Jane's Guns Recognition Guide 5e [Paperback]

Richard D. Jones (Author), Andrew White (Author)

Book Description

Series: Jane's Guns Recognition Guide | Publication Date: May 27, 2008

The most comprehensive, authoritative guide to identifying firearms includes:

• Pistols, revolvers, submachine guns, machine guns, bolt-action and automatic rifles, and shotguns
• Technical specifications
• Manufacturers and brand names index
• Firearm safety information
• More than 400 photographs

Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Harper Paperbacks; 5 edition (May 27, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061374083
• ISBN-13: 978-0061374081
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 4.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #120,576 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #68 in Books > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > Antiques & Collectibles > Firearms & Weapons
  • #97 in Books > History > Military > Weapons & Warfare > Conventional

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Rushed Book that Disappoints, September 11, 2010

By 

SASman - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Jane's Guns Recognition Guide 5e (Paperback)

This book was a disappointment to me. I also have the previous (4th edition) which was also a disappointment.

The book sets out to be a "comprehensive guide to firearms", and it fails largely on the fact that it is NOT COMPREHENSIVE enough. There are so many weapons that are missing from this book, both new and old. Many modern weapons cannot be found in here, even such popular pistols as the Springfield XD range, and assault rifles like the Magpul Masada, XM8... nowhere to be seen.

What also strikes me is the amount of inconsistency in the book. It appears that each gun write-up has been written by a different person, and so none of the explanations or SPECS are phrased or explained similarly. The SPECIFICATIONS for instance, contains the most inconsistencies. Such as "RATE OF FIRE: Unknown." On another gun it may read "RATE OF FIRE: not known or RATE OF FIRE IS UNKNOWN.

There are also a lot of spelling mistakes such as calling Remington rounds being written "Remingtiion".

It just shows that this book was rushed, not proof-read enough (or at all!), and was released to the shelves with many imperfections.

SORT IT OUT JANE'S! You are supposedly a reputable organization and you are letting yourselves down consistently.

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb reference book on the subject of modern firearms., March 21, 2010

By 

Alan Edward Creager (Henrico, VA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jane's Guns Recognition Guide 5e (Paperback)

Jane's Guns Recognition Guide, 5th Edition, was first published in 2008 and has 464 pages. By my estimation, it contains information on 104 pistols, 46 revolvers, 61 submachine guns, 37 bolt-action rifles, 75 automatic rifles, 17 shotguns, and 57 machine guns, followed by a manufacturer's and brand name's index. It is a cold, humorless book full of lots and lots of cold, humorless facts. Not that it should be otherwise- it is a reference book on objects that were designed solely to take lives. When talking about firearms, one should always be nothing short of serious. Each profile on each firearm contains a picture- some are color and some are not- the name of the weapon, its country of origin, a description, and a list of specifications: cartridge, dimensions, in production, markings, safety, unloading. If you want information on a wide range of weapons, this is one of the best, if not the best, book available. It will no doubt be useful and relevant years after the 6th Edition is out. If you want a huge, in-depth description and history of each weapon, this book won't have what you are looking for. To do that would make this book comparable to the size of the Library of Congress. In its field and class- a general reference book on firearms- this book is superb. I highly recommend it, but I urge persons considering buying it to pay due attention to its limitations. It does not have the answers to the life, the universe, and everything of modern firearms. Well, maybe it does. But only a quarter of it.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great coverage but to little information, June 4, 2009

By 

Fredrik Granlund (Mariehamn, Åland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jane's Guns Recognition Guide 5e (Paperback)

For the occasional reader or gun aficionado this book has it all; a wide range of weapons from around the world, detailed illustrations and basic data. But as a gun recognition guide it falls short of being complete in any sense.

To be really useful you'd need more info on safety features (preferably with schematics), more raw data on markings and serial numbers, photographs covering more angles, production data and manufacturing locations. And so on.