mausers. What mention there is of historical pieces is so spotty as to be extremely frustrating. While there are a few old colt revolvers mentioned, there are no entries on the pre-1911, auto-loading Colt pistols. Did Savage ever make a handgun? Must be they never did, there is no such entry in this "comprehensive encyclopedia". To think, I bought it because wanted information on pinfire revolvers of the 19th century! This book is a huge disappointment.

1 comments about Firearms Collectors Log Book, Leather (Hardcover).

1. I purchased this for my father who is an avid gun collector. The book features everything a collector would need to document information on his/her firearms. I was so pleased with this book. I love that there is space for a photo of the gun being described. More importantly, this gives a great record of firearms for the family should the collector become incapacitated or deceased. As morbid as this sounds, it is a necessity for those who know nothing about willed firearms. I would strongly recommend this to anyone who has a family member that collects firearms. It provides a priceless service.