Customer Reviews

Encyclopedia of Pistols & Revolvers

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This book is a travesty! It claims to cover guns of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries, but it is nearly devoid of useful information regarding handguns produced prior to 1970!. For example, there is no entry at all under Luger or DMW! Ironically, although there are a few late model Lugers in the Mauser entry, don't expect any useful information about broomhandle Mausers. What mention there is of historical pieces is so spotty as to be extremely frustrating. While there are a few old colt revolvers mentioned, there are no entries on the pre-1911, auto-loading Colt pistols. Did Savage ever make a handgun? Must be they never did, there is no such entry in this "comprehensive encyclopedia". To think, I bought it because wanted information on pinfire revolvers of the 19th century! This book is a huge disappointment.

This book is very well done, and has a picture for each gun. This book lists several popular firearms from each manufacturer and shows complete statistics. There's no history or information for each individual gun except statistics, but rather information on the company. Before the main part, there is a brief section on firearms, how they work, safety and ammunition. Great book that no firearm enthusiast should go without.

Definitely the best on-the-shelf guide to handguns. Comprehensive, many pictures, detailed specs. If you're in some serious studies, this is a must-have.

A beginner's guide, clear, concise, with color photos on every page, it reminds me of the excellent Jane's recognition guides to weapons and military equipment. Naturally, its strength is also its weakness: not enough details.

Nevertheless, I find it very handy and fun to browse through. Published in 1996, it's not entirely out of date. Specialists and gun pros would not have much use for an "encyclopedia" this short, but it would do fine for me. I particularly like the fact that there are no antiques or collectibles here - this book is about current guns, and that's what I'm interested in. Also, slightly more pistols than revolvers are covered here - but few if any machine guns or paramilitary firearms. Hardly any rifles, which is just as well. I also wonder if there is an emphasis on European products. (The author is Dutch.) But no doubt the best-known American guns are well-represented.

The frightening thing about this kind of book is that it gets you interested to find out more....