I posted the following on another board a few years back. The first part of the list that follows isn't really oriented to a history specific approach, but I think that you'll find it of some value as these books are some of the most frequently cited primary sources. Part of the reason that these books have endured is that they are very readable, the book by Ned Roberts is a minor classic.
I've appended to the end of the original list some books that are, in my opinion, worthwhile firearms histories, and following that, several books that weren't written as histories, but books that do provide a very good historical "snapshot" of the subject covered and shooting in the era in which they were published. All of the books in this section are copiously illustrated, as you point out the idea is to convey information clearly, drawings and photographs do help.
I've avoided listing books covering particular arms or manufacturers. If you have a specific area of interest don't hesitate to ask about books that cover it. The membership of this board surely will be able to point you in interesting directions, further, one thing about a good book is that it may stimulate extended interests.
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Here are a few "classic" books for the gun cranks.
Chapman, John. Instructions to Young Marksmen as Exhibited in the Improved American Rifle. Also known simply as American Rifle. D. Appleton, New York, New York, 1848. Also, reprinted for Ned Roberts, Clark Press, Manchester, New Hampshire, 1941. If you are interested in muzzleloaders, and some views that run contrary to accepted modern practice, here is a book by a very fine rifle shot. Chapman competed with and held his own against the great makers and shooters of his day: James, Ferriss, Billinghurst etc. Perhaps this is best read after Ned Roberts, The Muzzleloading Caplock Rifle, cited below.
Hawker, Peter. Instructions to Young Sportsmen in all that relates to Guns & Shooting. Reprint of 9th ed, 1851. Herbert Jenkins, London, 1921. British rough shooting. This is similar to the way we in the U.S. hunt birds. Written prior to the development in the U.K. of driven shooting. An exceptionally articulate sportsman, one of the all time great wingshots. Perhaps the pithiest analysis I've seen of how to shoot a shotgun. Also material on punt gunning, the transition in shotguns from flint to percussion, early game management practices, and much more.
Greener, W.W. The Gun & its' Development. Reprint of 9th (1910) edition. Bonanza, New York, New York, 1967. An history of arms. A bit dated, but there really isn't anything with quite this breadth of view any newer. You'll recognize many of the illustrations. Would that the modern writers who have so copiously copped and cribbed from this text extended, updated, and corrected Greener's research. A surprising amount of information on rifles. And yes, Greener was a very good self publicist. But here in the States, lost in our admiration of the London best guns, we sometimes forget the quality that the better Birmingham makers were capable of putting out. Greener, Powell, Webley & Scott, Mann, Westley Richards, etc.
Mann, Franklin. The Bullets' Flight from Powder to Target. Revision of the 1909 edition. Standard Publishing, Huntington, West Virginia, 1942. The seminal work in experimental exterior ballistics for those not mathematically inclined. Only today are the long range hunters and shooters substantially expanding the base of practical knowledge that Dr. Mann established, and these additions deal with extended distances at which few hunters shoot. The ballistic spiral, nutation, the Mann Neidner rest, Harry Pope and how he made barrels, bullet base deformation, and more...
Burrard, Major Sir Gerald. The Modern Shotgun, 3 volumes, Herbert Jenkins, London, 1930. Reprint 1950. Still easily the best general text on what happens when you pull the trigger of a shotgun. This book does not cover repeaters (see Wallack, L.R. American Shotgun Design & Performance, Winchester Press, New York, New York, 1977 for details on this topic), but exhaustively covers everything to do with all kinds of double guns, ammunition, the behavior of shot in flight, and the technical end of shooting birds. Obviously, given the date of publication, this doesn't cover modern one piece wads, or modern powders, but I think you'll find the information surprisingly pertinent. A reminder: many of today's Winchester hunting loads do not use one piece wads; if this ammunition is at a disadvantage to competitive brands, many current as well as older shotguns don't show that disadvantage in pattern tests, shot string tests, or killing power.
