Customer Reviews

Gunsmithing - Pistols & Revolvers

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

With no experience, orther than mechanical competence and some machine shop knowledge (which is not required), this book took me from zero experience, to purchasing $100 of tools, to a successful trigger job on a new revolver, with notably happy results. I am eager to try more projects because of this book.

I found this book in the library, and have decided to purchase it. Sweeney goes into sufficient detail to enable the reader to diagnose handgun problems and speak intelligently to a gunsmith about them. Step-by-step instructions are presented for doing your own work - or for deciding that you want a professional to do it. He also discusses what work is best left to professionals, customizing, enhancements, etc. Great book for any pistol owner!

Patrick Sweeney has given pistol and revolver owners everywhere the information they need to not only work on their own handguns if they choose, but readers will also understand the options available if they decide to use the services of a gunsmith. Pistol shooters at all levels of the sport should read this book to get a complete underdstanding of the mechanical workings, limitations and possible refinements of their handguns. It should be in every shooter's library.

This review is for the 3rd Edition (Dec 2009). I've read the book from cover to cover, and when all is said and done, I'm really not sure what to make of it.

1. This is not a textbook. It doesn't teach you anything about firearm internals, design, function, nomenclature, etc. You're assumed to already know that stuff, so this is certainly not a book for the novice.

2. Upon thinking it over, though, I can't really call this a "how to" book, either. Oh sure, there are descriptions of techniques on how to do certain things with your pistols/revolvers, but the steps are glossed over, often times vague, and sometimes lacking in detail. In fact, a good way to describe the procedures presented in this book is to say that they're the condensed Reader's Digest version, leaving it to the reader to fill in the remainder.

3. Speaking of "Digest"... I did not know this at the time I ordered, but this book is published by Gun Digest. You either love Gun Digest or you hate it, and I fall into the latter category; so had I known this in advance, I probably would have opted for something else.

4. I have to say that this book is exactly what I was expecting, but unfortunately that is not meant as a compliment. The author, Patrick Sweeney, is a regular contributor to gun industry periodicals such as Handguns Magazine (to which I subscribe). He has been writing articles for decades; and as I was reading through this book, I couldn't help but get the feeling that the contents were simply a conglomeration of several of his past articles that were thrown together and loosely (poorly) tied together. The cohesion from one topic to the next--or sometimes even from one paragraph to the next--wasn't always there. At times, the subject flow takes wild tangents that leave you going, "Huh? Where did that come from?"

5. It's a pet peave of mine, I admit, but it irks me to no end when, say, you take a pistol class and then have to listen to the instructor talk about "when I was on patrol we had this one incident where I...." 90% of the time it's irrelevant. In this book, there was a fair amount of "reminiscing" (for lack of a better word), or personal taste. I really don't care what your pet bowling pin gun is, or what your favorite practice load is. Just stick to the dang topic. It could have been a lot worse, but it also could have been trimmed down a bit (IMO).

6. I also hate "walking advertisements". Most of the time whenever the author mentioned a particular brand of a product or a particular person, it was for good reason. On a few occasions, however, it seemed like the author would mention something either to name drop or because he's getting an endorsement check.

7. I mentioned earlier about the book seeming to be a conglomeration of articles, and so it was with the photos accompanying the text also. Most of the photos were useful, showing a snapshot of a particular step in a procedure or a critical component of a certain pistol model. However, some of the procedural steps were out-of-sequence. Also, the majority of photos appear before the text that references them, sometimes pages before. So as you're looking at the photos pertaining to one portion of text, suddenly the next photo has absolutely nothing to do with the topic at hand, and then you realize later that it pertains to the subject covered in the next section. They could really be laid out better, and the unnecessary ones discarded (or replaced with something better). BTW, the photos and captions also add to the gut feeling that the whole book was constructed from several past articles.

