Best military collectibles books according to redditors

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Norman, The Rapier & Small-Sword - the classic work. Out of print, but can be found second-hand.

Capwell, The Noble Art of the Sword - available, pretty, and the next best after Norman that I know of. It's a prettier book than Norman.

The Black Rifle: M16 Retrospective. I don't have the book at hand at the moment, so I can't give a specific page number. Here is a Loose Rounds article, the relevant paragraph is towards the end.

"Ironically, production lots of M193 Ball loaded with IMR 8208M were soon withdrawn for practice use only. Reliability problems had been discovered in a new set of performance trials conducted by the USMC at Fort Sherman7 in Panama. Part of the goals was to sort out the relative merits of Ball versus IMR powders in the reliability of the M16A1."

The "dirtyness" issue is sometimes taken as excess Calcium Carbonate in production powder, which did clog gas tubes on one particular lot with excess CaCO3. However, a year's testing was unable to find any other lots with excess CaCO3, and it's allowable amount was later reduced anyway, just to be safe.

I would start with a couple good illustrated books on the subject. Many States are very gradually getting rid of those laws, Texas, for instance, recently legalized them, getting rid of some other knife laws at the same time that dated back to the reconstruction era and were equal parts Southerners not wanting freedmen carrying knives, and carpet baggers not wanting the southerners carrying knives.

I found this one and this one to be interesting and a good starting point.

Nope, those are C7IURs made by Colt Canada (previously Diemaco).
Colt Canada makes rifles/carbines for Canada (LEOs & military), Iceland (ICRU), Netherlands (military), Norway (LEOs & military), Sweden (SF units), UK (LEOs & SF units), and Denmark (SF units).

As for trying to tell the difference; since the TDP for the AR platform went public, everyone and their mothers have been producing an AR to compete in both the civilian and government markets. They all look the same and generally operate the same, but they're not all made the same. Generally, ARs made for the civilian market aren't held to any standard (aside from what their makers impose), and their performance usually reflects this. Any small arms produced for a NATO country are held to a NATO standard (which involves some fairly interesting testing, I might add), as well as any other standards imposed by their destination country/military.

But, I digress... If you're looking for more info about the AR platform, I'd suggest reading The Black Rifle, and The Black Rifle II.

Youtube is a vast resource for almost any gun these days.

Four basic rules of gun safety:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQrlDUIZ3f0

Basic range safety and ettiquette:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COvFyw-6Fqs


How to operate an AR15:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFFN_j3WD80

How to zero it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9oXGT55cV8


How to shoot it (like a boss):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ligUEAJH25E

How to maintain it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xW4DQ5QlwrA

How it works:

P1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKKQcJnMEOo

P2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VntwFqcE4-g

Development history:

Early development and current ongoing modernization
https://www.full30.com/video/9b50f8a825ab510b4c227c7b32a76bc1

A2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fX5RoaYqQ04

Army approved camouflaging methods:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KE_Ly61h10w

Things you should consider if your going to involve yourself in gun ownership and the greater gun community:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGYf9AZlSyU



Literature (for your library of badassery):

Owners guide:

http://www.amazon.com/NEW-AR-15-Complete-Owners-Guide/dp/1888722193/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1419244413&sr=1-3&keywords=ar15

Builders guide:

http://www.amazon.com/AR-15-Complete-Assembly-Guide-Kuleck/dp/1888722126/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1419244598&sr=1-4&keywords=ar15

DOD technical manual (vintage repro) A1:

http://www.amazon.com/The-M16A1-Rifle-Preventive-Maintenance/dp/1616088648/ref=pd_sim_b_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=1NXC05W604YBE436A34P

DOD technical manual A2/M4:

http://www.amazon.com/M16A2-Carbine-5-56mm-Technical-Manual/dp/1601700199/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1419244734&sr=1-3&keywords=m16+manual

Another manual:

http://www.amazon.com/M16-Weapon-Gordon-Rottman/dp/1849086907/ref=sr_1_31?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1419245604&sr=1-31&keywords=black+rifle

Collectors guide (early rifles):

http://www.amazon.com/Black-Rifle-Retrospective-Modern-Military/dp/0889351155/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1419245668&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=black+rifle+retrospective

