Book measures roughly ~6-5/8" by ~9-1/2" (portrait); ~7/8" thick; 320 pages.
Dust-jacket is in error from the publisher - front inside flap is for the Encyclopaedia of Rifles and Carbines - hence the reason for bargain price on this book! All other information from the dust-jacket and inside the book is correct for the publication.

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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RIFLES AND HANDGUNS IS A LAVISHLY ILLUSTRATED BOOK PROVIDING A COMPREHENSIVE HISTORY OF MILITARY AND CIVILIAN PERSONAL FIREPOWER

With the introduction of gunpowder in the 14th century, the quest to perfect the gun began. Encyclopedia of Rifles and Handguns describes the chief developments in that quest for power - muzzles energy, bullet weight and stopping power - and traces the rise of the handgun and the rifle from their rudimentary beginnings through all the innovations and exploitations of new materials to today's high-precision weapons. From the wheel lock and flintlock to Samuel Colt's famous Peacemaker, from the introduction of smokeless propellants to the gas-operated big-bore pistols, the key contributions are examined and all the great makers and their models are reviewed - Colt, Adams, Smith & Wesson, Browning, Heckler & Koch, Holland & Holland, This Encyclopedia, packed with superb illustrations, is the essential companion for all handgun enthusiasts.

Book measures roughly ~8-3/4" by ~11-3/8" (portrait); ~5/8" thick; 160 pages.

David Petzal and a staff of 26 firearms writers and specialists have put together the most authoritative and complete encyclopedic guide to sporting firearms ever published. With over 2,000 entries on every subject from hunting to handloading, from muskets to powder hoots, from Mausers to Winchesters, plus over 250 photographs and line drawings, Petzal and his staff have assembled the essential reference for all collectors, hunters, and target shooters.

The legend and lore of hunting and guns is all here: Hundreds of entries cover the important personalities - Colt, Remington, Season, Ruger, and dozens of others - the famous rifles and guns, the arms manufacturers from Colt and Winchester to Peters Cartridge and Savage Arms. The article on gun collecting gives a perfect overview of the hobby, and the collector will also want to check the articles on California stock, checkering, and flintlock rifles - with cross-references that will send him on a fascinating tour of dozens of other articles. Historians will be delighted with an article like the one on Alexander Forsyth, who patented the first percussion ignition system. Anyone curious about antique guns might turn to the article on muzzleloading - and will find it hard to resist going on to the articles on muzzleloaders, cleaning of; muzzleloaders, dating of; muzzleloaders, match; muzzleloaders, sights for; and muzzleloaders, stock types - not to mention the articles on muzzleloading pistols and shotguns.

Articles on guns and loads for doves, elk, sheep, pheasant, deer, pronghorn, quail, and many other kinds of game are all included. These provide essential information in compact form that all hunters will appreciate. Handguns and handgun hunting are not neglected either: See the articles on revolver, handgun bullet, handgun cartridges, handgun sights, and handgun stocks for thorough treatments of these subjects in all their aspects from collecting to target shooting to hunting.

The sport of target shooting gets considerable attention here, too. With many articles on sights and targets, plus pieces on competition shooting (Pan American games shooting events, Olympic games shooting events), the target shooter will find exactly the kind of information he is looking for.

The technical information presented here is truly impressive. Even the experts will have something to learn from articles like bullet casting, Greenhill formula, or shotgun ballistics. And the tables and charts included will provide essential information for anyone interested in handloading, ballistics, optics, and other technical matters.

David Petzal's staff includes 26 writers, among them editors or former editors of Field & Stream, Gun Digest, Sports Afield, Outdoor Life, Shooting Times, and The American Rifleman, among other important gun publications, as well as the authors of many books on collecting, shooting, and hunting. This is the ultimate source for information on all aspects of sporting firearms, an authoritative reference, and the one complete encyclopedia that everyone interested in the subject can turn to for the most reliable and up-to-date information.

Book measures roughly ~8-3/4" by ~11-1/4" (portrait); ~1-1/8" thick; 370 informative pages; over 250 photographs and line drawings.

Part Henry Ford, part Sam Colt, part Enzo Ferrari - but 100 percent his own man - and an All-American original, William B. Ruger has made a resounding success in modern times, in an industry many thought was dying. He started in 1949 as an underdog who was told "it can't be done." Today, his line of firearms stands supreme, and his factories are the model for contemporary business entrepreneurship and enlightened manufacturing techniques.

