Some comments on Brassey's Essential Guide to
Military Small Arms
Here's my review of the book Brassey's Essential Guide to
Military Small Arms at Amazon:
"Good overview of small arms design, lots of formulas, August 8, 1998"
As a broad treatise on small arms design this volume generally
succeeds. It does not include every possible design, but has good
coverage of the important ones. Since the main contributors are
Czech it's particularly strong on East bloc designs including a
few obscure ones, which is an interesting contrast with most
Western writings.
This book may have origins in a collection of articles but has
been well-edited to create a relatively coherent whole. The
writing and grammar are generally clear. There are a few places
where the language (translations?) is a bit garbled, but the
meaning is usually discernable.
Arms design generally moves so slowly (compared, say to computers)
that I'd say the content is reasonably current. For example, the
coverage of modern Gatling designs is probably fresh enough to
provide insight into current models.
My overall impression is that the scope and background are
reasonably broad and technical information is strong. There are
lots of detailed formulas describing the physics involved. Given
all this and the general difficulty in obtaining good information
on small arms design, I recommend this title highly.
Some more comments of mine about this title, from correspondence
- Is it exhaustive?
- It does not include every possible design, but has good
coverage of the important ones. It's particularly strong
on East bloc designs including a few obscure ones, which
is a nice contrast with most Western writings.
- Is it clear?
- Generally yes. The grammar is generally good. There are
a few places where the language is a bit garbled, but the
meaning is usually discernable.
- Is it up to date?
- Arms design generally moves so slowly (compared, say to
computers) that I'd say it's reasonably current. For example,
the coverage of modern Gatling designs is probably fresh
enough to provide insight into current models.
- Is it well organized or it is just a collection of articles?
- It may have started as a collection of articles but has been
well edited to create a relatively coherent presentation as
a whole.
- What do you think about it?
- Good technical information and background; lots of formulas.
- Your comment at Amazon's is dated 05/26/98. Would you still recommend it
after a deeper analysis?
- Given the above and the general difficulty in obtaining
good information on small arms design, yes, I would
recommend it highly.