Customer Reviews

Mermelstein's Guide to Metallic Cartridge Evolution

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I really liked the style in which this book was written. The book is lively and the author freely illustrates his points with interesting discussion. He turns an otherwise dull-as-dirt minor historical subject into one which is quite alive.

This is a book for general readers and students of history rather than engineers. It won't have page after page of inscrutable tables filled with long numbers, a major part of most books on similar subjects. He obviously is familiar with the numbers and the engineering but he does not beat the reader senseless with them. Instead he takes you to meet the inventors, shows you the reasons they changed one thing or another and how these changes affected the course of history.

You can look high and wide for a book that gives the history of one hundred-fifty and more years of metallic cartridge development. It is simply not there! Now there is a book that gives precise detail of our heritage and history of the "Silver Bullet".

Additionally, the author has written this book in an exceptionally interesting way. Difficult to put down!

I have no idea what book was read by the previous person providing a rating, but it most certainly could not have been this one. As a former federal law enforcement officer, police officer for the Los Angeles Police Department and currently a national distributor of ammunition, I have somewhat more than a passing familiarization with the subject. I previously considered myself to be knowledgeable on the subject until I read this book!
This book is probably the finest work on the subject ever to see print. Mr. Mermelstein's comprehensive and total in depth knowledge of the subject is clearly presented on every page, and is provided in an easy to read format. The amount of up to date factual information contained in this work, is impressive to say the least. Thank goodness the author elected not to include the usual collection of remedial filler photographs and drawings you see in most other common firearm and cartridge books. To include them in this intellectual work would be completely unnecessary and criminal!!

This book literally covers every aspect of cartridges you could possibly imagine and then some. I would highly recommend it to every person interested in firearms and cartridges. Once you begin to read this book you cannot put it down!

This book will maintain a position in my reference library as "the definitive work" on the subject. In summary, this is probably the finest book every written on the subject of cartridges that I have had the privilege to read.

Mr Mermelstein has selected to lard his speech with words from every recess of the English language (a Webster was necessary to keep alongside of his book). Mr Mermelstein also does not write one single passage without boasting his own excellence. However some interesting facts are gathered in this book, so if you can stand the braging - read it!

How could a book be produced addressing the evolution of metallic cartridges without a single illustration or photo of a cartridge or component part? The book addresses a handful of cartridges, wanders into the development of smokeless powder, then the assessment of handgun stopping power, and how to select a gun for self defense. The first three chapters combine for 82 pages of coverage. Chapter 4 consumes the rest of the 192 page book and should be labeled "Every random bit of cartridge information I ever heard or read". There is no evolution of cartridges identified, outlined or intimated.

There is no real metric cartridge coverage, there is no real belted cartridge history, there is nothing more modern than the 338-378 Weatherby and even that cartridge is thinly and only sort of accurately described. Terrible, terrible book that could only be appreciated by someone who has had virtually no exposure to firearms. If I seem annoyed, that's because I am. I love firearms and books that describe, define, depict or help utilize them. I also don't mind books that make an honest attempt to inform, but may miss the mark. I do not believe this book meets the criteria of any of the above.