McGivern, Ed. Ed McGivern's Book on Fast & Fancy Revolver Shooting & Police Training. King-Richardson, Springfield Massachusetts, 1938. The master of the double action revolver. Ed is best remembered perhaps for shooting 5 shots from a stock S&W M&P in 2/5 second. The book goes far beyond trick shooting. DA technique is thoroughly covered (it can be also be applied to todays pistols), and much more. The man was, in his own way, as much a "character", and just as stubborn, innovative, and opinionated as was Elmer Keith.
Roberts, Ned. The Muzzleloading Cap Lock Rifle. Granite State Press, Manchester, New Hampshire, 1940. Muzzleloading hunting & target rifles. History of some of the old American makers and hunting stories by a fine raconteur. Rifle Shooting. Black powder lore & techniques. Care of antique rifles. Much of the information is available nowhere else. A jewel of a book that you'll return to every so often.
Naramore, Earl. Principles and Practice of Loading Ammunition, Small Arms Technical Publishing Company (Samworth), Georgetown, South Carolina, 1954. This is the single best reference on ammunition ever written. The information on primers is dated. And some of the information on bullets: the Astles/Biehler technique for making the consistent bullets available today had not yet been invented, nor were solid bronze, or solid copper bullets widely available. But everything you might want to know about the heart of ammunition, the cartridge case is covered, and in detail. Powders. Basic bullet design. How to work up loads safely. In a word, the book is thorough, it covers why things work the way they do as well as how to do this, that, and nearly all of everything else.
Dunlap, Roy, Gunsmithing. Stackpole (Samworth) , Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 1963. Perhaps the most practical general gunsmithing text easily available. It covers arms generally similar to those we shoot today. And the repair methods described are, with some modifications, still in general use. This isn't to denigrate fine works such as Howe, James. (of Griffin & Howe) The Modern Gunsmith. Funk & Wagnalls, New York, New York, 1934. If you want to do top quality work using older methods, this is a top reference.
Kuhnhausen, Jerry. Any of the shop manuals published by VSP. McCall, Idaho. If you want details on how to work on your firearm, and if there is one of these manuals available for it, grab that manual. These are thorough, the quality of the information is so high that they will remain in circulation as long as the guns they cover.
A couple offbeat choices:
Carmichel, Jim. The Compleat Just Jim. Wolf, Prescott, Arizona, 1973. The old farts (like me) reading this board may remember Jim's columns in the early 1970's Rifle magazine. His take on the human condition, humor, and folly... Perhaps the most dangerous sort of political incorrectness.
Tubb, G. David. Highpower Rifle. Zediker, Clifton, Colorado, 1993. Tubb is a thinking iconoclast and tireless experimenter. He has shot his way to the top of half a dozen rifle games. Whether you come to use any of his ideas or not, what he has to say is worth your serious consideration.
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Histories:
Dillin, John G.W. The Kentucky Rifle, National Rifle Association, Washington, D.C., 1924. This is still something of a "standard" reference on this topic. It has been reprinted many times.
Kindig, Joe Jr. Thoughts on the Kentucky Rifle in its' Golden Age. George N. Hyatt, Wilmington, Delaware, 1960. Profusely illustrated, an appreciation. It compliments rather than supercedes Dillin's book.
Grant, James J. Single Shot Rifles, William Morrow, New York, New York, 1947.
Grant, James J. More Single shot Rifles, William Morrow, New York, New York, 1959.
Grant, James J. Still More Single Shot Rifles, William Morrow, New York, New York, 1979.
If you're interested in single shot rifles start with Grant before you read the specialty books, you'll get a very good overview that can be hard to come by elsewhere.
Sharpe, Philip B. The Rifle in America. William Morrow, New York, New York, 1939. This is arguably still the best general text insofar as it covers factory made rifles.
Sawyer, Charles Winthrop, Firearms in American History, 1600 to 1800. Privately Published, Boston, Massachusettts, 1910.
