Our book today isn’t particularly flashy or exciting, but it is a solid piece of research. It is Astra Automatic Pistols by Leonardo Antaris – and the subject is pretty self-explanatory. Antaris follow a simply and effective layout, with the book divided into chapters on each model of pistol (made very neat by Astra’s simple [...]
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When I cracked open Joseph Bilby’s 2006 book A Revolution in Arms: A History of the First Repeating Rifles, I was hoping for a history of the development of repeating rifles, and didn’t quite get that. It’s a subtle difference, but Bilby’s work is primarily about the use of the Henry and Spencer repeating rifles. [...] Here’s a question: considering that by 1945 John Garand had developed working prototypes of the T20 rifle (basically an M1 with a select-fire trigger mechanism and a 20-round box magazine), why did it take the Army until 1957 to actually adopt the M14 (basically an M1 with a select-fire trigger mechanism and a 20-round box [...] Central Powers Pistols, by Jan Still, is a bit of a neither-fish-nor-fowl book. It has many more and better quality photos than most heavy-duty reference works, but also has much more detailed information (particularly on markings and serial numbers) than most coffee table volumes. I wasn’t really sure what to make of it at first, [...] Most folks are aware of the M1941 Johnson semiauto rifle, which competed valiantly but unsuccessfully withthe M1 Garand for the position of standard US service rifle during WWII. What most people aren’t as familiar with is the story of Melvin Johnson, and the other projects he was involved in both before and after the war. [...] Today’s book review is a re-run, because I’ve been re-reading this book in preparation for doing some video on an 1877 Gatling gun: The book we’re looking at is Paul Wahl and Donald Toppel’s The Gatling Gun, published back in 1971. In some cases old books are outdated, but this is a case where an [...] Our book today is German Flare Pistols and Signal Ammunition, by Dr. Lorenz Scheit (and edited in English by Dr. Geoffrey Sturgess). This is a 700-page, full-color tome covering more flare pistols and ammunition for them that you had any idea existed: Simpson Ltd puts out Deluxe editions of several of their books, including [...] The Whitney Wolverine (aka Whitney, Lightning, or Hillson Imperial) was a very space-age looking .22 automatic pistol designed by Robert Hillberg in the 1950s. It made novel use of materials (aluminum castings) and many clever design subtleties, and was a remarkably good pistol. However, the company set up to manufacture it made some critical marketing [...] The final chapter in our continuing Luger series is today’s book, The Parabellum is Back! While Sturgess’ three-volume encyclopedia covers the pistol through 1918 and Simson Lugers takes us through Weimar, that leaves a lot still to learn. Luger production continued in World War II, and afterwards under French occupation. After the demolition of the [...] We’ve been on a bit of a Luger kick recently, and it continues today. A few weeks ago we looked at Geoffrey Sturgess’ three-volume tome on Luger and Borchardt development, which takes the story of the Luger through the end of World War I. Today, we have Simson Lugers by Edward Tinker and Graham Johnson, [...] |
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