Product Description

"Modern Combat Pistols" provides a comprehensive account of the development of military and police semi-automatic pistols and their ammunition from 1945 to present day. It follows on from the same authors' critically acclaimed "Assault Rifle" [Crowood 2004].

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #458563 in Books
• Published on: 2006-12-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

About the Author
Maxim Popenker is a lieutenant [reserve] in the Russian armed forces. He is the creator and webmaster of the leading internet small arms resource, the 'Modern Firearms' website at www.worldguns.ru. Maxim is co-author of Assault Rifle with Anthony Williams. Anthony G Williams has a particular interest in the history of automatic weapons and their ammunition. He wrote the Flying Guns trilogy which describes the development of guns and ammunition from 1914 to present day. Anthony is co-author of Assault Rifle with Maxim Popenker.

Customer Reviews

Practical, interesting and detailed, but lacking in some ways
While this book is probably one of the best resources available to armchair armourers for what it contains, there are some things that it does not which would improve it.
The first section deals with the history and theory of and trends in handgun and ammuntion design, including practical application. This is very interesting and enlightening, overall. The second section encyclopedia covers a massive variety of post-war combat handguns, with brief but informative write-ups for each. Viewers of Popenker's very informative but grammatically suspect website can be assured that proper english is used throughout the book!
However, the book assumes that the only handguns worth considering are semi-automatics; I was surprised to find no revolvers, which, given their preponderence in police use seems lax. Also, no consideration is given to the fact that many handguns are used for combat, even if not designed for combat. Furthermore, while the history section mentions them extensively, the encyclopedia section does not include any guns from pre-1945 (unless they are still in production); true, it is a book on Modern Combat Pistols, but they would be useful for comparison purposes.
Overall, this is an excellent book and if you are interested in handguns I certainly recommend this, I just wish it included more.