Sawyer, Charles Winthrop, Firearms in American History, Volume II, The Revolver, 1800 to 1911. Charles Edward Chapel, San Leandro, California, 1939.
Sawyer, Charles Winthrop. Our Rifles, 1800 to 1920, Cornhill, Boston, 1920.
Sawyer, Charles Winthrop. Our Guns, 1800 to 1920, Cornhill, Boston, 1920.
The above four books by Sawyer are rare, unless you're quite lucky you'll have to use interlibrary loan to secure them for reading. They aren't highly literate in, for example, the sense that the book by Ned Roberts listed above is (or Jose Ortega y Gasset's Meditations on Hunting), but the writing, though perhaps a bit stilted, is understandable and the books do contain quite a bit of information that is to be found nowhere else.
George, J.N., English Guns and Rifles, Small Arms Technical Publishing Co., Plantersville, South Carolina, 1947
George, J.N. English Pistols and Revolvers, Small Arms Technical Publishing Co., Onslow Co. North Carolina, 1938.
If you have an interest in English Arms don't miss George.
The book of the Pistol and Revolver, Pollard, Hugh B. C., McBride, Nast & Co., London, 1917. The chapters summing up the various types of locks are still perhaps the best material to be found without reading so many articles in scholarly journals that you'll require a new prescription for your spectacles.
Boothroyd, Goeffrey, The Handgun. Crown, New York New York, 1970. From an historical perspective this book is to my mind easily more worthwhile than Ezell's Handguns of the World, a fine book in its' own right. Boothroyd is without doubt one of the foremost experts on shotguns, but this early work demonstrates a deep interest and great depth of knowledge in an area of arms that is perhaps unsuspected by much of his audience. This is a very well written basic text on the history of handguns.
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The following books aren't histories, but perhaps they may have some value to you because they do clearly present the topic that they cover in the context of the time in which they were published.
Gould, A.C. Modern Pistols and Revolvers, Bradlee Whidden, Boston, Massachusetts, 1888.
Gould, A.C. Modern American Rifles, Bradlee Whidden, Boston, Massachusetts, 1892.
There was a rumor a couple years back that Gould's books were going to be reprinted. I don't know if this has come to pass.
Himmelwright, A. L. A. Pistol and Revolver Shooting. Macmillian and Co. New York, New York, 1908. There have been several reprintings.
Whelen, Townsend. The American Rifle. Century, New York, New York, 1919. This does contain a chapter on the history of rifles, but the bulk of the book covers rifles, ammunition, accessories, and shooting. I don't know of any reprinting.
Askins, Charles (Sr.). Modern Shotguns and loads. Small Arms Technical Publishing Co., Onslow Co. North Carolina, 1929. Wolfe did shooters a service by recently reprinting this book. It approaches the standard set by Burrard (cited above), but from an American perspective.
Lenz, Ellis Christian. Muzzle Flashes. I've included this because it reminds me so clearly of the generation of men who were active shooters and hunters in the 1930's. While much of this book is ostensibly a history of American rifles and riflemen it perhaps tells us more about the time in which it was written. It isn't scholarly, there is as much legend as fact, and there is not always a clear separation of the two. Read it the way you'd read Titus Livius' Roman history- it does accurately depict something of the thought process of the times as well as the lore that was the commonality of the shooting community.
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A final addition. This isn't history, but it is the most significant book on ballistics I've seen.
Not for the innumerate!
McCoy, Robert L. Modern Exterior Ballistics. Schiffer Publishing Ltd. Atglen, Pennsylvania, 1999. This book puts together between two covers all of the essentials of this topic. Many were heretofore available, if at all, only in scattered scientific and military periodicals and other publications of very limited distribution. Finally, a rigid and comprehensive treatment of bullets in flight. If you're an engineer, or are willing to master the math involved, this book is simply full of the tools that are needed to understand the subject.
happy reading,
Bob
