doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Affordable Double Barrel Shotguns in America

This huge, 500 page book, came to me a few years ago. It is written by Nicholas Niles, Jr. and is a real effort. When I received it some years ago, I thought it was maybe semi valuable and it got buried in my book stacks. The last few days I have some time and pulled the book out and sat on the deck and read it for a few hours. That's what it is about-----affordable American shotguns, but I am finding the history of same quite interesting. There are latterly thousands of names and brands in the book, all put into some decent order, which is hard to do. If any of you like older American shotguns, mostly made to sell at a lower price, you will like this. If not, the history of the American Arms Industry is quite interesting.

I have that book also I think it is amazing lots of research went into that book. GREAT BOOK

Check out ALBRIS Book selling for $62.00

I agree that there is a lot of information in the book but it is perhaps one of the most poorly written and edited manuscripts I've ever seen in print. The organization is basically non-existent, the author repeats himself constantly and his amateurish forced use of capitalization and quotation marks around otherwise common terms is maddening. If ever there was an argument against self-publishing, this is it. This was an author in desperate need of an editor.

Otherwise, it's great.

bladeswitcher, your thoughts are good. I first handled it and put it down, but yesterday, with maybe more interest in those things, I picked it up again and enjoyed the immense effort and research that went into it.

I can forgive self published books and bow to the effort put into them and the cost of publishing. I try to buy EVERY book on our subject that the authors put out. I am sure not many make any money for their efforts.

In that vein, I just ordered Old Wildfowler's book, Pte. Mouillee Shooting Club, History, Decoys, Nate Quillin, Punt Guns, and look forward to seeing it.

I own the book but find it maddening to try to use. It's one thing to read a chapter and try to absorb what the author is saying. It's something else to try to use the book as a reference. I've had occasions when someone presented me with an old shotgun and I turned to Niles' book to find some information. Talk about a frustrating experience.

The writing itself isn't so bad (though it's not particularly good, either), but the editing is terrible. There is no adherence to standard rules of style. He mixes up capitalization, italics, bold face fonts and quotation marks in seemingly random and unnecessary ways. Particularly annoying is his practice of capitalizing and enclosing in quotations the word "Affordable" throughout the book. I suppose he believes he's created a new category of firearm and wants to milk it for all it's worth. Drives me crazy . . .

Again, if ever there was an author in need of an editor. The savings in paper and printing cost alone would have paid for a good editor's services.

ETA: I'm curious, have others found the author's research credible? Seems like he engages in a lot of speculation.

I have the book. Could it have been better? Yes. Does it engage in a lot of speculation? In places, yes. Look back at the works from Carder and Vorisek. They also tossed around speculation. Thats what you do when no records remain. I have read through my copy of Niles' work three times. It was written by an enthusiast that did his best from his home office to convey his study. Several of the manufacturers get little coverage, but what Nick, I believe, really clarifies are the guns manufacturered by the Crescent Fire Arms Co. and its' history. There are at least 12 variations of the Crescent hammer sidelocks, and the book separates them all chronologically, by design features, and a quite close estimate (read that speculation) of serial number by variant. These were the guns sold to the masses. And Nick, may not be the author we were expecting, but he made the attempt. I think it was a good one.

John

If you would like to read a well written, IMO, self published book, get a copy of J P Clabrough by Larry Shelton. I understand it took him a long long time to research and write.

Very interesting read for any English shotgun enthusiast.

Your characterization is certainly more generous and fair than mine. You're right, the author deserves a lot of credit for the work he's done. I just wish he had hired an editor. (In the interest of full disclosure, I was a publication editor for 20+ years so I'm probably more offended by the stylistic things than most readers).

"Affordable" is a rather ephemeral and loosely defined term when we're talking about our doubles. What is affordable to me may well be totally out of reach to a young guy with a crappy job, several kids, and a mortgage. But it might seem like bottom feeding to someone in the upper income brackets. I skimmed though the book about 10 years ago at a gun show and didn't buy it then for an asking price of $20.00, as I recall. it was disorganized. But I'd buy a copy for a reasonable price today, given the chance, just to have access to a listing of obscure names and makers.



On the other hand... it appears that you may have discovered that ed good is the real author of this book.