…it’s rolling ’round the bend,
And I ain’t gun book blogged
Since I don’t know when…
Sort of scans, don’t it? And it was April 25th.
Anyway, I have a stack downstairs that’s getting precarious, even more so than the stack upstairs. So here’s a few for today, and maybe a few more in the next few days.
Vintage American Treasure Series: The Smith & Wesson Magnum Edition, Dr. Bill Cross and Paul Goodwin. This is a new book available from Amazon, but I’m including a photo anyway.
I’m about 3/4ths of the way through, maybe a bit more, and I can recommend this if you’re really serious about your Smith and Wessons. There are two parts to this book.
Part one is devoted to the .357 Magnum collection of the late Ray Cheely. Mr. Cheely was a prominent member of the S&WCA, and put together the finest collection of Registered Magnums ever. I met Mr. Cheely at my first S&WCA meeting in 2008. We didn’t talk much, since:
- It was my first meeting, and I was mostly walking around like a country bumpkin in the big city.
- I am, as you know, Bob, pathologically shy.
- Mr. Cheely was busy during the meeting founding the Smith & Wesson Historical Foundation (S&WHF).
But he was a good guy. Sadly, 2008 was also around the time he became ill. He passed away in July of 2009, and the collection was mostly sold off in 2011 and 2012. I’ve come to know his wife, Sheryl, and brother, Ken, a little better: I think Sheryl could actually pick me out of a police lineup.
Before the collection was sold off, the family hired Paul Goodwin to professionally photograph the collection, and the bulk of the book is those photos. Here’s one example, which I will claim “fair use” for:
If you can’t read the text (click to embiggen) this is a Registered Magnum that belonged to Gary Cooper. There’s about 170 more pages of this, including photos of original registration certificates and a few significant non-Registered Magnum guns.
The second part of the book is a collaboration between Dr. Bill Cross and Dr. Roy Jinks. Dr. Cross is also an officer of both the S&WCA and the S&WHF, while Dr. Jinks is the former S&W historian, one of the founders of the S&WCA, and a board member of the S&WHF. Between the two of them, they know more about the .44 Magnum than anyone on the face of the earth.
(I have the pleasure and honor of knowing both gentlemen as well. This is not me bragging about the prominent people I know, this is me being up front about possible conflicts of interest.)
This section features even more photos, this time of .44 Magnum revolvers, along with a running commentary giving the history of the .44 Magnum (including engineering changes), and also pictures of some of the accoutrements (cases, tie pins, sight adjustment tools, patches, and the like).
In case you can’t tell, I think this is well worth the $80 for the serious S&W collector, or for that matter anyone who likes good gun photography.
Safari: Pan Am’s Guide to Hunting with Gun and Camera Around the World, Charles A. Cabell III and David St. Clair. Doubleday, Garden City, NY, 1968.
This is a weird one that I bought precisely because it is weird. It is a guide to hunting (with gun and/or camera) around the world, on every continent but Antarctica. And it was published as a promotional volume for Pan Am, who was glad to tell you how to get there (on a Pan Am flight). But there is actually some use to it (or would have been in 1968) beyond the Pan Am promotion, as it also covers what game is available, what weapons to bring (and how to get them into the country), what to wear, recommended outfits/guides, tips for the photographer, and other useful bits of travel information.
Much of this, of course, is lost in the mists of time. I don’t know that anybody hunts in Iran any longer, and Pan Am doesn’t go anywhere these days. So this is more historical curiosity than practical guide. But since I like hunting books, and I like Pan Am, this pushed the right buttons. This is too late for Riling, but Biscotti lists it in American Sporting Books.
I believe this was $25 from Callahan and Company. I think it can be fairly described as “very good”. There’s a small chip missing out of the bottom right front corner, some shelf wear on the spine, and about a one inch tear in the rear cover. The plastic protector hides a few sins, but I think this is a clean copy of what was a work of ephemera.
Scattergunning, Ray P. Holland. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1951. This is one of the Borzoi Books for Sportsmen: it is a little late for Riling, but Biscotti lists it (B-20-A) in The Borzoi Books, and give a brief biography of the author.
I saw a copy of this at Half-Price Books for $30…without a jacket. So before I bought it, I hopped on ABE to see what a copy with a jacket was going for. Surprise, surprise, surprise, the most reasonable one on ABE was from Callahan and Company. So I bought it for $60.
Probably only fair: there’s a lot of wear to the right front edge of the jacket, some chips missing from both the bottom and top, a largeish chip out of the spine, and some wear and one chip out of the rear. But as I said, this was the most reasonable copy with a jacket I could find online, and since I’m resolved to collect Borzoi books, and I have what I think is a good working relationship with Callahan and Company…
I haven’t read it yet, but Biscotti describes Holland’s style as being “populist”, compared to other Borzoi writers, and I’m inclined to agree based on what I have read. Holland thoughtfully includes two chapters on gun safety and hunting etiquette (and yes, these are two separate, but related, things).
One down, 40 to go.
I wanted to get one more in tonight, but there are two sets (four books total) that I want to cover together since they were purchased together. And one more book that’s going to take longer to write about. So, next time: Ruger single-actions, some not quite “gun” books (but they are historical) and, for those in the know, the Lower Forty Shooting, Amgling, and Inside Straight Club.