Stupid gun book

[jsalcedo]

I just bought a book called:
From 1450 to the Present Day The World's Great Handguns. By Roger Ford

It starts off pretty interesting like most of these type books, history of cannon, gun powder etc... but then it rambles on about gun manufacturers and in a scatter-brained manner jumps around describing different guns, ignition methods, actions etc...

It loosely and haphazardly decribes his pistol designs in no particular order mixing colt dragoons with nambus and flintlocks.

My main problem with the book is the illustrations. They do not match what is being described in the text.

Each photograph or illustration gives the caliber of a gun as a number instead of a cartridge for example:

Colt .38 special Detective
Caliber .38 in 9.6mm

Most people know a .38 is .357in :banghead:

Every illustration unless the bullet size is exact they take the name literally

.44 magnum 11.17 mm

.44 mag is .429 which is 10.89mm

I can't see how the author who is supposedly a weapons expert could let 80
pages of these glaring errors be published.

To make matters worse he turns this supposedly encylclopedic work into a politcal soap box:

The Black Talon should have probably been on sale only to law enforcemrnt agencies right from the start, but Winchester made them available to the general public for "defensive and hunting purposes" an apologist adding, by the way of explanation 'after all more criminals are confronted by private citizens than by police officers' The black talon round, a bullet designed to rip your guts out (as described by one US legislator) came under such concerted attack that the company withdrew it from sale in 1993 while continuing to insist, perhaps somewhat ingenuously in view of its decision to put it on the open market that it had only been developed in response to demand from law enforecement agencies.

The Author Roger Ford is a specialist military and aviation writer who has written the "definitive book on macine guns "The Grim Reaper"
His area of expertise is weapons technology and employment of weapons on the battlefield. He currently lives in France.

 

[Chipperman]

"He currently lives in France."

'nuff said

 

[M99M12]

It's OK. Ignorance is bliss.
Just had an out-of-state friend ask me if I had a license to carry. :banghead:

 

[GT]

the company withdrew it from sale in 1993 while continuing to insist, perhaps somewhat ingenuously in view of its decision to put it on the open market that it had only been developed in response to demand from law enforecement agencies

His English isn't right either, he means disingenuously.

G

 

[Chipperman]

"Just had an out-of-state friend ask me if I had a license to carry."

OK to be fair, how many people who are not heavily into guns would know that VT requires no license?

 

[Standing Wolf]

Sounds as though Roger needs to invest in a computer and start hanging out at http://www.thehighroad.org

 

[dfariswheel]

I suspect this is another of those British "Coffee table" gun books you often see for sale on the clearance table of the local book store.

These are written by British authors who MAY be small arms experts, but what they appear to do is to go to a British museum that has a gun collection, and "do a book" on whatever happens to be in the collection.

It's for this reason that you find oddities that don't belong in the book, but since it's in the collection, looks interesting, and pads out the book, it gets included.

This accounts for finding things like a rare S&W Schofield revolver RIFLE in a book about Submachine guns, an pictures and descriptions of home-made guns and really strange alterations to firearms that some European sportsman thought was just great.

The real trouble starts when the author's publisher hands it over to editors who know NOTHING about small arms, and couldn't care less.

This is why you find pictures mislabeled or a picture of the wrong gun being described.

I have one of these British books with a picture of a very well used, but fancy Colt 7 1/2" Single Action Army pictured in a description of a Webley double action revolver, and a picture of a standard Soviet AKM in a description of a Russian AK-SU "Krinkov".

 

[jsalcedo]

I suspect this is another of those British "Coffee table" gun books you often see for sale on the clearance table of the local book store.

I've got quite a few of these type books but they are by Ian V. Hogg
Everything he writes or collaborates on is fantastic.

It's when I stray and buy the brand new $10 book at the discount book store
is when I run into trouble.

 

[mole]

I picked up a copy of The Gun and its Development which is a fairly good book. In the edition I have they give a brief description of the "new" 98 mauser and 1903 springfield and much isn't known about the Mosin Nagant.

 

[Jim K]

Most gun books by Englishmen or Frenchmen are nonsense, simply because the authors have never seen any of the guns they write so knowingly about. Supposedly Ian Fleming had advice from experts, but his gun goofs are legendary and silly. Further, the effort of English writers to be politically correct and translate every measurement into metric becomes first painful, then ridiculous, as they never seem to be able to get things right. One writer mentions "...the .455 Webley (116mm)..." and then caps that with a picture of a "...powerful .09mm Lager pistol." I was not sure if he was referring to caliber or alcohol content.

Jim

 

[jsalcedo]

I was not sure if he was referring to caliber or alcohol content.

I'm sure the latter influenced the former.

 

[ACP230]

While I wouldn't call it definitive The Grim Reaper is a good book on MGs.

 

[Justin]

It may be a good book, but the title is asinine.

+1 for Ian V. Hogg's stuff, though. I understand he died a couple of years back.

 

[Aguila Blanca]

He currently lives in France.

Sort of sums it up rather neatly, don't you think?

 

[jsalcedo]

1 for Ian V. Hogg's stuff, though. I understand he died a couple of years back.

That would be sad news indeed. Where did you hear about his death

Last gun show I passed up a Ian v. Hogg signed copy of 1969 edition of Small Arms of the world for $50

 

[antediluvianist]

Ah, France. Got run out of Vietnam. Just like...ah....never mind.

 

[Bridger]

Yep, one of those british coffee table books as so aptly described above. I used to like them when I was a kid for the pretty pictures

Was milling about the bookstore the other day and saw one of 'em for sale, picked it up, looked through it. I realized I just know a lot more than whoever wrote that book. Went on and saw some books by Massad Ayoob elsewhere in the store, much better!

I just don't understand how someone can claim to be a weapons expert but not own any or live in one of those countries. If you can't handle and shoot firearms on a regular basis then you can't possibly be an expert!

I wonder if these authors ever run into any Americans who tell them how little they know?

 

[dfariswheel]

I think these European, especially British "experts" ARE experts........on current and recent issue MILITARY small arms.

It's when they start talking about civilian firearms that they expose their inexperience.

More inaccuracy creeps in when the totally ignorant editors start putting pictures and text together.

The worst I ever saw was an older (1970's) Italian book on pistols.
Virtually EVERY description and stats listing was completely wrong in almost every way.

As an example, the Colt Detective Special was listed as having a 1 3/4" barrel, with a "manual safety", AND a "hammer mounted safety".

This inaccurate info was repeated for ALL Colt DA revolvers.