Collectors guide (modernized rifles & carbines):

http://www.amazon.com/Black-Rifle-II-Into-Century/dp/0889353484/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1419245763&sr=1-5&keywords=black+rifle


Wiki page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AR-15

If you decide to get into gun ownership taking a firearms safety course and getting what you need to participate in an Appleseed marksmanship clinic are good first steps into getting some hands on experience with firearms and the history of the 2nd amendment. Safety courses are held all over the place some googling will find you one in your area pretty easily they are usually fairly inexpensive. Appleseed clinics are scheduled events that are at predetermined ranges. https://www.appleseedinfo.org/ Beyond that if you choose to get an AR15 there are a lot of schools that host "Introductory Carbine Classes" designed around the AR15. They are good ways to get some hands on training but they usually require you to bring your own rifle, mags, some basic load bearing kit, and ammo. If you can afford to get into an entry level carbine class they are usually worth it. Watching youtube videos and reading some text on the stuff can be greatly useful but there is a limit to how much you can learn without getting hands on experience.

Yeah, my pistol game is weakest, but that's mostly due to me always finding the deals for my dad, who loves basically all of the guns I do. But he has money, and I don't. I've got a total of 3 pistols now, and I'm trying to get my 1911 collection started with a WW1 gun.

Anyway, back on topic. 1911A1s are a pretty safe bet, but it helps to have good reference material if you're going into that. This is a great place to start. Easy to read, lots of pictures and tables. Solid 1911 reference.

Lugers are also a great buy, and you can always find good prices, though they do carry that German premium still. Let's see.... Hi-Powers are cool. Lahti's are as well, though getting pricey lately.

Well.... you've definitely got a LOT of options.

I purchased both of my 1911s on GunBroker. Depending on the date, how original it is and of course the condition of the piece you can spend from $1,000 upwards of $15,000. Mine were both between the $2-$3k range. I've seen guns with worse finishes on them sell for more than I paid for mine.

Haunt local out of the way gunshops.

Beware a few things. Refinished guns, when you refinish a gun it's condition and value, automatically drops to NRA 20%, no matter how nicely it was done. Some unscrupulous folks try to pass off refinished pieces as "found like new in box" never fired... It's so very unlikely for an original 1911 I'd have to see some serious paperwork to back it up. I did see one recently however sell for $15,000, and it was worth every penny.

For example: Colt Model 1911 Commercial - MFD 1915 I don't know what this reserve price is but I do know this gun has been refinished both the frame and the slide, so it's not worth more than $900 to me. Admittedly sometimes the person selling it doesn't even know the history.

Beware of claimed manf. dates that don't match the serial numbers in Colt records

Beware of mixed parts guns and armory rebuilds. The most obvious are mismatched frames and slides. I've seen several of those being sold as all original. Again the seller may not even know.

Get a copy of The Model 1911 and Model 1911A1 Military and Commercial Pistols. Study it.

Get your C&R from the ATF.

Here is the mobile version of your link

All from Amazon:


https://www.amazon.com/Bougainville-before-conflict-Anthony-Regan/dp/1921934239

https://www.amazon.com/Light-Intervention-Lessons-Bougainville-Perspectives/dp/1601270615

https://www.amazon.com/Soldiers-Diary-Bougainville-Crisis-Part/dp/1475254687

https://www.amazon.com/Sandline-affair-Politics-Mercenaries-Bougainville/dp/0733307019

https://www.amazon.com.au/Unorthodox-Soldier-Peace-Sandline-Affair/dp/184018180X

And unrelated to Bougainville, but a dramatized movies about Sandline’s involvement in a failed coup in Equatorial Guinea is Coup!

Read This

The Army demanded it before the gun was ever fielded. They didn't want to lose the functionality of the reciprocating bolt handles of older rifles. It wasn't part of the original design.

My mother got me a really nice scrapbook. Oversized, so awards/certs can be put in it. Marine stylized.

United States Marines Scrapbook (Military Scrapbook Series) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0883636298/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_uzDEAb9NZ42VP

This book will teach you everything you need to know about 1911s