Book Review: Experiment and Trial
Forgotten Weapons
•
4m 55s
Experiment and Trial, by Mathieu Willemsen, is a catalogue of the 218 guns in the collection of the Dutch School of Musketry, which existed from 1855 until 1933. It includes a large number of very unusual prototypes, as the School was a testing ground for designs submitted by inventors hoping to receiver Dutch military contracts. In particular, these include a wide variety of magazine conversion of the Beaumont action - designs which I have not seen any reference to anywhere else. Not everything in the book is so exotic, though, as the collection includes plenty of entirely ordinary service arms from other nations as well as from the Netherlands.
This is a fairly expensive book (€99 plus shipping in Europe; $145.50 shipped in the US), and it is definitely for a narrow group of enthusiasts. But for those of us who are particularly interested in experimental arms from the transitional period between single shot and repeating rifles, it includes quite a lot of thoroughly unique information.
Up Next in Forgotten Weapons
-
Book Review - The P38 Pistol by Alexa...
If you have been looking for a comprehensive reference work on the P38 pistol but balked at paying $400 for the out-of-print three volumes by Warren Buxton, the solution is here. Newly available in English is "The P.38 Pistol" by Alexander Krutzek, with Dietrich Jonke and Orvel Reichert. Based in...
-
Book Review - The Mac Man: Gordon B I...
Get your copy here: https://amzn.to/2pVQ26w
Gordon Ingram served as an infantryman during World War Two, and decided to get into the gunmaking business after the war. He though there was a market for a submachine gun for police and military forces, and to that end designed the very Thompson-es...
-
Book Review - Smith & Wesson Model 76...
Frank Iannamico's new book on the Smith & Wesson Model 76 submachine gun is in fact a book about much more than just the Model 76. It begins with several sections on earlier S&W 9mm carbines, like the 1940 "Light Rifle" and 1945 SMG. These sections taken alone are the most informative material on...