How to Design, Build, and Sell Your Own Small Arms (Home Workshop Guns for Defense & Resistance) [Paperback]

Bill Holmes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 1994

Master gun maker Bill Holmes shares what will and won't work in designing and building rifles and shotguns from raw materials. Includes the fine points of creating everything from actions to sights, as well as tips on tools, materials, assembly, finishing and more. For academic study only.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Bill Holmes is one of the last remaining links to a bygone era. He first learned about gunsmithing more than 50 years ago from a guy who took his "fix-it" wagon all around doing odd jobs. Since then, Bill has designed and constructed innumerable firearms, written seven books and been featured in two videos for Paladin and become one of the country's best-known and most highly respected authorities on home-workshop weapons and firearms laws.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Paladin Press (November 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0873647920
• ISBN-13: 978-0873647922
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #303,693 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Technical and Non-intuitive., July 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: How to Design, Build, and Sell Your Own Small Arms (Home Workshop Guns for Defense & Resistance) (Paperback)

Some authors have a gift for conveying their thoughts to the reader in simple, non-technical terms. Bill Holms, author of this book, simply isn't one of them. This book is a helpful guide for designing your own marketable firearms, but practically requires that you be well-versed in the inner workings of guns to start with. There seems to be a few holes here and there, such as the lack of information on the case extraction and ejection systems, and a good, thourough explanation is rare indeed; Holmes instead covers a huge variety of action types (bolt, autoloading, etc.) and other mechanisms, but devotes only minimal space to each.

Overall, the book (which includes the plans for a 12-gauge shotgun and 10-round magazine)is a worthwhile buy to those who already have a good idea of how a gun works. Otherwise, you're better off simply sticking with books by P.A. Luty or Gerard Metral.

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Before you order this book . . . ., August 30, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: How to Design, Build, and Sell Your Own Small Arms (Home Workshop Guns for Defense & Resistance) (Paperback)

This book is nice reading if you already know what the gun trade is about, but it gives only minimal information on the actual construction of firearms. Too much talk and crude drawings do not really promote this publication. If you're after a nuts-and-bolts handbook for firearms construction, don't buy this one, but start off with something simple. P.T.Luty's book would be a useful alternative.

25 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Outdated by 20 Years, August 8, 2003

By 

BuildSomething "Build Something Please" (TN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How to Design, Build, and Sell Your Own Small Arms (Home Workshop Guns for Defense & Resistance) (Paperback)

The author of this book prides himself of not having a formal education and it shows. You will find no useful technical information necessary to safely design, build, and test firearms.
What I didn't like about this book: Outdated information about firearms laws, hand drawn technical drawings (get a DELL dude), no information on new manufacturing technologies such as composite materials or CNC, total lack of technical information, single page on marketing of firearms. (There is more but I stop here)
What I did like about this book: It has a shiny cover.
If you are looking for real information on the engineering of firearms look elsewhere.