Guns Books

The only time of the year I read the hunting and fishing literature is for my brother and for the holidays. This is the first time I did my reading not in an aisle but online. Great to quickly access and compare books on hunting with Springer Spaniels. My brother is knowledgeable about these topics and seems pleased with this book and he is picky. So that is my review. If I hear otherwise I will update this.

I have read many books on dog training, and never before has anyone offered a plan so detailed or as simple to follow as Kenneth Roebuck. His insight into how a dog thinks and how we can use that to our advantage in training is at once ordinary and astounding. Skip all the popular training methods of the moment and use this one. You will never raise a better gun dog.

This book takes you through the selection of and training of a gun dog using the late Kenneth Roebuck's methods. This book outlines the use of both positive and negative reinforcment to produce a quality hunting companion. This is a great resource for the man wanting to train his own dog, and if I could only have one training reference, this would be it.

This is one of the better training tools you'll ever buy. Roebuck take's you step by step from puppy through the second year. I refer to this book every time I start a new puppy. If you hunt upland birds this book is a must.

This is an excellent book by the late Ken Roebuck. I used Ken's advice to train my Springer and I am very pleased with the results. Ken writes the book with the beginner in mind.

The only drawback is that he doesn't give much useful information on how to train for blind retrieves.

This is a very brief primer on firearms and children. While these 2 groups shouldn't mix, they often do. And what the author explains is that we owe it to our children to teach them about firearms and not make them "forbidden fruit."

The author's reputation is outstanding in the field of law enforcement and has many books and manuals to his credit. He is certified to teach in many areas of firearms training. Most of all, he is a dad. And I know for a fact that both of his daughters are excellents shots!

This is a short well written book designed to gunproof your children. It examines the fallacy of locking up your guns as a viable option. While locks help it won't protect your kids when they may face a weapon away from the home. Today's kids need this info even if you don't personally own firearms.

I recently bought this book because I am a gun owner and my wife recently became pregnant with our first child. While it was just the two of us in the house, my ownership of several guns was not an issue - I stored them out of sight, and my wife was simply not inclined to touch them anyway, even if I had them lying around on the kitchen counter.

However, with a little one on the way and with myself not willing to simply give away my guns, I had to figure out some way for my guns and my children to safely co-exist in the same household.

This book has been very helpful to me in exploring a way to have such a happy situation. While most parents' first instinct would be to simply put as much distance as possible between their children and guns (a perfectly understandable reaction), Mr. Ayoob correctly states that despite your own prohibitions in your own household, it is highly likely - in fact a near certainty - that your child will come in contact with a real, loaded firearm sometime in his or her childhood without the benefit of responsible adult supervision. What happens when you're not around is the true test of a parent's education to their children.

Much as you won't protect your children against the prospect of drowning by simply keeping them away from water in which they can be submerged all their lives (they will eventually go to a lake, swimming pool or ocean sometime in their childhoods) banning the mention or sight of guns from your own home will not protect your children from guns. As Mr. Ayoob has himself raised two children, his concerns were what mine are now, as guns were a part of his livelihood, and he slowly came to realize that there was no possible way to make a gun "childproof," despite all the locks, safety measures, and such that come to mind. If a human being can think of a way to "childproof" a gun, a human mind, namely that of a child - can find a way to defeat it.

The solution, therefore, is to GUN-PROOF your children. That is, make your child able to respond to guns with a sense of responsibility and safety, instead of childlike curiosity and ignorance. Just as the best way to make your child safe around deep water is to teach them to swim and how to tread water and not panic, the best way to keep your kids safe around guns (whether they be yours or someone else's) is to teach them proper and safe handling of guns, not by telling them simplistic and dangerous mantras of "guns are bad, guns are bad!"

I used this book and it worked. I have two kids and they are more mature than many adults I've seen around guns. My wife was skeptical because her brother was killed in a gun accident at a young age but now admits that our older one seems to have little interest in "playing" with guns. We used the ideas and extended them to knives, garden tools and the swimming pool. Brilliant common sense in this book.

Even if you hate guns, this is A must have book if you have children or grandchildren. I thought that I was savy enough to do the job unaided but Mr. Ayoob brought up situations that I hadn't thought of.

