doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Rifle Books!

Just took my copy of Howe from the bookshelf. Vol 1 is signed just exactly as the copy shown. Must have been done with a fountain pen. The ink is very irregular. My set is marked $40 in pencil, but I thought I paid $50 some time ago. Forgery or not?

This is spreading like the swine flu. I have never seen a Howe forgery, If someone does have a forgery of Howe's signature I wish they would post it so we could all learn from it.

Since I'm a serious small bore shooter, I have E.C Crossman's Small Bore Rifle Shooting (1927) and C.S. Landis' 22 Caliber Rifle Shooting (1932) in a location where they can be readily referenced.

Both great authors,

Crossman,
The book of the Springfield 1932
Military & Sporting Rifle Shooting 1924
Small Bore Rifle Shooting 1927
Gun and Rifle Facts 1923

Landis
Hunting with the Twenty-Two 1950
22 Caliber Rifle Shooting 1932
Twenty-Two Caliber Varmint Rifles 1947
Woodchuck and Woodchuck Rifles 1951

Trivia question: Can anyone name the fifth hardback Landis book?

Of German Interest,
By Richard Mahrholdt a gunmaker and author.

Handbuch für Waffenfreunde 1931 Innsbruck
This was followed by
Waffen-Lexokon 1937 F.C. Meyer München
The Waffen-Lexokon continued after the war and I may have a half-dozen or so. These are the “Gun-Digest” of German-Austrian gunmaking. The very best edition is the pre-war 1937 one, This is a fine gun book in any language. The later post-war ones kind of re-write gunmaking history in Germany but still interesting.

I have a 1923 paperback called "Rifle-Craft" by C.S. Landis. Is that the one you had in mind?

One of my prized gunsmithing books is signed by P.O.Ackley. I believe this is one of the first hardback books he had published. Also I have a copy of Death in the Long Grass, signed by Peter Hathaway Capstick, who I met at an NRA convention a few years before his death. Probably have a few more if I could find them, I have met a lot of famous writers and big names in the gun business. Sadly, most are no longer with us. Bill

That's the one but mine is hardback, an interesting little book as it has the only picture I have ever seen of a Frank Hoffman stocked rifle.

If your serious about firearm books sooner or later you start buying books about books. The three that have served me well over the years are,

Guns & Shooting a Bibliography by Ray Riling
Samworth Books: a Descriptive Bibliography by Brian R. Smith
A Bibliography of Guns And Shooting by Wirt Gerrare (William Oliver Greener)

I initially posted about the fake Howe signed books. I am actually only retelling a tale that was either on this forum quite some time back, or on another forum, my thought was perhaps SS. My books appear very similar to the one pictured above. The concensus at that time, perhaps as long ago as five years or so, was that someone was merely signing a stack of Howe's books that he had with a fake inscription and signature in order to run up bidding on them. I bought a set, and quite some time later saw the discussion. I have no proof either way, other than trying to again find that old thread, which I have been unable to do to this point. I'll continue to try and find it, sorry to have raised such a ruckus, I guess I assumed more would also remember the story. Surely there must be someone else who remembers that??? Quite a few here have been on this forum longer than I have, perhaps some old memory will be stirred. Either way, the books are genuine and are a very good reference, it was only the inscription and signature that were questioned. I am just the messenger in this case.