Post by Admin on Aug 9, 2019 9:14:09 GMT
Reference Material
Reference publications are by far the most numerous out there but you have to pick wisely for this reason. Because they are easy to put together, lots of publishing firms will come out with reference books. An author doesn’t even need to be an established firearms authority to put a half way decent one together, all they have to do is look at previous reference books, add some relevant entries, maybe an introduction about how small arms affect this or that by an actual expert in the field and voila! Also, don’t buy too many reference books because before long, you’ll end up buying books that pretty much say the exact same thing about the same firearms, maybe with some additional pictures that you haven’t seen before but that’s about it. This is especially relevant with all these books coming out about the weapons of various Special Forces. The entries they have are the exact same and even less than the entries in general reference books.
Don’t go for these books that are coming out about various Special Forces weapons. Most of the information is simply regurgitated from other actual reference books and these companies publish them to make a quick deal because they know the public loves anything to do with special operations. If you want to know what SEAL Team 6 is using right now, 1) you’re not going to know because most of it is classified and 2) get an actual book written by a former SEAL or similar capacity that might be from several years ago but it will go into far more detail than any of these authors can. The Weapons of Delta Force is especially horrible.
I would highly encourage reference books that are solely to do with certain eras or wars. For example I have general reference books about small arms as a whole but I also have reference books just dealing with World War Two British small arms and another one just on World War One machine guns. A perfect example of an excellent reference book is the Jane’s Infantry Weapons. You literally can’t get a better book of military small arms and their civilian derivatives. They come out with one every year, but they are extremely pricy, in the hundreds of dollars for the current year and years immediately previous to it. But, after a couple years their value plummets and you can find them at used book stores or online for under 50 dollars in most cases.
I would highly encourage reference books that are solely to do with certain eras or wars. For example I have general reference books about small arms as a whole but I also have reference books just dealing with World War Two British small arms and another one just on World War One machine guns. A perfect example of an excellent reference book is the Jane’s Infantry Weapons. You literally can’t get a better book of military small arms and their civilian derivatives. They come out with one every year, but they are extremely pricy, in the hundreds of dollars for the current year and years immediately previous to it. But, after a couple years their value plummets and you can find them at used book stores or online for under 50 dollars in most cases.
Reference books like the ones here that are just about small arms in World War Two, or just machine guns of World War One are quite good because they focus on a particular era and thus can cover much more about these weapons than a general reference book that is limited by space. Although the book “Guns in Combat” is very generic, my mother bought it for me when I was in elementary school, I began an interest in small arms, and haven’t looked back since. Much to her discontent.