On the flip side is excellent guidance for a novice shopping for a handgun. It is a bit out of date as it does not include the excellent Taurus brand which has built in keylocks.

Robert John is a friend of the band and the favorite photographer. these pictures span the whole time of the band and are beautiful. RJ has captured the spirit of GNR. the forward by Axl Rose also is unique and well-written.

This is the only GNR book I have. I have only started liking them 6 months ago and I'm surprised that book stores still have GNR material around. I'm positive that any fan would love this book. The book has GNR pictured from their early days in 1985 to almost the end in 1992. I love the fact that Robert John shows them from the beginning with their teased hair, and lipstick to a more mature look as they get older. The book has concert photos, backstage pics, GNR rehersing and even some more personel ones with Axl by himself. If you are looking for a biography of the band, then don't buy this one. On the bottom of the pictures Robert John tells you the place and year it was taken but otherwise it is strictly just a photo book, nothing else. I highly recomend it in any way.

I've being a GNR fan since I was 8 and I was given this book when I was 12(I'm 25 now!). I still have it and its pages are falling out from looking through it countless times. It gives a good chronological look at the band which is left to your own interpretation as there is no text, which I felt was better since GNR fans are fed so many stories about the band. You get the usual commercial view of them, but you also get personal photos which give a good insight into their lives. I thoroughly recommend this book to GNR fans young and old.

This book contains several rarely seen pictures of the band. Some are action shots, while others are stills.. All in all, this book captures the G'N'R' attitude very well!

As a huge fan of gnr, i was anxious to get some kind of book about them. I had all the records and even some rare bootlegs, but i could not find any literature about them. When i stumbled across this book at this site, it was an instant buy. i was very impressed at the quality and depth of Robert John's photographs. I have happened to see GN'R live and Robert John's photos certainly capture their flare and stage presence. A very good book. If you are looking for a biography go buy "The most Dangerous band in the world" or"The True story" If you want a good book of photos spanning GN'R wildest days, i suggest you buy this.

Great book for the CAS crowd. Only problem I can find with it is that it is a bit outdated. Lots of new stuff out there now. I know the new stuff gets reviewed in monthly magazines etc. It is nice to have it all in one place though. Other than that the book is excellent. Authors usual good work.

If you are involved in collecting replica firearms then this book is a must.Detailed analysis of each Old West gun and rifle. I enjoyed the report on the Colt.45 SAA and Winchester type lever action. Entire book is in black and white except for four pages in color. Wish they had published more color photos. A must have for replica collectors.

The book arrive promptly and in excellent condition. It will be very helpful when I start looking for a SA pistol.

Looking for a new gun for SASS or just to have fun in the style of the old west? This is the book you need before you run out and put down the bucks. Doesn't cover all the guns of choice but does present a good selection (It should include the new Henry Repeating Arms Big Boy but doesn't).
This will also make a good addition to your old west library.

For those contemplating entering the popular ever growing COWBOY ACTION SHOOTING sport, Chicoine's new book is the best I've seen too date. This reknowned gunsmith/writer gives you a wealth of facts on the popular firearms of that period and moves right into the modern offerings and clones of those original firearms with outstanding details and thoughts on each.

He covers the most popular handguns, percussion & cartridge,Colts,S&W's,Remington, Starr and others,the popular and most used rifles in the same thorough style, and shotgun too. I doubt you'll have many questions left to answer if you read this one, about making personal choices.

The book reeks with QUALITY,the book is filled with absolutely wonderful photographs of original firearms, clones,new offerings,leather goods for them,a color photo section that is breathtaking.

He then combines all this with a bit of history on the CAS sport, ammunition available for these, tests with the new guns & ammo,lovely photos of CAS shooters right up to the latest items just coming onto the market like the Colt Lightning slide action rifle.

If this great book doesn't "fire you up" to get into this wonderful sport or for your own at "home" shooting ,nothing will.

Daves books always seem to "come out" of the box being "classics" before they get around, This one is no different. The best I've seen on this topic to date.

This is one the few books that I've read in less than a day. It's not that it's simplictic, its that I couldn't put it down. I would recommend is to any hunter in the true sense of the word.

