Cartridges of the World: A Complete and Illustrated Reference for Over 1500 Cartridges [Paperback]

Frank C. Barnes (Author), Holt Bodinson (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Cartridges of the World | Publication Date: October 20, 2009

If you shoot, this book is for you. This premiere ammunition guide outlines the different facets of a wide variety of cartridges, and in doing so helps you chose the best caliber for the type of shooting you are doing. You'll refer to this book's large-size photographs, load data and ballistics for commercially made, obsolete, military and wildcat cartridges, from the 1870s to the present, over and over again.

Product Details

• Paperback: 568 pages
• Publisher: Gun Digest Books; 12 edition (October 20, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0896899365
• ISBN-13: 978-0896899360
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #20,893 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #11 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Hunting & Fishing > Shooting

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

55 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Cartridges of the World: 12th Edition, October 25, 2009

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Robert Bennett (Woodbridge, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Cartridges of the World: A Complete and Illustrated Reference for Over 1500 Cartridges (Paperback)

I gave away my 11th Edition of Cartridges of the World a few months ago, and was eager to get a 12th Edition. When it came, I was disappointed to discover that they'd discontinued the scaled drawings at the bottom of the page on the more popular cartridges.
One of the first cartridges I wanted to look up was the 8x60 mm Mauser, so I went to the index and found that it was listed on page 422. It didn't take long to discover that the copy that had been sent to me didn't have a page 422. It didn't have a page 423 either.
Without the drawings, there is no way to determine the length of the cartridges from rim to shoulder, and some of the newer cartridges do not have dimensions at all, the 400 H&H, for instance, and the 9.3x66 mm Sako.
I'm strongly motivated to get another copy of the 11th Edition before they become collector's items.

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars COTW - Almost as much wrong as right, February 22, 2010

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E. Singleton "Clinocio" (Zimbabwe) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Cartridges of the World: A Complete and Illustrated Reference for Over 1500 Cartridges (Paperback)

Probably the most quoted source for cartridges, but has a great deal of obsolete and inaccurate information. To begin, the cover claims a "complete and illustrated reference for over 1,500 cartridges", yet there are barely over 900 and several of these have no illustrations. Statements like "turn of the century" refer to 1900 - not 2000. "Recent 6mm cartridges" refers to those developed in the mid 1950s - not the ones from the past 15 years. Much of the loading data is from the 60s and 70s. There are a number of factual flaws that continue to appear with each new edition and nothing seems to be done to correct them. For example one Russian military cartridge designation is 7.62x54R - not 7.62x53R (7.62x53R is the designation used for Finland cartridges with smaller diameter bullets). The 340 Weatherby brass is not soft and it would be a stupid idea to substitute 8mm Remington brass (does it even make sense that 340 brass from Norma would be soft when none of the other cartridge brass they produce for Weatherby is?). There is also a statement on the 243 Winchester that provides no value; "...reputation for erratic performance" (the actual issue is that reduced charges of slow burning power can produce high pressure.) A table of dimensions replaces cartridge diagrams that were in previous versions. Unfortunately they don't include critical dimensions like base to shoulder length or shoulder angle. Both the 11th and 12th editions prominently display Hornady on the front and back cover and identify some of Hornady's achievements like light magnums and LeverRevolution cartridges that greatly extend the capabilities of lever action cartridges. Yet they completely neglect to include this information with the actual cartridges. While a small part of the older content has been updated, most has not. It appears all that is done is they add a new special interest chapter of about 25 pages that replaces the one in the previous edition, add new cartridges when they go into production and call it complete.

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars 12th edition not up to standard, February 10, 2010

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David Riddle "wizzrdofahs" (Boonville, MO) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Cartridges of the World: A Complete and Illustrated Reference for Over 1500 Cartridges (Paperback)

Frank Barnes's 6th edition of this book had photos of guns that used specific cartridges. Although this edition says it has photos of guns, it really contains none. Typographical errors are on almost every page. Some cartridges listings contain the wrong photo. For example, the 38-40 on page 77 has the same photo as the 378 Weatherby on page 76. Any time the .30 180 Scirocco bullet is mentioned, 3250 fps is listed as the muzzle velocity, no matter how ridiculous, like the Remington Short Action Ultra Mag on page 54. Layne Simpson is named as the editor and a poor job of editing it is, Mr. Simpson. You know, you trust people and then they sell this trash.