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He Dog
Member Posts: 50,958 ✭✭✭✭
Every month or so we have a "how many guns do you have,and please list them all with serial numbers" thread. A lot of us post "not enough" or some such. This one is not a BATF post so you can answer. I am wondering how many collect gun books as well as guns. They can be guns/hunting/game/knives but all basically in the guns/hunting genre. I am pretty sure some of you folks have pretty impressive reference libraries and some may have 2 or 3. If you want to include 35 years of gun digest that is fine, but not magazines. I will start. Currently about 150 titles, take up 9 feet of shelf.
Comments
"The only way American citizens can adequately be protected from terror and violence is when" those in authority protect us from those who would harm us, instead of protecting us from ourselves.
"Mark, before you buy a gun go out and get a book about the gun, then talk to someone who specializes in collecting that type of gun...and if he wrote the book about the gun, so much the better. Then go out and buy the gun and be prepared to make a mistake".
"But Sam, how will I know when I've learned enough about this"?
"Mark, when people start asking you questions (and believing your answers) you are headed in the right direction".
Some day I may have enough guns, but I KNOW for a fact that I will never have enough gun books! There is just so much to learn about the firearms subject and I still know so little. Reading posts from men like Judge Colt, Ranchero Paul, Iconoclast, and others is like reading a page from a good book on a specific firearms subject. We are lucky here on GB to have such folks who'll give us their time and insight...and saving us the cost of quite a few books in the process!
Mark T. Christian
If you can't know it all, it sure helps if you know where to look for the answers. And if you want to be entertained and educated at the same time, that is easy too. I recommend Elmer Keith's "Hell, I was There!" or Pandoro Taylor's "African Rifles and Cartridges" just for starters.
Gun shows and eBarf are great sources for gun books.
redcedars
Proud member of the NRA
If it ain't broke-it ain't ours!!!
Here's about 2/3s of them. The rest are scattered around the house.
The bookcase is 6ft tall & 6 ft wide. You can't see the bottom shelves which are partly magazines, partly oversize books. The left half is nothing but gun books. The right half is a couple shelves of old back to the land books from the 70's mixed with some agricultural textbooks that date from the late 1800's through the late 1900's. 2 shelves of military history reference books. The rest are automotive and industrial reference books. I'm in the process of putting together another bookcase the same size. About half of that will be books. The other half music cd's, tapes, records. along with a large collection of bound magazines.
Some people look at my reference library and use the word survivalist. But, during the summer months they look at my back yard garden and use the same word. Maybe they're right..
Woods
I see several The Foxfire Books on those righthand shelves! I just bought one and would like to ask your opinion of them. Any other titles that you would recommend, along those same lines as the Foxfire selections?
Thanks!
Big Al
What are your interests, I'm sure I could put together a list especially on guns, primitive technology, or Country living.
Personally I was born 100 years too late!
Woods
I picked up my copy of Foxfire because it has the planting by the signs information, as well as weather signs, fruit and vegetable preserving, log cabin building, hog-slaughtering and, last but not least, moonshining! [:D]
Any of the three subjects you listed quote:guns, primitive technology, or country living are of interest to me, as well as the living-off-the-land type of information.
I'd appreciate your recommendations as to worthwhile titles, along with your comments on why and how they were helpful (or just plain ole interestin'!) to you.
Thanks,
Big Al
I have lost track of what I have.
bigal;
The older Mother Earth News magazines, had some interesting reading.
The gene pool needs chlorine.
1) "Five acres and independance", M.G. Kains copyright 1935( reprinted recently) 1st homesteading book I ever bought, probably the best. Was written to help city refugees during the great depression.
2)"Three Acres And Liberty", Bolton Hall, copyright 1907, A homesteading book from the end of the frontier times. Mostly deals with an eastern states viewpoint, but, still lots of good vintage info.
3)"The Complete Homesteading Book", David Robinson, 1974. Pretty good book with a better than average bibliography for cross reference.
4) "Soils and Soil Fertility", Louis Thompson, ph.d. my copy is dated 1957. If you're going to garden or farm this is a good one on soil science.
5)"One Acre & Security", Brad Angier, Another good homesteading book from a modern author. An author you know has really done it.
There are other "Back to the Land" books, most of them just repeat these.
The next 3 by the same author are favorites of mine.
6) "Building the Hewn Log House", Charles McRaven Just a great book by a guy more eccentric than me. Before I blew out my knees and before my back started hurting alot, I always wanted to build a log house. If I were actually going to try it and could only have one refference. This would be it. The author is a history professor who took his interest in history as far as he could, He lives it!
7)"Building With Stone", Charles McRaven. see above.
8)"Country Blacksmithing", Charles McRaven. If you want to learn primitive metal working this book is again one of the best.
9)"Woodcraft and Camping", Nessmuk,(George Washinton Sears) A classic that should be read by every backwoodsman.
10) "The Muzzleloading Hunter", Rick Hacker
11)"Black Powder Hobby Gunsmithing" Sam Fadala & Dale Storey
12)"Buckskins and Black Powder", Ken Grissom
13)"The Gun and it's development", W.W. Greener
14) "Book of Rifles", W.H.B. Smith
15)"Fast And Fancy Revolver Shooting" McGivern
16)"Good Friends Good Guns Good Whiskey" Skeeter Skelton
Those would be my core gun books, Skeeter for light reading when I need to relax. The others for reference. My taste does tend to ru to late 1800's technology when it comes to guns.
