Understanding Firearm Ballistics [Paperback]

Robert A. Rinker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2005

The new greatly improved 6th Edition - Copyright 2005 - with better charts, easier math, better drawings, and improved readability. Understanding Firearm Ballistics explains the subject in understandable terms. The original text has been line edited, improved & expanded with up-to-date explanations and examples. The only complete reference book of extensive information with 432 pages of little known facts. A complete guide that is full of valuable data with illustrations, drawings, charts, tables, tips, glossary, index, and detailed factual information. Understanding Firearm Ballistics, 6th Edition, is a must for beginner or expert. Shown during a 2011 episode of CSI, Crime Scene Investigation (Las Vegas)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Written in a clear and friendly style...this book guides the reader to a strong intermediate level of knowledge. --The American Rifleman, NRA,, Oct. 2000

...an extremely useful tool - not only to the professional gunner, but for the casual sport shooter as well. --Guns & Ammo, Oct. 1995

One of the most useful firearms-related books published this century --Al Miller, Handloader, Aug. 1996

...an extremely useful tool - not only to the professional gunner, but for the casual sport shooter as well. --Guns & Ammo, Oct. 1995

One of the most useful firearms-related books published this century --Al Miller, Handloader, Aug. 1996

About the Author

Mr. Rinker has a unique and diversified background that is perfectly suited to author a book on firearm ballistics. His love affair with firearms started at the age of six when his father, a military officer and newspaperman, taught him the manual of arms and gun safety. He started reading and studying about firearms and ballistics while still a youth. He has owned and fired most types of firearms, both antique and modern. He also acquired from his father a love for the printed word and has written and been published in national magazines, mostly on aviation, firearms, travel, history, and antiques. Mr. Rinker is a contributing editor to a national firearm magazine and he has written five books. His own photographs have accompanied many of his articles. Some intellectual readers want his writing to be more exact in grammatical technique, but he writes for the average reader in a style they can easily follow on even the most advanced subjects, and most readers appreciate that quality. While attending college, Mr. Rinker was employed as an armed police officer at a major airport. He also worked as a tool and die apprentice during the day while attending college at night. When his foreman found out about his knowledge of firearms, some of his early machine shop labor involved repair and restoration on antique guns from the supervisor's private collection. Educated as an industrial engineer, he owned and operated his own tool-die and machine shop where some of the work was on firearms, including big guns for the U. S. Navy. This work included design and research on modern shipboard weapons. He has also been trained and employed as an airline transport pilot, commercial-instrument-multi-engine aircraft pilot and gold seal flight instructor. He taught aeronautics in both the classroom and the air to Naval Aviators during the Vietnam War. He has degrees in both Industrial Engineering and Aviation Science. He is married and has adult children and grandchildren.

Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Mulberry House Pub Co; 6 edition (June 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0964559854
• ISBN-13: 978-0964559851
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #52,719 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #48 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Hunting & Fishing > Hunting

More About the Author

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

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A Big Disappointment, December 28, 2008

By 

James L. Allen "Former Physics Prof" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Understanding Firearm Ballistics (Paperback)

I bought the 4th edition (13th printing - 2003), and I thought it was awful. I forced myself to read the entire book, and it was a very painful experience. A lot of the equations are repeated, but no effort is made to make the notation and symbols used consistent from one use of a given equation to another (for example, "w" is used for a variable in an equation, but "a" is used for the same variable in the same equation later in the text). I could find no obvious flaws in the equations, but the text explanations of the equations were either very, very confusing or downright wrong. Some of Mr. Rinker's discussions of physical principles, such as gyroscopic stability for example, gave me the impression he doesn't have a good understanding of the subjects because I believe I can give much simpler and clearer non-mathematical explanations than he does for just about every single physical principal he "explains" in the book. That may sound arrogant, but I used to be a physics professor and I've taught several physics courses for non-science majors that covered just about all of the physics topics discussed in the book. I base my "arrogant" statement on this teaching experience, student-faculty reviews, and the performance of my former students on exams and quizzes.

So, my low opinion of the book probably is because I am a physicist and the book is not written for physicists, and I'm one of those weird people who like the math. In several places in the book, the author points out that the equations have been checked by experts from NASA, etc. so they are right. (At one point Mr. Rinker actually asserts that there are no errors, so if the reader is getting wrong results it's because the reader doesn't know what he's doing.) I suspect the book gets glowing reviews from several sources (not just Amazon.com customers) because to my knowledge it's the only book out there on firearm ballistics that targets the non-technically-trained shooters. That is very unfortunate because I can't help thinking that the book promotes misunderstandings by people who can't tell that a lot of the physics explanations are garbage. In addition to the technical flaws, the way the text was organized seems very disjointed - like he took excerpts of notes he's written over the years and just added them all together without editing to make sure they flowed together to provide a cohesive description.

As I mentioned, I have the 4th edition of the book, and I know it is now in its 6th edition. Perhaps some of my complaints have been addressed in later printings, but I would be surprised if they have been.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Basics, not much more., February 20, 2009

By 

Christopher B. Gill (Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Understanding Firearm Ballistics (Paperback)

If you are not already conversant in the facts and math of ballistics this is a fairly good primer, and it does have some useful information for those that already know a lot. It does not, however, fill that middle range between the basics and PhD engineering texts. Although the formulas for various ballistic factors are included, he does not go into the math in detail. That means that unless you are an ace at multi variable calculus already, and have taken a bunch of physics, then this is not a lot of help. The book is largely aimed ad debunking as many uninformed old wives tales as possible and getting people to think scientifically. Thus if you are looking to learn more about firearms physics than you are going to find in a gun magazine, it is a good reference. If you are looking to learn about the physics of shooting at ranges over 1,000 yards, you are going to find only limited help.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very informative but not engaging, November 25, 2007

By 

Stephan Samuel "ss-nyc" (Denver, CO, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Understanding Firearm Ballistics (Paperback)

It's not a page-turner. If you don't have serious interest in ballistics, read something else. It's not a how-to manual on marksmanship and it doesn't tell you interesting CSI stuff.

If you've read this far, this book is highly informative. It goes through a lot of detail on exactly what happens when you pull the trigger of a loaded firearm. It covers history, dispels urban legends and explains things in normal language.

Explanations aren't math laden. On the contrary, the author seems to be extremely afraid of math and attempts to project that upon the reader. The explanations are highly qualitative and almost not at all quantitative. The humor is corny, but it's not meant to be fun and games.