The History & Development of Small Arms Ammunition, Volume One, G. A. Hoyem, 1981. An 8 1/2”x11” case bound, 230-page book illustrating and describing 282 cartridges from the flintlock, percussion muzzleloaders and breechloaders through the military rim fire worldwide, along with 110 photographs and drawings of the firearms that fired them.  A second edition of 2005 includes 120 specimens added in color.  In print. 

$60 plus $5 shipping by USPS Media Mail to US Destinations.

Modern Guns, 1914, Fred Adolph, 1984.  Fred Adolph issued his MODERN GUNS, a 67-page 9 ¼”x10 ½” photo-illustrated catalogue in 1914.  Adolph, a German-trained gun maker and engraver, set up business in Genoa, New York.  The combination rifle/shotguns and double rifles and shotguns he offered were produced in Germany and shipped to him.  Reprinted in 1983.  Out of print.  Recently reprinted by German Gun Collectors Association, See www.germanguns.com.   

Winchester Shotguns and Shotshells, Ronald W. Stadt, 1984. This was the first book by another author. Dr. Stadt, professor of education at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, had collected Winchester shotguns and accessories for many years. The first edition is 8 ½”x11”, case bound in red cloth, 184 pages.  It photo-illustrates and describes the shotguns from the hammer double barrel to the Model 59—113 specimens illustrated including the Winchester cannon—with over 70 shot shell specimens, 41 box labels, the engraving designs, advertising displays and catalogue covers.  Out of print.   See the internet booksellers, abebooks.com, alibris.com and amazon.com.

The History & Development of Small Arms Ammunition, Volume Three. 1985. This is a 220-page 8 ½”x11” case bound book illustrating and describing over 420 British sporting rifle cartridges from the 4 bore to 297/.230 plus 110 box labels, over 20 of the rifles that fired them and a number of loading tools.  A third edition with color dust jacket and frontispiece pages is in print. 

$60 plus $5 shipping by USPS Media Mail to US Destinations.

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With Dust Jacket - $60

British Falling Block Breech-loading Rifles, Jonathan Kirton, 1985.  A 242-page 8 ½”x11” volume bound in red simulated leather.  It covers the falling block single shot rifle designs of England and Scotland with large photographs, patent drawings, many of the proprietary cartridges and their box labels and histories of the inventors and companies.  First edition out of print. See abebooks.com and other internet booksellers.

Evolution of The Winchester, R. Bruce McDowell, 1985.  A 208-page 8 ½”x11” book  that covers development of the tubular magazine rifle from the Walter Hunt “Volitional Repeater” firing a loaded and primed ball, the Lewis-Jennings, Smith-Jennings, Volcanic pistols, the pistols and long arms of the New Haven Arms Company, the Henry rifle, the Model 1866 through 1876 Winchesters, the Tiesing, Bullard and short-lived Remington and Stevens lever action rifles and finally the Italian Venditti pistols. A limited edition of leather bound, slipcased books exists.  Out of print. 

Breech-loading Carbines of the United States Civil War Period, Brig. Gen. John Pitman, 1987.  This is volume one of a study by General Pitman on U. S. martial small arms and ammunition from 1776 to 1933.  General Pitman, 1842-1933, had a 39-year career as an ordnance officer with the United States army.  This 11” x 8 ½” book of 94 pages, single sided, contains his drawings of the Civil War carbines, their ammunition and cartridge box labels.  Thomas Publications, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, published others of General Pitman’s studies.  Out of print.

Cartridges of the Gras System, Christian Ramio and Philippe Mention, translated from the French by H. Bernard Malric, 1988.  A 147-page 8 ½” x 11” volume that covers development with photographs and drawings of the 11x58R center fire cartridge for the French Gras rifle adopted in 1873.  The French text is in the right column, the English translation in the left.

Out of Print

Westley Richards Guns & Rifles, 1812-1912, 1988.  This is a reprint of the 211-page 8 ½”x11” trade catalogue illustrating and describing the Westley Richards single and double shotguns, rifles, the single shot big game and Rook rifles, their bolt actions, and the arms of other makers that they marketed, including semi-automatic pistols of American and continental Europe make, U. S. and English revolvers, taxidermy and all kinds of accessories.  Perfect bound with a limited edition of 300 copies case bound in green cloth. 

Out of print.

Out of print.

Out of print.

Catalogues, W. R. A. Co., 1865-1918 (12 volumes), 1991.  This is a reprint of ten leather-bound volumes of Winchester trade catalogues dating from 1865 through 1910 that were found in the company’s patent library when it was sold to United States Repeating Arms Company in 1981.  Two additional volumes covering 1911 through 1918 were added later.  The books are 5 ¾”x8” case bound in leather-effect tan cloth and cover 30 inches of shelf space.  They illustrate and describe everything the company produced and marketed during those first 53 years—firearms, ammunition, loading tools, sights and accessories.  Published in 1990 and 1991 in an edition of 600 sets.  Out of print.  Sets from estates are consigned to the publisher from time to time for sale. Inquiries welcome.

British Small Arms Ammunition, 1866-1938, Peter Labbett, 1993.  The author, a former British infantry officer, assembled a comprehensive photo-illustrated study of British ammunition from the .577 Snider through rifle, handgun, anti-tank and machine gun cartridges to 20mm.  He brought it to Armory Publications and the 8 ½”x11” hardcover, 352-page book was in print by 1992.  It is the broadest study of small arms ammunition produced for any nation. 