From a meager $50,000 investment and the partnership of his friend Alexander Sturm (son-in-law of Alice Roosevelt Longworth), Sturm, Ruger & Co. mushroomed into an industrial powerhouse that made more than 600,000 firearms in 1994, outsells all competitors, and boasts the broadest client base of any arms-maker in history - guns for hunting and target shooting, for collecting, self-defense, law enforcement, and the armed forces. These are original designs made with time-honored style but using space-age technology.

This book is the story of William B. Ruger's unflinching dedication to traditional yet innovative design and to manufacturing excellence, with products sold at a reasonable price for a broad-ranging clientele from the youthful plinker to the mature African safari devotee, from the ordinary citizen to the president of the United States.

Forbes magazine termed Bill Ruger "crusty and unflappable," and no one in the contemporary firearms field is more deserving of the axiom "a legend in his own time." This richly illustrated, beautifully presented work joins R. L. Wilson's other firearms classics: Colt: An American Legend, Winchester: An American Legend, The Peacemakers, and Steel Canvas - a library of books that comprise an unsurpassed tribute to the art and craftsmanship, history, mechanics, performance, and romance unique to fine guns.

Lavish in every way, Ruger is the official history of William B. Ruger of Sturm, Ruger & Co., and of Ruger firearms. This volume features more than 185 color and over 100 black-and-white illustrations, with appendixes, index, and - for the first time - serial-number tables for all models by years of manufacture.

Book measures roughly ~11-1/4" by ~8-7/8" (landscape); ~1-1/8" thick; 358 pages.

The most popular articles to appear in our magazine, Sporting Classics, have always been those on firearms. It seems just about everyone has an interest in guns; such and such double reminds someone of his Dad, or "that's just like the one I had when I learned to shoot."

We discovered this intense interest years ago through our editorial surveys, and so we have tried to have a meaningful gun piece in every issue of the magazine.

This book contains the best of those articles; every one insightful and revealing because all fine things start out as someone's dream and guns are no exception.

You will find your interest here too; fine rifles, the story of repeating shotguns, and America's great double guns.

Someone once said the technological history of a nation lies in its guns and cars. I don't know about the cars, but the sporting arms of the country are truly second to none.

- JOHN CULLER

Book measures roughly ~8-1/8" by ~11" (portrait); ~5/8" thick; 227 pages.

The addition of new information from previously untapped sources truly makes this twelfth edition of Small Arms of the World the modern-day bible of global small arms weaponry. Completely revised by arms technologist Edward C. Ezell, the book has been improved with listings of countries that supplement those on China, Denmark, France, Czechoslovakia, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, the United States, and other nations that appeared previously. The chapter on the Soviet Union has also been substantially expanded with important data on that nation's weapons. An increased number of pages are devoted to a more complete study of ammunition as well.

A popular innovation in the 1977 edition has again been incorporated into this revision - the first undertaken since that time. It is the section on small arms developments since 1945 in which Mr. Ezell targets and addresses the interests of today's weapons watchers. Here, he charts the recent histories first of rifles and carbines, then of machine guns, submachine guns, pistols, and special purpose weapons. This is also where he cites the influence of Eugene Stoner on Western arms development and of Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov on the East.

Specifically, these chapters highlight NATO and Soviet caliber rifles, NATO and Soviet machine guns, major submachine guns, pistols and special purpose weapons with emphasis directed on silencers, sniper rifles and Capabilities for firing through ports. Each country's achievements are also recognized.

One important feature that remains intact from the original W.H.B. Smith classic is the book's country-by-country breakdowns of weapons manufacture and use. With the revisions, these pages provide more in-depth information on assembly, disassembly and maintenance of each nation's major arms than was included in any earlier edition. Entries for the M14, M16, AK and PK families are examples of this. In general, the output and weapons-use policies of each country have been scrutinized - and its trends analyzed - to produce the current level of comprehensive information in this book.

The overall purpose of the revised Small Arms of the World is to bring arms enthusiasts up to date on the production and use of weapons around the globe. As the newest edition of the widest-ranging reference on international small arms weaponry ever published, it succeeds on all counts.

Book measures roughly ~8-3/4" by ~11-1/8" (portrait); ~2" thick; 894 pages.