Ian Reviews the Greatest Book Ever: Chassepot to FAMAS
Forgotten Weapons
•
9m 11s
I am very excited to finally be able to formally present to you Chassepot to FAMAS: French Military Rifles 1866-2016! After about 3 years of work, it's finally here and shipping. My goal with this book was to create a reference guide that would allow someone to identify any French military rifle they would encounter, be it in museums, gun shows, auction, and collections.It covers military rifle designed and built in France, and has 10 chapters comprising more than 530 pages: Chassepot, Gras, Kropatschek, Lebel, Berthier, RSC, MAS 36, MAS semiauto, FR, and FAMAS. within each chapter is a history of the design, variations, markings, production dates and totals, combat use, bayonets, mechanics, and more. The photography is outstanding, and it really shows. James Rupley's efforts in that area have made it the best-looking firearms reference book ever published, if I may be so bold as to make that claim. This is not a typical book full of dark black-and-white photos.
While there are a few other books in English on French rifles, none is even remotely close to the scope of mine. This is a must-have resource for anyone interested in French arms, or who collects them. Perhaps this is a biased opinion since it comes from the author, but I am confident that outside review will back me up.
Up Next in Forgotten Weapons
-
Book Review: FN Browning Pistols by A...
Anthony Vanderlinden is a noted FN collector and author of a book on FN Mauser rifle as well as this volume on FN's Browning pistols. Both are excellent reference works, with a remarkable amount of contextual information in addition to the very specific detail that appeal to the collector. This w...
-
Book Review: Walther Pistols - Models...
Dieter Marschall originally published his book on Walther Pistols in German, but it was translated into English to meet demand form the collector market here in the US. This is the third English edition, expanded form previous ones. Unlike most books on Walther, this one covers all of Walther's p...
-
Book Review Double Feature: Webley So...
Joel Black partnered with several coauthors (Joseph L. Davis and Roger G. Michaud for the first and Homer Ficken and Frank Michaels for the second) to produce two volumes cataloging an immense variety of Webley solid-frame revolvers. These books include only small and scattered text segments, wit...
