Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Best books?

I've been on a sort of book binge recently and just ordered David Westbrooks book on professional stock making. Are there any other books (technical or otherwise) regarding custom rifles and rifle building that are a must? I've read most of the african adventures (death in the long grass, etc.) and love them, but I'd like to focus more on the rifle itself at this point. Mule Deer and Tsquare are there any definitive works I should be looking for?

Just curious, where does one find an available Wesbrook copy?

Edited. Did some surfing and see they did a reprint. The originals were getting pretty valuable.

The Rifle Book by O'Connor. powdr

Among others, I've found the following books to be very useful, and contributed to one myself:

Selecting and Ordering a Custom Hunting Rifle, Charlie Sisk
Checkering and Carving Gunstocks, Monte Kennedy
Restocking a Rifle, Alvin Linden
The Modern Gunsmith (2 volumes), James Virgil Howe
Gunsmithing, Roy Dunlap
Gun Digest Book of Riflesmithing, Jack Mitchell

Some of these are out of print, but can be found used on the Internet. The Sisk book is the one I contributed to, among several authors, and is available through our website, riflesandrecipes.com.

Another very good reference is Building Your Gunsmithing Library, from MidwayUSA, edited by Reid Coffield and Larry Potterfield. It lists a pile of gunsmithing books, with short evaluations.

Both of Tom Turpin's books on Modern Custom Guns, as well as his work on the David Miller Co.

Carmichael....the name of the book escapes me at the moment, although it resides on my shelf. The Modern Rifle?

Stephen Dodd Hughes...Custom Guns in Black and White.

+1000 on Tom Turpin's Mastery of Wood & Metal - David Miller Company.

kd

Since I admire very accurate rifles, "The Accurate Rifle", by Warren Page is the most interesting book for me. His explanation on how to make a gun shoot accurate, is very enlightening.

THE CUSTOM REVOLVER - by Hamilton Bowen.

Try Alibris.com for hard to find, out of print books. Good prices

I'm not sure what you're looking for, but for the nitty-gritty of gunsmithing I've found Brownell's Kinks series to be helpful. The books are collections of gunsmithing tips submitted to Brownell's for their newsletter over the years. Even if not directly applicable the articles give one insights into alternate approaches to a problem.

The books also give insight to the practice of gunsmithing. For instance one volume has a chapter dealing with issues and solutions with using Brownell's hot bluing salts. All caustic hot bluing processes are pretty much the same and the material gives a good insight into the practice of hot bluing even though the reader has no intention of doing such.

Look on Safari Press's web site for ideas.

http://www.safaripress.com/

Keith's Gun Notes is fascinating and I love Boddington's American Hunting Rifles.

The Bolt Action: A Design Analysis, Volumes 1 and 2, by Stuart Otteson. I don't know whether Wolfe Publishing Company's CD copy is still "in print," but I know that the hardbound books are long out of print.

$300.00 on Amazon will get you both.

Always try your local library, and do an inter-library loan request for hard to find books.