Patents For Inventions (Small Arms), 1855-1930 (seven volumes and alphabetical index), 1993.  This set was produced in soft cover, 7”x9” volumes by the British Patent Office in 1934 to inform the inventing public of what had already been protected, thus reducing the number of rejections.  George Kass lent this publisher his massive set in two hard cover volumes.  A larger size seemed appropriate so the seven hard cover volumes of the reprint are 8 ½”x11”.  They contain summarized descriptions and the essential drawings of 7,980 British, German, Austrian, French, Italian and other continental European patents as well as several hundred by American inventors who protected their ideas with the British Patent Office.  A separate 35-page alphabetical index of inventors and patent numbers allows any patent to be located. In print. 

$175 plus $20 shipping by USPS Media Mail to US Destinations.

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Patents for Inventions - $175

Cartridge Catalogues, 1996.  This is a book whose existence is owed to the generosity of many people who allowed this compiler to copy great rarities in their collections, among them Gilbert Oekermann, the late Tom Dunn, Robert Buttweiler, Richard King, Jack Brickell, Ron Geldmacher and Ian Wright. The 476-page 9”x12” book containing the complete texts of 18 American, British, Canadian and German catalogues weighs six pounds.  It is covered in red leather-effect cloth with gold stamping.  The catalogues are:  Chamberlain Cartridge Company, 1886, Union Metallic Cartridge Company, 1890, Eley Brothers, 1892, Winchester Repeating Arms Company, 1894, Remington Arms Company, 1886 and 1905, Hoxie Expanding Bullets, 1907, United States Cartridge Company, 1914, Fred Adolph Cartridges, 1914, Dominion Ammunition, 1930, Jeffery’s .600 Nitros, 1903, 1927, Halger (Halbe & Gerlich), 1925, Peters Ammunition, 1930, Deutsches Waffen und Munitions (DWM), 1939, Brenneke, 1925, Simson’s .600 Nitro, 1920s.

Out of Print

British Sporting Rifle Cartridges, Bill Fleming, 1993.  When Bill saw Volume Three of “The History & Development…” he decided to do his own book on the subject.  He had specimens I had not discovered and, being a mechanical engineer, decided to include bullet, charge and head stamp variations and British box codes by caliber.  I was glad to publish it form him.  A 311-page 8 ½”x11” case bound book, it appeared in 1993. 

Out of print.

Winchester Repeating Arms Co., 1928-29, 1995.  This is a reprint of the 233-page Winchester salesman’s catalogue which Bob Borcherdt lent me.  Winchester had purchased Simmons Hardware Company after WWI and was offering all kinds of cutlery (280 pocket knife designs), fishing tackle, skates, flashlights and small tools, and the full line of sporting firearms and ammunition.  It is an 8 ½”x11”  hard bound book in dark blue leather-effect cloth with red and gold title stamping on the cover and spine matching the original.  This was Winchester’s final catalogue before it filed for bankruptcy in 1929.  It reappeared as Winchester-Western in 1931 and the line of hardware was dropped.  Four copies available as of October 20, 2010.

Out of Print

British Sporting Guns & Rifles, Part One and British Sporting Guns & Rifles, Part Two, 1996.  This is a collection in two 9”x12” hard cover volumes of 18 British gun makers’ trade catalogues dating from 1902 to 1934, “The Gun Trade Hand Book” of 1906 and a study titled “Ball Guns, Rifles, and Ball-and-Shot Guns” by the publisher.  There are 486 pages in Part One and 517 in Part Two.  The catalogues are:  John Dickson, Edinburgh, 1929, Holland & Holland, 1904, Jeffery’s Guns & Rifles, 1910-11, Webley and Scott, 1922, Purdey Guns & Rifles, 1932, Westley Richards & Co., 1909, Lancaster’s The Gun House, 1924, George Gibbs, 1927, W. W. Greener, 1920, B.S.A. Rifles and Shotguns, 1931, G. & S. Holloway, 1930, John Rigby & Co., Sporting Guns, 1934, Magazine Rifles, 1932, Double Rifles, 1932 and Walter Locke & Co., Ltd. 1925.  The two volumes weigh eight pounds. 

Out of print. 

Kynoch, Dale R. Hedlund, 2000.  This is a a photo- and drawing-illustrated study of George Kynoch and the 100-year history of the company bearing his name from its beginnings in 1862.  The author was a shot shell collector and the emphasis in the book is on that subject.  In addition to the cartridges and their box labels there are many pages of proprietary head stamps as well as handgun cartridge and .22 rim fire box labels.  The book is 9”x12”, hard cover in red cloth, 130 pages. 

Out of print.                 

German and Austrian Gun makers’ Trade Catalogues, Hans Pfingsten, George Hoyem, 2002.  Hans was a student of German sporting firearms.  This publisher has always been fascinated with the subject so we  decided to put together a book containing some of the best trade catalogues of German sporting arms makers.  We selected E. Schmidt & Habermann and Greifelt & Co. of the 1930s, Joh. Springer’s Erben (family) of Austria, 1914 and Friedrich Welhelm Heym of the 1930s.  To these we added two sporting ammunition makers’ catalogues—Gustav Genschow & Co. (GECO) of the 1930s and Deutsche Metallpatronenfabrik, Lorenz, 1886—the first of the DWM catalogues.  The Schmidt & Habermann and Greifelt are in German, French, English and Italian. Together they form the only reference available on the variety of combination rifle/shotguns, double rifles and shot guns and single shot rifles produced in Germany and Austria.  George laid out the book, Hans added some photographs of firearms in his collection, and it was in print in 2002 under Han’s publishing name, Jaeger Press. 

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With Dust Jacket - $49.95