I'm not much for writing or expressing my feelings about the outdoors. I cannot express in words the love I have for puppies, old friends, homemade lures and duckcalls. Gene Hill can. The short stories you'll read in "A hunters fireside book" will make you smile on a cold night in winter when he speaks of things handmade and bring a tear to your eye when he describes an old dog you'll swear you knew. Reading Gene Hill is very a lot like listening to an old friend tell you his very best stories over a glass of 18 year old scotch; it doesn't get any better...................

Gene Hill is an unusual combination - a superb sportsman and an equally superb writer. This book is a collection of monthly columns written for Guns & Ammo magazine. It is full of the wit and wisdom of a man who loves the outdoors and who has the voice to describe its incomparable beauty in just the right words. Favorite guns and dogs, sunrise in a duck blind, the mystery of a hunter's moon, camaraderie and compassion. The insights and perception of Mr. Hill, complimented by the incomparable artwork of Milton C. Weiler, make this a must.

Gene Hill's book is a tremendous collection of stories to which anyone who has cherished times afield can relate. This book will undoubtedly be passed around among friends and family and ultimately end up next to the fireplace where it belongs. And I expect that I will read from it often as this book will never get old.

If you're looking for a good book to tell how the old days were, they don't get any better than this. Gene Hill has mastered the art of telling the story with just enough of the truth to keep it real, but also keep it fun. If you hunt or fish, this is your kind of book.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book which I purchased in Idaho Falls, Idaho. Being a woman living in the Southwest, having a true love of the wide open spaces, guns and westerns that do not cover the same old territory already visited by thousands of writers, this book was tops with me. I felt the feelings of the main character, Janice McCord, and could ride along with her on her trail of revenge.

Every location in Thompson's novels are true and may be visited today. The Littlest Gun takes place in the beautiful state of New Mexico, which was still a territory in 1878. The Rio Hondo Valley, Silver City, Lincoln, Fort Sumner, White Oaks and Las Vegas are just a few of the locations in this novel.
This is a review from a serious western novel reader.

I couldn't put the book down without knowing what happened next. Some gritty scenes that remind us of how life was back then and how far we've come. Easy flowing dialogue that makes me feel like he's sitting here telling me a great story. The descriptions of the landscape remind me of the true beauty of the desert. I would like to read some more by this author.

The Littlest Gun carried me along over the vastness of New Mexico. I could see, hear and feel the landscape. The characters Thompson peoples his tale with are real. His dialogue makes each character a unique individual. You can hear them speaking. Lots of action and a tale well told!

It's like taking a trip thru the southwest past. So vivid you feel like your there. I couldn't put it down. My friends who have read it said I would enjoy it. I did and I'm looking forward to something else Paul Thompson puts out.

This book is a must have for any Marlin collector or anyone who is interested in or wants to know about Marlin firearms. Tons of information, great pictures...well worth the money spent.

A very comprehensive book for anyone with an interest in firearms. Well-written and illustrated. It contains a great deal of detail for the Marlin user and collector. Since it seems to go in and out of print on a regular basis, anyone interested in the book should get one while it's available. The cost of a used volume seems to increase each time it becomes unavailable. If you like gun books you won't regret buying a copy of this one.

huge collection of data, photo's and info on Marlin. can't imagine the effort that must have been expended in collecting what is printed in this book. A bargin concidering what is offered between the pages for the reader.

Mr. Brophy did his homework in writing this beautifully bound and informative book, but somehow, probaably due to Marlin Firearms being lax in their record keeping, especially serial numbers and the appropriate dates of manufacture, I was unable to pinpoint the data needed to establish the exact history of this gun. I have been forwarded to another source for possibly gaining a more accurate record of this guns manufacture. A fine book other than this.

Good Service, Good Price, Very Good Book. Book is full of very complete detail, illustrations are excellent, chronological approach to subject is appreciated. Very Happy with purchase!

A totally absorbing tale with the most lovable heroine. Gun blends history with fictional yet full-fledged characters, and creates a wonderful athmosphere.

If you want to lose yourself for a while and enter into the world of adventures, islam culture, romance and fairy tales, this is exactly the book for you. It is one of the most capturing stories that I have ever read and I have just bought a pile to give away for all my book loving friends. I hope that more books will follow by this marvellous writer

Any dedicated person can do the same amount of research and reading to write a book, but only very few can combine that with a big heart in an extremely clever way. This book certainly has everything in correct proportion; especially the humour. I honestly feel embarassed to have been advised this book by a foreign friend.

