Book recommendations

D

dakota.potts

New member
I have a dream (maybe a pipe dream) of designing and producing my own firearms and accessories. I'm a gunsmithing student and CNC machinist now learning parts of the trade. I'm also trying to reach myself CAD by modeling parts around the house and blueprints I find on the internet.

I'm looking for recommendations for good books I can read in my downtime. Not necessarily reference or instructional books as much as something you can sit down and read, if that makes sense.

I don't have much of a book budget right now, so starting with books I have a good chance of finding at my local library is good. Books on firearm design, triggers, basic engineering, manufacturing techniques, machining, automation, metallurgy etc. If you recommend it from a place of experience and I can find it at my library, I'll read it and see what I can learn.

These are separate from the required books for my gunsmithing classes which include the Brownells Gunsmithing Kinks

Thanks
 
Walther Howe's Professional Gunsmithing. It's still my favorite. I also like Steele and Harrison's book, but that's mostly for older guns.
 
Go to everyspec.com and search for MIL-HDBK-5J - it is a very large download but it is free (taxpayers paid for it long ago). You mentioned Metallurgy - it has lots of data, you will not sit and read it like a book but you will enrich yourself perusing it.

It is "cancelled" - the new "private enterprise" version is called MMPDS (Metallic Materials Properties Database somthing) but it has not been updated and has languished. MIL-HDBK-5J is the go-to for metallic materials - basics and properties.

What have you got to loose?

Enjoy!
 
Jim Carmichael's Book of The Rifle is a good read. It's not a gunsmithing book in the conventional sense, but there are a lot of good gunsmithing tips from a person who shot, tweaked and maintained rifles all his life.
 
My father had an electrical engineering degree and got a job at Pacific Car and Foundry in the late 1940s. With a copies of
http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Of-Ordnance-Textbook-Military/dp/1432518119
http://www.amazon.com/Eshbachs-Handbook-Engineering-Fundamentals-Myer/dp/0470085789

He cranked out some innovations for the M55 design, and they made him chief engineer for the next 40 years.

Israel still uses them to shoot up Lebanon every now and then. My father's guns were Vietnam War era, and are all retired from US use now.
RolandMagnusoninhisofficeatPACCARcirca1980.jpg

The gave him a big office, inside parking, built miniature metal models of his designs, and a staff photographer took a staged picture of him designing a [I don't know which] gun in the early 1970s.
He used lots of math for everything.

Pistolmissingfor40years.jpg

My youngest brother, as a teeny bopper saw a picture of an Aston BlackPower Pistol in a jr. high library book, and decided to make one. He made a big mess in the garage. He could only see one side of the pistol, so his pistol only looks correct from one side. He could not see inside, so he did not use leaf springs, he used automotive drum brake coil springs he found in the garage.
He turned it in as a jr. high shop project and got an A.
He did not use math for anything.
He just used the one picture he saw.

Paulshootingmuzzleloadercirca1972-1_zps2c3682f9.jpg

Here is a pic of my youngest brother, as a teeny bopper in the early 1970s, shooting that gun in the back yard.
We generally regarded him as a pest.
 
To learn a bit about the history of guns, powder, barrel manufacture, and doubles, I would recommend "The Gun and its Development" by WW Greener.

Also, there is a rather good book written by Rheinmetall, titled "Handbook on Weaponry". They are the German manufacturers and designers of many German military rifles to large guns. The book has pretty much everything in it, and many arms designers use the book. Message me for a link to it. It is a large pdf, at 180 megs.

Elements Of Ordnance can be found as a free eBook on Google, below:

https://books.google.com/books/about/Elements_of_Ordnance.html?id=DSZLAAAAMAAJ
 
I found a pretty cool book for free download earlier - The Submachine Gun Designer's Handbook. I really am interested in the development of so called "tactical" weapons (or whatever other name there is for them) so it's been a great reference with technical data about different bolt weights, ejector types, formulas for cyclic rate etc.

I'm looking into the other recommendations and I'll hopefully get to go to the library the day after tomorrow to see which of these titles are available. Tomorrow is range day.
 
"...so called "tactical" weapons..." All hand held weapons are "tactical".
"...don't have much of a book budget..." Books are horrendously expensive. Even used. Your local public library absolutely is the place to start and read everything they have about metallurgy, mechanical engineering and machine design.
If you don't have a copy of Machinery's Handbook(runs about $100. Much less via Amazon.), you need one.
Buy as many of the NRA Gunsmithing Guides as you can. And any and all books of exploded drawings and strip and assemble guides.
 
Went to the library today and picked up a book on welding, Professional Care and Refinishing of Gun Stocks, and A History of the Modern Firearm.

I'm waiting to buy any books including exploded drawings as our school bookstore makes some available at the start of the semester and our instructor recommends buying those. They cost to the tune of several hundred dollars, so I want to see what all is included in those books before buying anything similar.

Jim: thank you for the article. Very interesting indeed. The use of 7 distinct cutters in one operation on the horizontal milling machine is borderline genius. Very interesting show of engineering. It's great to see that some things have changed a lot and some things have hardly changed at all. Also interesting to me that they rifled their own barrels in house.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top