A fascinating look at the history and development of the revolver. Highly detailed and informative, Percussion Revolvers explores the advent, development, and use of precartridge revolvers during the middle years of the nineteenth century. The percussion revolver emerged in the 1830s and remained state-of-the-art until metallic cartridge revolvers came into common use in the mid-1870s. Through the use of modern replicas, shooting enthusiasts Mike Cumpston and Johnny Bates investigate the capacities and limitations of the original revolvers, providing insight into their accuracy, utility, and ballistic performance. Chapters include: Replicas: The Good, the Bad, and the Awful Early Revolvers, 1836–47: The Paterson and the Walker Colts The Dragoons Colt Revolvers of Midcentury: The Pocket and Navy Models Holsters, Belts, and Sashes The Later Years: The Last of the Colt Percussion Designs A Hail of Lead: The Confederate LeMat Bates and Cumpston discuss the development of the precartridge arms, placing them in their proper historic context. They also take a look at modern replicas, including detailed information on selection, maintenance, and shooting, while delving into both the positive and negative realities that can be encountered when using these firearms. A valuable reference for students, fiction writers, and active shooters, Percussion Revolvers is an in-depth and comprehensive exploration of caplock handguns and their modern replicas.

An Essential Compendium for Any Firearms or Old West Aficionado, richly and comprehensively illustrated. Written by one of the foremost firearms experts of the twentieth century, Charles Edward Chapel’s Guns of the Old West is an exhaustively researched document that not only boasts a significant collection of antique Western guns, but also categorizes the firearms into easy-to-reference sections. Starting with an introductory chapter on the origins of guns and their earliest uses on the frontier, Chapel covers everything from muskets to rifles, pistols to revolvers, and shotguns to martial arms. Three whole chapters are dedicated to the rise and fall of the famous Deringer pistol. And as much as Guns of the Old West is an encyclopedic reference manual, it also contains fascinating historical literature that frames the world in which these guns were used. Buffalo guns and hunters are covered, along with martial arms of the post-Civil War era. The gun collection of famous collector and hunter President Theodore Roosevelt is given its own chapter. Illustrated with nearly five hundred illustrations, as well as important artwork from the Western period from artists such as Frederic Remington, Guns of the Old West is an essential work for gun collectors and American history enthusiasts.

From the very earliest days of organized warfare, combatants have wanted to develop weapons with more firepower. This has inevitably led to a wide variety of repeating weapons, capable of a degree of sustained fire without reloading. Based largely upon new research, this book explores the history of repeating and multi-fire weapons, beginning with the Chinese repeating crossbow in the 4th century BCE, and ending with the world's most common firearm, the Kalashnikov AK-47. The author describes the potency of the machine gun in World War I, the development of the semiautomatic pistol and the role of the submachine gun in improving the effectiveness of the infantryman.