Customer Reviews

The Do-it-Yourself Submachine Gun: It's Homemade, 9mm, Lightweight, Durable-And It'll Never Be On Any Import Ban Lists!

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Just got the book this afternoon and let me tell you that this is a keeper.
From a mechanical engineering designer's line of sight, this book is the exact contrast to Bill Holmes' .50 Cal Disaster. No hand drawn doodles like Holmes (Metral has heard of CAD) and is entirely up to standard drafting techniques. As with any quality firearm, you need access to a lathe and preferably a mill. Top quality firearm design and nothing sketchy or lack of information. Measurement conversion is a non issue for people that heard of calculators. Simple step by step instructions and clear language. As for the mag. This gun was designed to be made in clandestine situations and Sten mags are very common and affordable. I would redesign it a bit for a more reliable mag such as an Uzi. In order to construct this, one MUST beware of the laws and its consequences. All in all, great read !!!

The book is rich in technical data and drawings, and the gun can be easily constructed by anyone who owns a machine shop. if you DO NOT have a machine shop nor know someone who does, DO NOT buy the book, because you won't be able to take anything good out of it except a good and complicated reading.

The technical drawings in this book are of a high standard and anyone who has experience and/or access to a machine-shop will find them an excellent reference to this kind of work. One notable exclusion however is that the author only passingly describes the process of barrel rifling and suggests that the reader purchase another of his books in which this subject is dealt with in detail. With this in mind perhaps the title should be "A...very inaccurate unless you buy another book as well Submachine Gun...etc"! Other than that it is excellent reference material.

this book is Brilliant it shows you how to make a submachinegun gun using no gunsmith tools. the outcome is a light and handy gun. Brilliant book for first time builders of firearms easy and simple step by step instructions and clear language well recomended must buy if your a person intrested in building fireams.

Now here's the book you want if you're serious about firearms construction. Well-written, factory grade drawings, and an attractive weapon to build! Then why did I give it "only" four stars? Here's why. The magazine used with this weapon is the standard Sten SMG magazine. And every soul knows that the weak part of the Sten was....exactly, the magazine. So you better think of something else than using dodgy surplus WW2 rejects when you commence the construction of this impressive piece of weaponry. Anyway, great book, I love it.

This is written for the guy with a lathe and drill press and at least minimal knowledge of machining. It is not for the "file & hacksaw crowd".

It is nicely bound, and has excellent working drawings and photos.

Although measurements are metric they are converted to "American" in tables.

If, like me you are just fascinated with firearms, or are seriously thinking of building one, I would recommend it.

This book lacks any detail on how the parts go together. There's one isometric drawing of very few of the total parts that make up the receiver and bolt assembly. The bolt detail is missing, true the author used a CAD tool to draw the isometric parts, but I've found errors in the bolt carrier. My belief is that you would have to build this and iterate on the correct part machining features. It does have a safety that also selects semi and auto firing operation, but I have not figured that out yet. The author also shows 2 different designs for a silencer, (if full automatic gun isn't illegal enough for you, build a silencer). I only see the 1995 edition of this book, so I doubt if there is a new edition that corrects it's deficiencies.
I don't have any issues with the need of a very good machine shop and skill to make this machine. I don't understand other reviews believing this is important. Nothing will stop you from using a hacksaw, file, and hand drill if you have that sort of patience and skill.

This is simply a great book. Whether used for study, or for actual construction, this book surpasses all which I have read thus far. I definitely reccomend this book to anyone who needs a better understanding on the construction and operation of firearms in general, or just a quick reference on the subject.

The drawings in the book are too small to be legible on the Kindle for PC or Kindle Fire. I am not able to find a zoom or magnify feature that would make the drawings useable. Really, Amazon should not even sell the Ebook version without some kind of warning.

This book contains the best drawings I've seen in a book of this type. The problem with the book is the design does not give up any complexity in an effort to tailor towards home manufacture. In other words, it might as well be a set of nice drawings for some other, more proven design such as a Uzi. OK, maybe it is somewhat easier to make than a Uzi, but it does have a large number of parts to make and they don't look outstandingly simple individually. It is probably not something you can make without a lot of skill and some machine tools. I guess it is more a book for a well-organized resistance movement than an individual working in his own basement, so the cover's words "do-it-yourself" and "homemade" are basically going to be lies for most folks. Still, it is not a bad book to have for study. Oh, the book is all metric, by the way. Conversion per se is simple enough, but if it calls for metric tubing for the starting material and only inch tubing is available you need to have an extra helping of good judgement to make all other the changes necessary.