From there I'd add my collection of "Gun Digest" books. I'm currently back as far as 1963 only missing 6 of them from 63-present.
Then I would suggest books with specific gunsmithing instructions for guns that you actually own.
Woods
Look for "Countryside and Small stock journal" on your news stand. The politics of the Countryside readership would be pretty palatable to most of everyone here.
Next "Backwoods Home". The publisher can't be any more pro gun. Massad Ayoob is on this magazines staff.
Of course I'm sure you read Charlie Richies "BackWoodsman Magazine". hehehe, see the table of contents page and you'll know where I got my online name.
Woods
I'm just glad that we have, here in town, a really good used bookstore that carries a large (make that LARGE!) selection of used books. Bookman's, here in Tucson, has 3 stores plus at least one more up in Phoenix area.
A great place with a great ambience, chairs and settees scattered throughout the stores. If you want to sit and read, hey...make yourself at home!
(I think I'm trying to talk myself into another trip to the bookstore...and it's working!) [:D]
Big Al
"It is important, that the habits of thinking in a free country should inspire caution in those entrusted with its administration, to confine themselves within their constitutional spheres, avoiding in the exercise of the powers of one department to encroach upon another. The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments into one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism.."
-George Washington
As far as books are concerned, I have a ton of 'em. I do not have a lot of hardbounds on guns, because I'm not much for coffee table books, and of course the market changes quite a lot. I do have a softcover of Mas Ayoob's self defense book, and Marshall & Sanow's HG Stopping Power, but really don't have that many "gun books."
I do have a complete set of 60s James Bond paperbacks, and a bunch of old Ace paperbacks of E.R. Burroughs. The majority of my book collection is reference on philosophy, psychology, business, and such. Everything from The Prophet to Bibles to the Koran. And a number of favorite authors, from Jane Austen to Ayn Rand to Henry Miller (Tropic of Cancer!) to Ray Bradbury.
Life NRA Member
T. Jefferson: "[When doing Constitutional interpretation], let us [go] back to the time when [it] was adopted. [Rather than] invent a meaning [let us] conform to the probable one in which it was passed."
Hey Bigal, where's the bookmans in Phoenix?
Got a new gun for my ex-wife.....pretty good trade, huh?
New Hampshire, USA - "Live Free or Die!!!"
tip #2: estate sales: the good stuff is over priced, but the books are often less then $1 apiece
tip #3: yard sales/flea markets: same as before, cheap.
tip #4: discount book stores, sale and bargain book sections
tip #5: gun stores/pawn shops: often boooks get turned in with the guns and related equipment. generaly you can buy them cheaply.
i have about 225 related books. some rather obscure. ELEMENTS OF ORDANANCE by HAYES, HATCHERS NOTEBOOK, PISTOLS AND REVOLVERS by W.H.B. SMITH, etc... anything gun related is worth at least a brief examination. is a great relief to find multiple references from disparate scources when researching a gun.
best regards, mike.
What other dungeon is so dark as ones own heart, what jailer so inexorable as ones own mind.
They've even got one in Flagstaff that I didn't know about!
The address for the Phoenix Bookman's is 1056 S. Country Club Drive, I believe. Double-check it at their website...
http://www.bookmans.com/
Big Al
things like:
Rifle accuracy facts
The ultimate in Rifle Accuracy
etc
I like to read and absorb the quantifiable data collected and proven by metallurgists and balisticians. Being able to calculate chamber pressures, wind values, Yaw of repose at any range, felt recoil, optimum twist rate, etc is what interests me. It allows me to understand WHY something works or doesn't. I guess I'm a balistics nerd.[8)]
why chase the game when the bullet can get em from here?....
Got Balistics?
Collectible books are a lot like collectible guns, condition and rarity are major factors in value. I have found book collectors to be every bit as picky as gun collectors, if not more so. Spend some time looking at books and examining them for flaws until you know what good condition is.
First editions of classic tomes like The Rifle In America will have a higher collector value usually than a later edition with updates that may have more info and be of more practical use. Value is enhanced by the author's signature, particularly if accompanied by a general dedication as opposed to a personal one, e.g., "Good Shooting, Phil Sharpe" as opposed to "Thanks for your help Fred, Phil Sharpe".
You are unlikely to find a bargain on a collectible book at the book dealer. Go to eBarf and run some completed sales searches on titles you are interested in, or authors you like. You can try "gun book*" or similar searches too. Once you have learned the price ranges there, you will be prepared when you find a steal at the gun show, flea market, poorly constructed eBarf auction, etc. I once bought a signed first edition of a classic in VG condition at a little gun show for less than ten bucks. Guy also had the somewhat hard to find Shooter's Bible Treasury 1st in nice shape I got for a dollar. His table had more general junk than gun stuff, and nobody had bothered to dig through the pile of old books he had there.
By the way, anybody seen the last eBarf auction on Colt .45 Service Pistols by Clawson? Got mine a while back and paid $175 for a like new copy. My pals thought I was nuts, but I was happy, never having seen one for less than $250 before. Been getting $400-$500 on eBarf.
redcedars