Recently I was going through my reading material and, being in a nostalgic mood, I decided to read an old favorite, “The Hunting Rifle” by Jack O’ Connor. After reading a couple of chapters, I was reminded of just how much this book has influenced and taught me; from my […]

If you’re like me and constantly looking at new and used guns, you probably have spent some time developing sources of credible information. The Blue Book of Gun values is one of those reference books that is worth having around. The newest release was published April 2006. The book contains […]

I hadn’t owned or shot a military rifle for almost thirty years when I decided there were too many of these interesting in inexpensive bits and pieces of hardware to ignore. I acquired a Turkish Mauser, then various Mosin Nagants, a Swiss K31 and, most recently, a 1924/47 Yugoslav Mauser. […]

I know this title might be a bit disconcerting to anyone who has invested time in formal gunsmith training, but I do believe most of us have come to understand the differences between performing routine maintenance and accessory installation, and chambering and fitting a new barrel. If you are standing […]

I buy gun books, with some frequency, to further my search for firearm related enlightenment. For those of you who visit the site, I am sure it is obvious my journey is not quite over. I’ve found that gun books are like rock groups; some are good at performing, some […]

There are some things in the life of gun dabblers that just don’t go on and come off with a wrench or a screw driver. Sometimes that’s a good thing, as safety is facilitated by making knowledge a prerequisite for attempting some tasks. There are also those skill things, you […]

My expectations for “Gunsmoke and Saddle Leather” fell when I took it out of it’s shipping carton; it was too light. At 12.25″x9.50″x1.75″ and 522 pages it weights only 4 lbs 9 oz.. By comparison, the prior review, “Winchester – An American Legend, 11.50″x8.75″1.50” and 404 pages weighs 5 lbs […]

Published in the latter part of 2004, R. L. Wilson wrote this title, in cooperation with Winchester, to acknowledge  the marque’s 125th anniversary. A thick 404 pages, there is little word padding. “Winchester – An American legend” is filled with excellent color and black and white photographs of historical and […]

The book is one of the Dover Book series on antiques and collecting. The author, W.Y. Carman is an expert in the field and served as Deputy Director of the Imperial War Museum in London. This is an easy to read book, punctuated with lots of ink drawings that milestones […]

“Gunpowder” has some elements I wish were more prevalent in other firearm related books; original perspective, well documented research/reference sources and quality production. A good number of recently published firearm related books are almost entirely cliché with material extracted from the work of others without a mention of origin. Like […]