Best coffee table firearm book

[jhenry]

"Thoughts on the Kentucky Rifle in it's Golden Age" Kindig and edited by Shumway. If you can find one.

"The Kentucky Rifle" Capt. Dillin and again edited by George Shumway, easier to find.

"The Rifle in America" by Sharpe. You can find it for sure.

"The Muzzle Loading Cap Lock Rifle" by Ned H. Roberts is one of my favorites.

Someone gave me "Gun, A Visual History" for Christmas. It is utter crap. The mistakes and exceedingly poor research are appalling. Whoever wrote or compiled the thing likely doesn't even own any firearms and should be flogged with nettles by a Turk.

 

[Patriot86]

Gun Digest is not a bad one, my mother in law got the 2011 edition for both me and my brother in law. Great coffee table book.

 

[Stevie-Ray]

W H B Smith's Small Arms of the World.

This. I've had a copy for over 30 years.

 

[egor20]

Wrong post

 

[Buzzcook]

Get a bunch of "The Shooter's Bible" issues. Works for me.

 

[gak]

+1 one of the Colts, take your pick...good for gun and non-gun afficiandos.

 

[Webleymkv]

20th Century Arms and Armor by Stephen Bull.

http://www.amazon.com/20th-Century-Arms-Armor-Stephen-Bull/dp/0816033498/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333421516&sr=8-1

 

[PPBart]

"The Complete Book of the .22: A Guide to the World's Most Popular Guns" by Wayne van Zwoll

 

[bossman]

I start drooling the minute I open the Standard Catalog of Smith & Wesson.

I also like Ruger and his Guns.

 

[johnbt]

www.kevinscatalog.com/products.asp?dept=1741

Pick one.

I like the Holland & Holland book and The Story of the Winchester 1 of 1000 and 1 of 100 Rifles.

 

[Master Blaster 2]

Armed America: Portraits of Gun Owners in Their Homes

I have owned it over a year.

 

[RickB]

1911: The First 100 Years, by Sweeney.

 

[gunsmokeTPF]

"Packing Iron-Gunleather of the Frontier West"

 

[radom]

lazy here and pass on the coffee table gun books..why bother when the coffee table is covered with guns.

 

[BPowderkeg]

"Thoughts on the Kentucky Rifle in it's Golden Age" Kindig and edited by Shumway. If you can find one.

"The Kentucky Rifle" Capt. Dillin and again edited by George Shumway, easier to find.

"The Rifle in America" by Sharpe. You can find it for sure.

"The Muzzle Loading Cap Lock Rifle" by Ned H. Roberts is one of my favorites.

i have all these and many more on muzzleloading rifles, when i built my own first M.L. rifle, (1961ad) i caught the M.L. disease, i wanted to know more, so i started to buy books, during the next 20 years i made a total of 52 M.L. rifles, my favorite is the full stock flint lock Hawken Rifle, in 1974ad i sold one for $1,200.00........, in that time $1,200.00 was a huge bundle of $$$$$.

 

[Chris_B]

1911: the first 100 years gets my vote too

 

[sserdlihc]

I like to keep Modern Reloading and several older Lyman reloading manuals on the coffee table.

 

[baddarryl]

"Pageant of the Gun", by Harold L. Peterson is a good read. Treasury of Stories of Firearms: their romance and lore, development and use through 10 centuries. 1966. Picked in up in a used book store for $5. No idea if in print.

Also the "Book of Rifles" is more like an encyclopedia of world rifles up to 1965.