This is the best book I've read in a long, long while. I picked it up, planning to read a chapter before bed, and instead stayed up until three, polishing it off. Who could resist a wry, spunky Turkish heroine travelling to far-off times and places? Not to mention the colorful cast of supporting characters she meets along the way.... I'm giving copies to all my friends.

If you want a book drags you to your bookshelf over and over again, this is definitely it. I enjoyed every minute of it and amazed by the unbelievable imagination and talent of Guneli Gun.

Being from the Southeast Missouri region and being familiar with many characters of the book made it a "must read" for me. I will admit, my expectations were high, but Mitchell exceeded them with Show-Me Kings. An excellent book about small town Southeast Missouri baketball and how the sport brings a cohesiveness to a community. But, it is more than a book about small town basketball dynasties led by SEMO small town legendary coaches, Ron Cookson and his older brother Carroll Cookson, it is a study into the history of that little region of the state commonly called "the bootheel". It is a great book to share with those you love.

Excellent book. Mitchell truly takes you inside a small town and shows you how SO many different aspects of life can change the way a town thinks, feels and treasures life.

I am already buying copies for friends and family.

A well thought out book that nailed a three pointer!

Fantastic book. While the chronicles of a high school basketball dynasty is riveting, I was more amazed at Mitchell's examination of history. He makes you realize how everything is connected. I never thought about how hundreds of years of earthquakes, floods, boll weevils, railroad building, civil rights and religion could explain where everyone lived in Southeast Missouri, and how little decisions, like a man I had never heard of 50 miles from my home town coaching basketball for the first time in 1945, could explain why my high school would never defeat a smaller school just 12 miles away for 50 years. I like books that make you think, and this book makes you think.

When I ordered this book, I expected to receive a "Hoosiers" type story regarding another small, out of the way, high school basketball team that overcame long odds to win a championship. I would have been very happy with that. But I was even more pleasantly surprised to find that the book served as more of a study of smalltown life and high school sports in America.

Having never been to the Bootheel area of Missouri, I came to this book with no history, no background, and no roadmap. But Mike Mitchell masterfully led me through the ups and downs of the region... weaving stories of families and floods, civic pride and civic strife into a fine collage of Sports Americana.

I had never spent much time thinking about the ways in which local sports affect a region... and the ways that a region affects its local sports. This book was an eye-opener.

Four stars for making me want to do a little research into the sports history of my OWN corner of the world.

Show-Me Kings is a hard-to-put down fast read for all high school hoops junkies and a special treat for fans of small-town Missouri ball. The book focuses on the teams that put Scott County Central High School on the high school basketball map by winning 12 Missouri championships in 18 years in the late '70s through the early '90s, an accomplishment unparalleled in state history.

Mitchell obviously put a lot of work into researching this effort and it shows in his dribble-by-dribble re-creations of Scott County's key contests. He relies heavily on press reports of the games, but he also draws skillfully from interviews of players and coaches to add color, insight, and emotion to his descriptions. Many of his game accounts have a real you-are-there feel to them.

One of the book's more intriguing aspects is the relationship of Ron Cookson, Scott County's demanding country boy coach, and his players, most of whom are black descendants of Missouri Bootheel sharecroppers. The strong bond between player and coach became a seemingly limitless source of energy for Scott County Central's teams, and it carried them to title after title.

Mitchell provides context by presenting a brief history of the Bootheel, one of the state's most distinctive regions. He delves into the checkered race relations of its past, dirty laundry for some but a key to understanding the significance of Scott County's triumphs and Cookson's reciprocated love for his players.

Basketball has long been the #1 sport in southeast Missouri, and Mitchell incorporates the exploits of some of the area's other prominent teams and coaches of the period. A real bonus is his tracing back the basketball lineage of Scott County and other great southeast Missouri teams of the recent past to the legendary fast-breaking, full-court pressing teams of the early '50s from Puxico High School, probably the most renowned high school basketball teams in state history and among the best in the nation during that era.