8. There were huge voids between useful chapters. I remember the first two chapters were introductory, then the 3rd chapter actually got into gunsmithing and began by listing some tools you would need, how to properly polish things using cloth-backed sandpaper and mineral spirits, etc; and then "somehow" it wasn't until like Chapter 15 that it started talking about actual gunsmithing again. When I realized what had happened, all I could do was scratch my head, and I'm still not sure what was in between. For example, there is a chapter devoted to power tools, and the brundt of the chapter is: don't invest in a lathe or mill due to the expense--not just the tool, but the stand, cutters, lubricant, etc--unless you REALLY think you can get a return on your investment. What you should do instead is "Take your pistol to a professional gunsmith whenever you need lathe or mill work done, or to a machinist who understands the nuances of gunsmithing." Same with the chapter on welding... "Find a welder you trust and let him do all your welding work." Heck, even when he does explain a procedure he will often qualify it with, "...but the cost of the fixture and tools is more than if you would just take your pistol to a professional gunsmith." Ironically, then in the later chapters of the book he'll say things like, "To do such-and-such you need to put the workpiece in your mill's vise clamp and use an end cutter to...." I don't know, it all just seemed weird and contradictory.

9. I realize that up to this point, I've been rather critical of the book, but it was not without its merits. Once the "huge void" mentioned in Item 8 was bridged, then there was a wealth of information contained in the pages. The sad part is that, as I expected, most of it had to do with gunsmithing a 1911; or to be more precise, FITTING PARTS to a 1911. Nevertheless, Mr. Sweeney has been around the block a few times, and there is a lot of useful information in the last half (third?) of the book. FYI - About 60% of (the useful part of) the book is devoted to the 1911, about 25% to S&W revolvers, and the remaining 15% scattered about (Glock, Beretta 92/M9, Makarov, and CZ-52 as best as I can remember, and not much of any of them).

Okay, this review got out of control, so let's just jump to the chase here. IMHO, I think you could learn more about gunsmithing by picking up one of the AGI Armorers Courses on DVD than you can from this book. I mean, it's a bad comparison because they're two different beasts (both in content and format), but the ratio of the amount of information received from the DVD for the time invested watching it compared to the information received from reading this book is much higher, albeit at roughly twice the cost. It's all trade-offs I guess, and I reiterate that this is just my personal opinion; others will disagree. One thing is certain, though... I will not be purchasing Mr. Sweeney's "Gunsmithing Rifles" book!

I'm sure the info is okay, and the auther seems like a really nice and experienced person.. BUT, the writing style makes it difficult for me to follow.. Some sections of the book literally have no paragraphs- just pages filled with margin to margin text! Other sections have a paragraph every other sentence!! I'm not some kinda grammer buff or anything, but I do get frustrated when the formatting of text is so bad that the text is difficult to follow or read! I mean, we pay good money for books- they should be done right.

Additionally, the focus of what is being talked about jumps around too much- he'll be talking about doing some gun mod or other, then throw in an little side story that's not 100% relavent, and then he won't tie it back into what he was talking about- he'll just move on to a new, unrelated topic! It's like stream of thought poetry in some parts, and is so hard to get through that I've stopped trying to read this book for a while- maybe I'll come back to it.

I want to like this book- it seems like the author has a lot he can teach, but I just can't stick to reading it because of the style. I didn't want to post this review because I hate to smash someone's work. But, I bought this book based on the other, glowing reviews- and I think people considering purchasing this book should know the whole picture.

i have had this book since it was released, which was before i started taking classes. it is not the best step by step for beginners. you do need a little more insight on the guns before working on them, but to read from a master all his little stories of past experiences is priceless. i gave it 4 out of 5 stars because you do need to know how your firearm comes apart before reading the book, but once you know how you 1911 comes apart and goes back together you'll love the info in the book.

An excellent book with truly practical advise - projects that can be done in a home gunsmithing workshop!

This is a very practical book with several subjects on gunsmithing pistols and revolvers. It is part of a series of 3 books on the gunsmithing subject from patrick sweeney. I suggest you get them all. The 11-9 attacks have left a great impact on information available on the internet, and soon they will be going for the books so get them now you still can.

I've done some minor smithing and assembly on some of my guns but never did anything too involved as I didn't feel that I had a reliable resource that I could reference in the case I wanted to do something a little more advanced on one of my guns. I ordered this book as it seemed to have a lot of information within it on various types of pistols. While thumbing through it I found that it has a lot of good information that could be used by a beginner or a more advanced shooter. I'd recommend this to someone looking for a reliable resource to have on hand.

I bought this book at a local book store for full cover price, impulse buy. A bargin here if you like to work on your' own guns. One tip; buy some good quality gunsmith screwdivers that fit the screw slots, those craftsmans wont due.