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Gunsmithing: Pistols and Revolvers (Gunsmithing: Pistols & Revolvers) Review

This book has helped clear away a lot of mysteries for me. After reading this book, I was able to have the confidence to replace the hammer spring on my brother's 22 magnum revolver. I also have replaced sights, improved the action on my guns, and other stuff too. I think some of the other reviewers were right that it could have been clearer. Simple arrows drawn on some of the pictures would do a world of good. Some of those pictures have captions like "You can see here that..." to which my response is, The chapter on troubleshooting was especially helpful

Gunsmithing: Pistols and Revolvers (Gunsmithing: Pistols & Revolvers) Overview

Whether you're a professional gunsmith or just an interested do-it-yourselfer, you'll find what you need to keep your favorite pistols and revolvers perking in this revised 3rd Edition of Gunsmithing Pistols and Revolvers.

From basic disassembly and maintenance to more complex repair and customization techniques, master gunsmith Pat Sweeney explains in clear text and detailed photos how to get the very most out of your pistol or revolver. Whether you're wondering how to mount a front or rear sight, replace a cylinder, give your gun a thorough cleaning or perform any one of a hundred other essential procedures, you'll find it in this revised edition of Gunsmithing Pistols and Revolvers.

It's All Here:

Hundreds of close-up photos

Performance tips, tricks and techniques

Special sections on the 1911, the Makarov, the vZ-52 and the Springfield XD

And much more!

Gunsmithing mistakes can be expensive. Protect your investment - with Gunsmithing Pistols and Revolvers!

Available at Amazon Check Price Now!

Customer Reviews

Great guide - John Fullinwider - Corona, CA
Very well illustrated and provides enough detail to get the job done. Well worth the purchase price

Good book, but could have been clearer - Peter Koziar - Owings Mills, MD USA
Overall, it's a good book. The chapter on troubleshooting is worth the price of the book, since what was going wrong with my revolver wouldn't have been something I would have looked for.

I do agree with other reviewers that it could have been clearer. Simple arrows drawn on some of the pictures would do a world of good. Some of those pictures have captions like "You can see here that..." to which my response is, "I wish I could! All I see is a tangle of little metal pieces!" He could also do a better job explaining jargon on the function of things like "hands" and "trigger return springs."

It can't be your only book on the subject. You'll have to augment it with others to get the whole story.

Neither here nor there. - JW - San Diego, CA
This review is for the 3rd Edition (Dec 2009). I've read the book from cover to cover, and when all is said and done, I'm really not sure what to make of it.

1. This is not a textbook. It doesn't teach you anything about firearm internals, design, function, nomenclature, etc. You're assumed to already know that stuff, so this is certainly not a book for the novice.

2. Upon thinking it over, though, I can't really call this a "how to" book, either. Oh sure, there are descriptions of techniques on how to do certain things with your pistols/revolvers, but the steps are glossed over, often times vague, and sometimes lacking in detail. In fact, a good way to describe the procedures presented in this book is to say that they're the condensed Reader's Digest version, leaving it to the reader to fill in the remainder.

3. Speaking of "Digest"... I did not know this at the time I ordered, but this book is published by Gun Digest. You either love Gun Digest or you hate it, and I fall into the latter category; so had I known this in advance, I probably would have opted for something else.

4. I have to say that this book is exactly what I was expecting, but unfortunately that is not meant as a compliment. The author, Patrick Sweeney, is a regular contributor to gun industry periodicals such as Handguns Magazine (to which I subscribe). He has been writing articles for decades; and as I was reading through this book, I couldn't help but get the feeling that the contents were simply a conglomeration of several of his past articles that were thrown together and loosely (poorly) tied together. The cohesion from one topic to the next--or sometimes even from one paragraph to the next--wasn't always there. At times, the subject flow takes wild tangents that leave you going, "Huh? Where did that come from?"

5. It's a pet peave of mine, I admit, but it irks me to no end when, say, you take a pistol class and then have to listen to the instructor talk about "when I was on patrol we had this one incident where I...." 90% of the time it's irrelevant. In this book, there was a fair amount of "reminiscing" (for lack of a better word), or personal taste. I really don't care what your pet bowling pin gun is, or what your favorite practice load is. Just stick to the dang topic. It could have been a lot worse, but it also could have been trimmed down a bit (IMO).

6. I also hate "walking advertisements". Most of the time whenever the author mentioned a particular brand of a product or a particular person, it was for good reason. On a few occasions, however, it seemed like the author would mention something either to name drop or because he's getting an endorsement check.

7. I mentioned earlier about the book seeming to be a conglomeration of articles, and so it was with the photos accompanying the text also. Most of the photos were useful, showing a snapshot of a particular step in a procedure or a critical component of a certain pistol model. However, some of the procedural steps were out-of-sequence. Also, the majority of photos appear before the text that references them, sometimes pages before. So as you're looking at the photos pertaining to one portion of text, suddenly the next photo has absolutely nothing to do with the topic at hand, and then you realize later that it pertains to the subject covered in the next section. They could really be laid out better, and the unnecessary ones discarded (or replaced with something better). BTW, the photos and captions also add to the gut feeling that the whole book was constructed from several past articles.

8. There were huge voids between useful chapters. I remember the first two chapters were introductory, then the 3rd chapter actually got into gunsmithing and began by listing some tools you would need, how to properly polish things using cloth-backed sandpaper and mineral spirits, etc; and then "somehow" it wasn't until like Chapter 15 that it started talking about actual gunsmithing again. When I realized what had happened, all I could do was scratch my head, and I'm still not sure what was in between. For example, there is a chapter devoted to power tools, and the brundt of the chapter is: don't invest in a lathe or mill due to the expense--not just the tool, but the stand, cutters, lubricant, etc--unless you REALLY think you can get a return on your investment. What you should do instead is "Take your pistol to a professional gunsmith whenever you need lathe or mill work done, or to a machinist who understands the nuances of gunsmithing." Same with the chapter on welding... "Find a welder you trust and let him do all your welding work." Heck, even when he does explain a procedure he will often qualify it with, "...but the cost of the fixture and tools is more than if you would just take your pistol to a professional gunsmith." Ironically, then in the later chapters of the book he'll say things like, "To do such-and-such you need to put the workpiece in your mill's vise clamp and use an end cutter to...." I don't know, it all just seemed weird and contradictory.

9. I realize that up to this point, I've been rather critical of the book, but it was not without its merits. Once the "huge void" mentioned in Item 8 was bridged, then there was a wealth of information contained in the pages. The sad part is that, as I expected, most of it had to do with gunsmithing a 1911; or to be more precise, FITTING PARTS to a 1911. Nevertheless, Mr. Sweeney has been around the block a few times, and there is a lot of useful information in the last half (third?) of the book. FYI - About 60% of (the useful part of) the book is devoted to the 1911, about 25% to S&W revolvers, and the remaining 15% scattered about (Glock, Beretta 92/M9, Makarov, and CZ-52 as best as I can remember, and not much of any of them).

Okay, this review got out of control, so let's just jump to the chase here. IMHO, I think you could learn more about gunsmithing by picking up one of the AGI Armorers Courses on DVD than you can from this book. I mean, it's a bad comparison because they're two different beasts (both in content and format), but the ratio of the amount of information received from the DVD for the time invested watching it compared to the information received from reading this book is much higher, albeit at roughly twice the cost. It's all trade-offs I guess, and I reiterate that this is just my personal opinion; others will disagree. One thing is certain, though... I will not be purchasing Mr. Sweeney's "Gunsmithing Rifles" book!

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Sep 23, 2010 09:45:52

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Thursday, September 23, 2010