Customer Reviews

The Gun Digest Book of Firearms Assembly/Disassembly Part I - Automatic Pistols (Gun Digest Book of Firearms Assembly/Disassembly: Part 1 Automatic Pistols) (Pt. 1)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is an excellent guide for disassembly. It is worthless as a guide for reassembly. There are no step-by-step instructions for reassembling a firearm. At best, the book assumes that reassembly is the reversal of the steps involved in disassembly. This is not necessarily so. I would not recommend this book to a hobbyist.

If you cannot field strip a weapon you really have no business owning it. I bought the volume on automatic pistols and I was not disappointed. For most of my life I was a revolver man and I stayed away from automatics because I didn't understand them- and I was convinved that they were unreliable. When I bought my first Model 1911 (which has NEVER jammed on me) it didn't have a field manual, so I bought this book. It didn't take long before I was field stripping and reassembling blind-folded. I feel confident that I could do the same with any automatic even loosely based on John Browning's designs. I might have trouble with German designs like the Luger or Broom handle Mauser, but after studying this book I feel sure that I could eventually master them too.

I have a small collection and was asked by my neighbor, to clean his Colt 1903 32cal automatic. Well, it's take down is not like more recent weapons and the the step by step illustrations were a great help in getting that puppy cleaned and rearing to go.

Andy Davis

Someone has already pointed out that reassembly is a little short. Sometimes, reassembly requires a little more, but that's not my complaint. The book is great, but I keep waiting on his second edition of each Part, as not all guns are covered and I need information on some of the ones that are not. Such as the S&W 39 series.

As far as Amazon and other sellers go, they need to publish the index page so you know what guns are covered in a particular Part. No fun to buy the book only to find out the gun you need to know about is not included.

Even though this doesn't cover the make and model that I am most interested in right now, there are enough similar guns to give me a good idea of how to disassemble and reassemble my gun.

If you would like to do more than just field strip you favorite auto pistol this could be just what you are looking for. The instructions are easy for the non-gunsmith to understand and follow. The photos give a good view of the pricidure being discussed. The only down side of the book, and the reason I gave it 4 insted of 5 stars is that it has a lot of obscure pistol most of us will never see. This was space that could have been used for more up to date and common pistols.

this is a very well written book. i found it easy to follow with lots of pictures. this makes firearms cleaning easy and safe.

A classic. Easy to read, easy to follow, and answers all your questions!
I also have part 2 and 3. All are great. Well worth the money.

This book and all the others in the series are invaluable to the professional gunsmith, firearms hobbiest, or the casual gun owner who just likes to "see how things work" but can't always quite remember whether this little spring went in here, or over there.