The Illustrated Directory of 20th Century Guns

This book is broken down into pistols and revolvers, rifles and shotguns, submachine guns, light maching guns, and heavy machine guns. There are wonderful descriptions of the firearms along with pictures for reference. The SKS I own, looks a lot nicer than the one they have in the picture here in the book. My SKS has a cleaning rod and sling. The one they have pictured in the book is missing these items. This book is one of the nicest presents I have received.

This book rises above two problems: errors/typos and terrible binding. It's a fat little book with very short pages so it's difficult to open it wide enough to read easily. And you're going to want to open it wide because they pack alot of info in there. The book is broken down by weapon type (pistol, rifle, light machine-gun, etc.) and you will find most of the well known weapons in here with plenty of weird one-offs and forgotten ancestors. The basic info for each gun is mostly complete and the text and photo is generally well-done. The typos are frequent enough to annoy and there are some obvious errors including the wrong weapon description being used for one entry. Still a very good addition to a basic library on firearms because few are as comprehensive and feature so many good photographs.

This is great book considering its price. It is almost identical to the Jane's Gun Recognition Guide except it is cheaper and doesn't contain as many errors. It has any gun from the year 1900 to the present. I did have trouble finding the SA80. I thought it would have it considering there is a picture of one on the back. But still, this book is a great buy for people who are looking for a good book that contains lots of information on weapons.