Book Review: International Arms Review 1

We’ve all seen the books of compiled articles at gun shows, printed by Gun Digest or other sundry magazines. I usually don’t give them a second glance, at least until now. I had a friend point out this one in particular, International Arms Review 1. Printed in the late 1970s, it is a lot more interesting than I would have expected, as its editor focused on unusual topics for its articles. The majority are about early breechloading systems, but it does also get into some medieval arms & armor areas and a few more modern guns.

The complete table of contents consists of:

Giant Siege Guns of Paris
History of the Pellet Gun
The Gewehr 88 and its Variants
Block-Operated Target and Gallery Rifles
The Lugers
The Dreyse Needle Gun
Shotgun Slugs
The Gun Collection in Erbach Castle, Odenwald
The Bavarian Werder Rifle, Model 1869
The Zig-Zag Mauser
From Hallmark to Proof-Mark
The Lefaucheux Pin-Fire System
Broomhandle Mauser (C96)
The Austrian Breech Loader M67
The Halberds
The Heerenbuchse
Ferlach – Ancient Home of the Austrian Gunmaker
The FG-42 Paratroop Rifle
Schwarzlose Pistol
Evolution of the Assault Rifle Since WWII
Can Pistols Stop Cars?
7.63 Astra vs C96 Mauser
The Mysterious Chamber of Nazidom
Zanotti
Belt-Buckle Pistol
A Wheel-Lock Curiosity
Collette’s Gravity Loaders
The Crossbow as Sporting Weapon
The Introduction of Firearms to Europe
The 1911 Swiss Service Rifle
Firing the Needle Gun
The Age of Armor
The Portuguese Guedes Rifle, Model 1885
Evolution of the Machine Gun in the German Army
The Norwegian Rifle With the Tip-Up Chamber
The Rheinmetall Automatic Shotgun No. 4
Granddad’s Rifle is not Dead
The Old Prussian Hussar Sabre
Nagant Gas-Check Revolver 7.62mm Model 1895
The Russian Simonov Carbine (SKS)

Few people will be interested in everything there, but I expect many folks will find a lot of the articles worthwhile. I’ve included two different Amazon links, since they point to different sellers:

8 Comments

  1. Well, your video certainly makes an impact on the selling prices. They’ve now hit $24 on Amazon.com
    Thankfully it was a lot cheaper on Amazon.co.uk.

    • Well, that’s kinda gratifying to see, I suppose. 🙂 Looking at the listings compared to yesterday, I think it’s not so much that the prices went up, but all the cheap copies were bought up. Gotta be quick to get the good deals!

  2. Great review. I am seriously considering spending some of my meager funds to get that book!

    On another note, blow up that Ross already! The anticipation is killing me.

  3. When I finally got to watch the video, the typography and design looked strangely familiar. Upon checking, my suspicion has been confirmed: at least a few of the articles shown in the video are direct reproductions (well, except for the english translation, I suppose) of articles from german monthly “Deutsches Waffen Journal (DWJ)”, dating from 1964 to 1967 (at least the ones I could find by perusing the indexes of my reprints from these 4 years). Not a bad source of information at all!
    So those ‘International Arms Reviews’ are truly international in not only covering international topics, but being reprints of (at least one) international publication(s).

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