The Illustrated Book of Guns: An Illustrated Directory of Over 1,000 Military, Sporting, and Antique Firearms [Hardcover]

David Miller (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2000

Five centuries of small arms development are encompassed in this superbly illustrated directory which features more than 1,000 of the most important pistols, rifles, revolvers, submachine, light, and heavy machine guns made and used throughout the world. With the use of hundreds of specially taken photographs, accompanied by a brief technical description of each weapon, this huge volume is the most comprehensive directory of its kind ever published.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Thunder Bay Press (CA) (September 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1571452877
• ISBN-13: 978-1571452870
• Product Dimensions: 12.8 x 9.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,942,258 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Chock Full of Great Pictures...and Typos, April 25, 2003

By 

J.W. Green (Michigan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Illustrated Book of Guns: An Illustrated Directory of Over 1,000 Military, Sporting, and Antique Firearms (Hardcover)

Well I'm pretty neutral on this book. It features many good pictures of good guns, inlcluding some that I've never seen (the Terry Pattern Carbine, Kuntz Air Rifle, and Whitney-Burgess Carbine stick out). However, it has more typos and misplaced photos than you can imagine! Two examples are the editor not knowing how to spell the "Keene" part of the Remington-Keene Rifle and placing the bizarre-looking Webley-Fosbery Semiautomatic Revolver's photo on the description of the conventional Webley & Scott Mark V's description (the weapon is clearly stamped "Webley-Fosbery", too). There are also errors in the statistics of the weapons, but these are probably due to typos more than factual mistakes. The descritions, in some cases, are also too scant (the aforementioned Kuntz Air Rifle needs a little more and the book fails to mention the famous Ferguson Rifle, though many of the photos appear to be taken at the West Point Museum, which has a Ferguson Rifle on display). In summary, if you like over 1,000 gun photos, then get this book. If you don't like over 1,000 typos, then don't get this book.

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Ample illustrations, but lack of/incorrect information, December 25, 2002

By 

"singleaction1873" (DFW) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Illustrated Book of Guns: An Illustrated Directory of Over 1,000 Military, Sporting, and Antique Firearms (Hardcover)

This was a very disappointing book! There were glaring mistakes present in the text/descriptions, some to the point of hilarity. A couple of examples include: A description of a rifle and the accompanying picture is not even close to the one being described. Another is where the author/editor says that the original .45 Colt loading was with 617 grains of black-powder! :D (This would almost fill up a couple of shot glasses!)
These are just a few of the many mistakes that I noticed in the few minutes that I looked at the book.

I would not recommend this book to anyone, except for the illustrations. There is very little information given on each firearm, and what is given is either incorrect of suspect at best.

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent One-Volume Small Arms Reference, November 4, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Illustrated Book of Guns: An Illustrated Directory of Over 1,000 Military, Sporting, and Antique Firearms (Hardcover)

Over 1000 firearms (handguns, shotguns, rifles, and machine guns) are described in the 304 pages of this large, coffee-table size book. Each description has an excellent photo of the firearm and a thorough description of it, including its history. Almost all of the important small arms from 1800 to the present are described. The quality of the writing, photos, and presentation is excellent.