It is clear that Mitchell believes that basketball in the Missouri Bootheel has been much more than a recreational activity. It has become a source of pride for the area, changed the perceptions of many of its residents, and perhaps even altered the fabric of its society. Show-Me Kings is a very good basketball book, but it's even more than that.

Everything I've been looking for, all the originals and all the repros, described and compared. What's right and what's wrong and how to fix it, care for it and even how to make some of the parts! I have originals and repros, I shoot them and tune them as needed, and this book fills the bill. One of the most valuable books I own.

This is one GREAT BOOK on the Smith & Wesson Big caliber revolvers of the Old West,long needed in the fields of lovers of the Old West,Cowboy Action Shooters,Old West Historians, Smith & Wesson collectors, gunsmiths,and firearms collectors,it also offers a wonderful in depth coverage of the company itself and the times, much of it never presented before.

Dave Chicoines credentials to experience in this field are un-matched by any other, as firearms affectionado's well know.His writing style is clearcut so novice or long time buffs can both
get the most out of it,the photo and illustrations top notch,plus he covers the modern clones of these same famous revolvers.

Move over Colt, Daves book is going to be a "MUST HAVE" that will be the standard by which others will try to reach and put S&W revolvers in their proper place in Old West History, largely ignored until now.

A really great book !

As a collector of all 19th century Smith & Wesson firearms, one of the things that has always surprised me is the lack of available information relating to one of the most well known and most common of all of the so-called western guns, the Model Three. Predating the better known 1873 Colt SA by three years, built in far larger numbers and many more interesting variations, where are the Model Three books? Rattling around in the head of well-known gunsmith/author David Chicoine apparently.

Well it's finally here; the definitive tome of the Smith & Wesson Model Three. All those Americans, Russians, Scofields and New Models have finally been recognized for their importance in the most incredible volume imaginable. Was it worth the wait? It most certainly was.

Here in a single large volume is a very comprehensive history of the Model Three going back to the Robbins & Lawrence factory where we are reasonably certain Daniel Smith met Horace Wesson around 1850. It tracks their progress through their first company, where they invented what became the Winchester 13 years later, the development of the first practical cartridge firearms (the S&W Model One) through the Two's, One and a Half's, and finally the Model Threes. It's all here in a comprehensive entertaining manner accompanied by fabulous photographs and diagrams.

This book is also a gunsmith's dream with page after page of carefully written and illustrated information on how to diagnose and repair every Model Three AND every modern Model Three copy. In addition there are chapters on ammunition and, for the shooter, loading and reloading. Did I say comprehensive? Well written? Beautifully illustrated? Awesome? A long over due and welcomed volume. Thanks David.

If you are a gun collector, a gun enthusiast, a gunfighter history buff, or simply interested in the artifacts of the Old West then you need to own "Smith and Wesson: Sixguns of the Old West." If there were such a thing as a definitive work, then this volume is the ONE. The book covers the Schofields, the Americans, the Russians, the New Models No. 3 and much more. Even esoteric, but interesting subjects such as ammunition, gun tools, and the history of gun metal finishes are covered in this full scope book.
David R. Chicoine, the author, is a gunsmith and a recognized expert for restoration and repair of Smith and Wesson firearms. In this, his latest book, he has produced a beautiful,lavish tome full of useful photographs and illustrations, and it worth every penny that the publisher charges.

I really enjoyed this book. Dave writes in a straight-ahead, clear style derived from his many years as a gunsmith. Basically he writes with the same care and precision he uses in his repairs and restorations, which are works of art. The photos and drawings (many of the latter by his son) are all well done and to the point of the text. The volume itself is expertly printed and bound and is sure to last.

If you are researching, repairing or are just curious about one of the S&W six guns that Dave covers you will find all you need to know in this volume. His histories of the development of the various models are entertaining, as well as useful to the researcher. The repair text and illustrations are step-by-step. If you run into problems (like a stuck screw), he covers how to deal with that. If you just like a good read about some of the under-appreciated but significant firearm designs and the people who used them in the old west, then get this book.

My criteria for the importance of a tome like this is how greasy it gets as I consult it at my workbench while in the middle of a repair or maybe just exploring one of the antiques detailed in its pages. In Dave's case my copy of his first book (Gunsmithing Guns of the Old West) is well stained. I expect this equally useful second book will also grow very grimy in proportion to its usefulness.