Customer Reviews

Air Gun Digest

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Jess Galen is a prolific author on a number of shooting sports, and he's particularly enthusiastic about airguns. Problem is, the Air Gun Digest is not a really well-thought out book, but rather an updating and rewrite of Robert Beeman's original Air Gun Digest, itself a book whose content was crabbed from many sources. The result is a mix of articles by different authors in different styles without much organization. There are reviews of guns, but many are out of date, and the coverage is hardly exhaustive. Then again, it's the only mass market book on air guns currently in print in the US, so it's proably worth having if you're a fan of air guns. Serious air gunners should look for the many air gun books published in England (and there are many) by authors like Gerald Cardew, Terry Doe, John Darling and others.

The authors provide little technical comment or evaluative reviews of various air guns or air gun types. For example, you will find no tests showing true velocites compared to advertised claims; nor will you find comment on the quality of the trigger, accuracy, or loudness. So, while you will get a general overview of air guns you will not get the kind of information or reviews needed to help you decide which gun best meets your needs.

THe author writes columns about airguns in a few magazines too. The problem is that his published works seems like puff pieces for various airgun companies--he never has a bad word to say. Consider this as a book of extended product ads and you won't go wrong. Just don't make a buying decision based on it.
Some of the Digest articles were either from his magazine columns of the same era, or his magazine cloumns from this book. (Columns of the There are few airguns books out, but nearly any are better than this if you want to have in-depth knowledge about airguns. I suggest books by TOm Gaylord, or the book Airguns; from trigger to target.
That said, this is a good obsolete book form learning about some airguns available in a shallow, non-critical way.

This publication came out in 1995 and most of the air rilfes and pistols reviewed are out of production. A lot of good basic information is there, but if you are looking for up to date information this book is not for you. Also, the prices of the airguns are not listed. And all the reviews are old. Too bad, because there is not a lot of good and up to date information on air guns available. They need to publish another edition.

This may be over a decade old but if you are new to airgunning you can't help but learn a lot of usefull information.

The air gun field isn't as popular in the press as the firearms field in this country because we are(still) granted the rights and freedoms won by our soldiers in battle against the very counties others site as 'expert' in the air gun field. To bad their countries don't trust them with real guns. Anyway, I do wish there was an update on the airgun field, its been 11 years now since the third edition. Since Krause Publications bought out the old DBI books, the priorities seemed to have changed. However it would pay to consider that the 1st edition came out in 1977, the second, in 1988, the 3rd in 1995. So they are about due for another. Regardless of what you think about the writing, Robert Beeman is a noted industry authority, and Galan has over 25 years in the field also. Galan writes in a tongue in cheek style and if you read between the lines, you get a true and accurate assessment of the air gun he is reporting. I've been happy with the airgun digest, I have learned alot more about a wider variety of airguns than I could from any other single source and look forward to the next edition.

I found this a well written book on the many airguns available. I enjoyed the review and would recommend it to anyone seeking more information on modern airguns. The reviews at the back of the book are very helpful but retail prices would improve the book. Many rare airguns are listed in the book which serves as a valuable resource. The book does a fine job of detailing the many types and style of airguns made over the years as well as the different systems used to power the airguns, spring, co2, pneumatic, gas ram, etc. I rate it as five stars!

Doug Law

I found this a well written book on the many airguns available. I enjoyed the review and would recommend it to anyone seeking more information on modern airguns. The reviews at the back of the book are very helpful but retail prices would improve the book. Many rare airguns are listed in the book which serves as a valuable resource. The book does a fine job of detailing the many types and style of airguns made over the years as well as the different systems used to power the airguns, spring, co2, pneumatic, gas ram, etc. I rate it as five stars!

Doug Law

J.I. Galan has written a fair amount about airguns (and more) in the sporting press, and this book does have a fair bit of useful information. Unfortunately it's now over a decade old, and even when it came out it wasn't particularly up to date or comprehensive; it's more of a scattershot collection of essays on various airguns and airgun topics. It's still a useful (and enjoyable) book for serious airgun fans, but as a reference manual it has its limits.