Small Arms of the World: A Basic Manual of Small Arms

by Walter H.B. Smith

Book Overview

""Small Arms of the World: The Basic Manual of Military Small Arms"" is a comprehensive guidebook written by W.H.B. Smith that provides detailed information on various small arms used by militaries... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0811715663
• ISBN13: 9780811715669
• Release Date: January 1969
• Publisher: Stackpole Books
• Length: 768 Pages
• Weight: 4.00 lbs.

Customer Reviews

This my second copy of Basic Manual of Military Small Arms

I purchased this second copy of the Small Arms of the World: A Basic Manual of Small Arms since my original copy, a 1977 11th edition, that I bought in 1980 has been held together with packing tape for years now. It has seen plenty of use. I paid nearly four times as much for my old copy as the $8.50 for this copy. My new copy has been updated and expanded. Outside of a slight tear on the dust cover, it is pristine, even though it had been described as only acceptable. No foxing on the pages, the binding has not been broken in, the hardcover is without wear. Any wear seems to have been done in storage. For anyone that requires a better understanding of modern firearms, complete with schematics of the more popular ones, and some not-so-familiar arms this is a must. This book is a gold mine for weapons collectors. It contains descriptions of how to disassemble and reassemble military and commercial weapons alike. I heartily recommend buying a copy of this edition at this price and description while they last. If you're a gun collector, if you're a weapons aficionado, if you have any interest in weapons, this is one book that is a must for your library.

Must Have Reference Book

For anyone interested in military firearms this book should be on their shelve. I constantly refer to it for my writing and research. Tiger McKee Director Shootrite Firearms Academy Author "The Book of Two Guns"The Book of Two Guns: The Martial Art of the 1911 Pistol and AR Carbine

Small Arms of the World: A Basic Manual of Small Arms

Small Arms of the World: A Basic Manual of Small Arms is a classic. it is one of the best fireames books ever made, it is a real pity that it is out of print. they realy should rerelease it, I know I would buy it. But until that happens I'll just have to keep getting it from the library. If I could only have one firearms book I would choose this book hands down.

About as good as it gets

I highly recommend these Small Arms of the World books, due to the good coverage of Curio and Relic firearms, how you can take them apart to clean them, how they operate, pictures of individual weapons, interesting diargrams of some popular guns, and just simply the most information you are going to get on semi-automatic and full automatic firearms, at least that I can find. Seems that especially machine gun technology is some kind of restricted information somehow, at least in newer books, but at least these Small Arms books can help a former U.S. Army machine gunner like myself understand a little better how the guns I was checked out on,actually worked in principle. So, if your quest for knowledge is machine guns, then I defintely recommend these books. And if your quest for knowledge is Curio and Relic classified firearms, then especially the older versions of the Small Arms books are what you need. The newer ones kind of water down really old technology, while paying special emphasis on what was hot technology at the time, like a early seventies Small Arms will talk in depth on current American small arms like the M16, but will have minimal space on bolt action rifles, for instance. I definitely recommend the 1969 9th edition as a good all around "get you by", if you just wanted one edition on older Curio and Reic Firearms, if you are a collector of Curios and Relics like me.

Important To Have

For the person interested in modern military small arms, this book is the place to start. It presents the material well, with good photographs, understandable diagrams, and interesting text. Hopefully an updated version will come out someday, but I don't think anyone will regret buying this one now. In fact, I have an older edition from the 1960's that I treasure for it's better coverage of now-obsolete firearms, special emphasis on World War 2 German designs, and more complete history of firearms through the centuries. This edition, on the other hand, gives more attention to weapons developed during the 1960's and 1970's. No doubt, after some future edition finally brings us up to date on modern high-tech weaponry this book will still be a valuable snapshot of the variety of arms in use throughout the world during the final decades of the 20th Century.I highly recommend this book as the starting point for a good understanding of the small arms field, or as plain old good reading for the relatively technical-minded gun enthusiast.

The definitive small arms manual

Edward C. Ezell (deceased) update of W.H.B. Smith's classic work. As the Curator of Small Arms for the Smithsonian Institute, Dr. Ezell was this nation's foremost authority on small arms.The book is organized by nations and one may find several entries for the same firearm (the Mauser 98 or FN-FAL are good examples). Dr. Ezell preserved W.H.B. Smith's format of discussing the historical development of the particular firearm, the functioning of its parts, operating it and naturally, basic field stripping and reassembly. Unfortunately and probably because of space and cost, Smith's first chapter covering early firearm development was deleted and Dr. Ezell substitutes it with his update on submachine guns, handguns, rifles & carbines, machine guns and special purpose weapons (sniper rifles and suppressed weaponry). The final chapters discuss various ammunition and sporting firearms (mostly American).It is no empty boast that the jacket proclaims the book as, "An Encylcopedia of Global Weapons" and for a strictly budgeted reader, this is the ONE book to have. While this book won't make you an expert on the Garand, Mauser 98 or Lee-Enfield, but you'll know how to operate, disassemble and reassemble every one of them by the time you finish this book. Since being published in 1983, many newer firearms have been developed both here and abroad. Unfortunatley no substitute for Dr. Ezell has stepped forward to update this work.