#Books

A couple of weeks back we covered a great piece of Form 1 building by Jonathan Wild. Jonathan ended up constructing a From 1 Panzerfaust Recoiless Launcher at home which was capable of launching the projectiles up to 120 yards with pretty consistent results. Jonathan has now released his very own book  Expedient Recoilless Launcher: Panzerfaust. The book goes in-depth into the history, design, schematics, and results of his own experience.

Welcome back to the latest episode of TFB’s Behind The Gun Podcast. This week we sit down with Jack Carr, the New York Times Bestselling author of The Terminal List, True Believer and Savage Son, all of which are published by Simon and Schuster.

Chipotle Publishing has launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the publishing of a book on the iconic Vickers Machine Gun. The new book The Vickers Machine Gun: Pride of the Emma Gees is an in-depth history of the British Vickers medium machine gun used by Britain and the Commonwealth nations during World War One, World War Two and beyond. The book, described as a must-have, updates Dolf Goldsmith’s earlier Collector Grade book The Grand Old Lady of No Man’s Land – which is widely appreciated as the best book available on the Vickers.

If you’re a gun guy you’ve probably spent a few hours thumbing through gun books, if you’re a collector or old gun lover then you probably have a shelf full! In an exclusive interview, TFB spoke to Ian McCollum of Forgotten Weapons, Nic Jenzen-Jones of ARES & photographer James Rupley, best known for capturing the great photos for the Vickers guide series of books, who are excited to announce the launch of their new publishing company which will focus on small arms and military history. Headstamp Publishing is a new venture with some very interesting titles already lined up.

The Geneva-based Small Arms Survey have published a free 352 page guide to help with the identification of small arms, light weapons and their ammunition. The new introductory identification guide was written by a raft of subject matter experts and edited by Nic Jenzen-Jones and Matt Schroeder.

Learning about shooting disciplines should always be an ongoing experience.  Even those of us with hundreds or thousands of hours of training time can find value in absorbing the shared expertise of others.  One book that I have encountered that covers precision rifle techniques is Anthony Cirincione II’s Long Range Precision Rifle; Expanded Edition.  (MSRP $31)  In my personal regard, it is one of the best guides out there to help with the setup and effective employment of a scoped rifle.

The latest edition of Larry Vickers’ series of coffee table reference books, the Vickers Guides, has been released. The fourth book in the series which has already featured editions looking at the AR-15 and 1911 – while the new book will focus on Germany’s small arms of World War Two.

Starting a firearms book collection isn’t for every shooter or firearms enthusiast. Not everyone reads a lot these days (offline that is), and the price alone is a strong deterrent. You can’t really attach the Collector Grade Publications “ The Black Rifle II” to the rails of an AR, or jam Ian Skennerton’s “ The Lee Enfield” into your No.4 Mk II. I recently went to some used book stores in Washington state and bought over 400 dollars worth of firearms books. With that amount of money I could have bought a good amount of ammunition, a scope, or even a decent hunting rifle. So I’m not amiss when I say this post isn’t for everyone. Another big thing is that a lot of the information I have in my firearms books can be found online through the internet. But if you have a good collection of books already, or want to get into collecting gun books, then read on!

If you’re looking for a Christmas gift for a gun lover – or yourself – take a look at the latest book from Massad Ayoob: “Deadly Force: Understanding Your Right to Self Defense.” It’s about time he came out with another book; I know I’ve been waiting. Mas has three decades of experience as a law enforcement officer and is rightly considered one of the foremost authorities on this topic. He’s served as an expert witness for countless cases, both high-profile and not, and he has an impressive knowledge base borne of hands-on experience and years of study. And, of course, you may be familiar with his column in “American Handgunner.”

Now expanding product offerings past on-weapons accessories, MagPul has introduced and is now shipping their Black Book series. The first offerings in the to-be-expanded series are the Precision Rifle Data Book and the Rifle Quick Reference Cards:

The latest edition of the popular reloading book The ABCs Of Reloading: The Definitive Guide for Novice to Expert by Rodney James was published earlier this year. The Kindle Edition is currently on sale for just $3. If you don’t have a Kindle, you can run the Kindle application on a PC, Mac, iPhone/iPod/iPad or Android phone.