Just going to take a deep breath and jump here. These are pretty much new books, mostly from Amazon, so I’m going to spare you photos and just insert affiliate links. If you buy anything, I get a small kickback.
Cartrudge Manual: An Illustrated Digest, W.A. Bartlett and D.B. Gallatin. Pioneer Press, Union City, Tennessee, 1956.
This is the one vintage book I’ve bought recently. I picked this up from an eBay vendor (MacMurray Book Rescue) based off a tip from my book buddy in the Associaton and my new book buddy who is not in the Association (I don’t think so, anyway, but I could be wrong) but is a friend of my other book buddy and has left a few comments here. (I’m being kind of coy because I want to make sure I’m protecting people’s privacy. If they want to out themselves in comments, they’re welcome to.)
Anyway, this is a list of cartridge patents in the U.S, England, and France before 1878. It is just a list: the patents themselves are not reproduced, but there are thumbnail illustrations from some of the patents. I figure, as long as you have the patent number and description, you should be able to find the patent itself online.
Kind of esoteric, but a potentially valuable reference for $10,67.
Left of Bang: How the Marine Corps’ Combat Hunter Program Can Save Your Life, Patrick Van Horne and Jason A. Riley. Reading this right now based on a recommendation from Greg Ellifritz. I’m a little over 20 pages into it, so I’m not comfortable giving an endorsement, but they haven’t bored me yet.
In case you’re wondering what the title means: if you think of “critical incidents” (such as a defensive shooting) as being on a timeline, “bang” is the moment that the incident takes place. “Right of bang” is what happens after the incident takes place: the court case, the legal battles, etc. “Left of bang” is what happens before the incident takes place, and the point of Left Of Bang is to give you the tools to live “left of bang”. In other words, to figure out when something is hinky, or something bad is going down, and to get out of there before the “bang”.
If this sounds something like Cooper’s color codes, you wouldn’t be far off: the authors have already mentioned those.
Firearm Anatomy – Book I: The Thompson M1A1 Submachine Gun, David S. Findlay.
Firearm Anatomy – Book II: The STEN Submachine Gun, David S. Findlay.
Firearm Anatomy – Book III: The Remington Double Derringer, David S. Findlay.
Some stuff happened recently that left me in a good position. These three books had been on my want list for a minute, so I ordered them. Haven’t had a chance to read them yet, but am looking forward to them. No, I don’t know why he picked two automatic weapons and a derringer. No, I don’t know if he’s going to write more books, but i sure hope he does. (The derringer book came out December of last year.)
The Insider: 20+ Years Of Indiscriminate Deliberations On Timely Topics, Roy Huntington. I think you can get this on Amazon, but I ordered my copy from FMG Publications, so that’s where the link goes.
This is a collection of “The Insider” columns by American Handgunner editor Roy Huntington, and is another of those bound-together photo reproduction books they put out. I’ve probably read all of these columns, and $34.95 seems a touch steep for a 268 page paperback. But Mr. Huntington once did me a great personal service, as I’ve mentioned before. And I wanted this, and was willing to pay the price, so I could have a copy of an “Insider” column that had a huge impact on me.
Which leads me to…Leadership Secrets of Non-Fictional Characters, whatever number this is in the series. I’ve kind of lost track myself.
====
While it was an “Insider” column, as I remembered it, it was actually written by “John Connor” as a guest column, not by Editor Huntington.
For those who are unfamiliar with the shibboleths of American Handgunner (or Guns) “John Connor” (I believe that is a pseudonym) was, and occasionally still is, a writer for both publications. He has a “colorful” background, one might say, involving doing “interesting” things with “interesting” people in “interesting” places, sometimes involving small bits of metal that go fast and things that explode. (At least, that’s the claimed background. I’ve never met Connor persunally, and for all I know, he could be “a divorced mother-of-two“. I doubt it, as the magazines seem too ethical for that. But on the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog. And I’ve been wrong before.)
The column was written after the death of Ronald Reagan. Connor says he met the man four times, and tells the story of one of those meetings. He was with a group of assorted offical types who were providing security while President Reagan visited a friend’s house on the beach.
Sometime after midnight, a door opened onto the courtyard and three figures stepped out. Two were agents. One was holding a silver serving tray, a carafe and cups. It was Ronald Reagan. He brought us coffee.
There are two things about this column that struck home to me.
We talked about the changing nature of the Soviet threat; how Ivan had lost controll of the terrorist groups he had given birth to; the almost schizophrenic reaction of the top commies to an American president who faced them off instead of pleading for peace. He stated bluntly that the Soviet Union would collapse; communism would fall; we would prevail. The power of that message was in the set of his jaw.
…
Courses in International Relations were in fashion in the Special Ops community then, and several in our command group were pretty astute scholars. They asked if the “collapse” would be brought about by economic factors, by inherent inefficiency of the secrecy-choked state bureaucracy, by failure of the agricultural collectives, even by the sheer magnitude of running a nation spanning thirteen time zones with a rigid, inflexible government. He said those were peripheral; side issues, and the one reason that communism would fall is because their people are not FREE!
“Freedom,” he said, “is the issue.” Simple as that.
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” Maybe it bends towards freedom as well.
I said there were two things that struck home to me. The second one:
A moment later, I noticed something, and for years afterward wondered if anyone else had noted it. He poured for us, but not for himself. He drank no coffee that night. It wasn’t about Ronald Reagan wanting a cup of coffee. It was all about taking care of the troops.
It’s never about the coffee. Or the dougnuts. Or lunch. If you’re the kind of person who avoids sentiment, you might play it off that way: “I wanted dougnuts, and it wasn’t worth just getting one.” But it’s never about those things.
It is all about taking care of your people.
What next? Well, as I said, vintage purchases have been slow, but I still have a backlog to work through. Unfortunately, though, I have to go in for cataract surgery next week. They’re doing the right eye on the 29th, and then the left eye on November 5th (please to remember). I’m not sure how wonky my vision will be, or for how long, but I do plan to try to work through some more of those books when I can.