[max popenker]

Gentlemen,

I'm seeking your educated advice on expanding my small arms / automatic weapons library. I'm especially interested in in-depth technical and historical publications which are out of print but can be occasionaly bought second-hand.

For example, I'm looking for books like Col.Chinn's 5-volume "Machine gun" set (i have 1st volume on paper and others in electronic format), Melvin Johnson's "Automactic arms", Tom Nelson's "Assault rifles" (i have both old and new volumes and can highly recommend either) and "Submachine guns" etc

As of now, my small small arms library has slightly more than 200 books, mostly in English language (with few in German, Russian and others), and I'm looking to expand it

I also have many books and manuals in electronic format, which I can share

Thanks in advance for any advice or leads.

 

[dfariswheel]

A good one is the two volume set "International Armament" by Johnson and Lockhoven.
This was published under the supervision of Sam Cummins of InterArms. it was re-printed in the 1990's.

Volume One covers military pistols, single shot rifles, and bolt action rifles.
Volume Two coves semi-auto rifles, submachine guns, light machine guns, and heavy machine guns.

There's LOT of info including history, markings, and a short history of usage, along with disassembly instructions.
"Back in the day" this set was considered to be a standard referance on military arms.

Since InterArms was a huge international arms dealer, they had full access to the actual firearms.

Another referance was "Small Arms of the World". Originally written by W.H.B. Smith, it was later edited by other people.
It has chapters on the development of the differant types of firearms, then chapters on each country and the arms it used.

Smith also wrote the standard referance books "The Book of Pistols and Revolvers" and "The Book of Rifles and Shotguns".
These covered military and commercial arms in depth.

 

[Portholio]

Get all the back issues of Machine Gun News that you can find. Dan Shea ftw

Folke's MG-34/MG-42 German Universal Machineguns is a must have.