Shooter's Bible Guide to Extreme Iron: An Illustrated Reference to Some of the World?s Most Powerful Weapons, from Hand Cannons to Field Artillery

by Stan Skinner

Overview

The Shooter’s Bible is the most trusted guide to firearms in the industry. Now, for the first time, extreme weapons are given a chance to show what they can do. Shooter’s Bible Guide to Extreme Iron is a comprehensive collection of all of the most extreme guns and cannons both in history and in the present. With poetic and flowing prose, author Stan Skinner provides information for awe-inspiring weapons, such as:

• Hand cannons, also known as “howdah pistols,” which were used on the Indian subcontinent by tiger hunters on elephants’ backs and today roar and thunder with power rarely seen in a handgun
• Ultra big bore snipers, the roots of which reach back to the Revolutionary War and the Kentucky rifle
• Gatling guns, a hand-cranked, rapid-fire gun invented by Dr. Richard J. Gatling in 1861, a modern version of which is powered by an electric motor and has a four thousand–round-per-minute cyclic rate
• Muzzle-loading, smoothbore cannons, cast in bronze and iron, which dominated land and sea warfare until they were made obsolete by rifle Parrott guns and breech-loading cannons in the Civil War
• And much more!

Get fired up with the powerful weapons included in this addition to the Shooter’s Bible. Including historical facts and modern versions, this book is essential to any shooter’s collection.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781626360143
Publisher:	Skyhorse
Publication date:	08/19/2014
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	7.90(w) x 10.50(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Stan Skinner has harbored a lifelong fascination for guns of all kinds, which propelled him into a long career as an outdoor writer and editor. He has contributed numerous feature articles and columns for Guns & Ammo, American Rifleman, and other magazines. He was managing editor of American Hunter for the NRA and later became editor of Safari magazine for Safari Club International. He has hunted big game on three continents, earning him trophy species listed in Rowland Ward’s Records of Big Game and the SCI Record Book of Trophy Animals. He lives in Tucson, Arizona

Editorial Reviews

"With chapters devoted to express rifles, hand cannons, night vision optics, big-bore sniper rifles, machine guns, field artillery and more,the Shooter's Bible Guide to Extreme Iron introduces readers to many of the gun world's most exclusive niches. The book also sheds light on some of the rarest, most expensive and heavily regulated segments of the firearms market. —American Rifleman

"I’ve known Stan Skinner for a lot of years and it’s safe to say, if there’s anything out there that shoots, he’s probably shot it. Most of us will never have access to the types of exotic hardware Stan has had his hands on, but with his Guide to Extreme Iron: An Illustrated Reference to Some of the World’s Most Powerful Weapons, from Hand Cannons of Field Artillery, he’s given us armchair aficionados the next best thing. Express rifles, submachine guns, heavy machine guns, Gatling guns, miniguns, suppressed firearms- even field artillery pieces such as the Parrot Rifle of Civil War fame are featured. If you’ve ever wanted to know what it’s like to cut loose with a drum-fed Lewis Gun or 7.62x25 Russian PPSh-41, it’s all here. Stan covers the biggest and baddest in handguns in the appropriately titled “Hand Cannons” chapter. And his chapter on submachine guns covers stalwarts from the legendary Thompson, M3 “Grease Gun,” German MP-40 on up to a true “machine pistol”- a select-fire 9mm Glock 18. In fact, if you are seriously interested in owning Class III weaponry “your own self,” there’s a chapter that lays the application process out in step-by-step details. But you’d best have a case of “wallet overload” if you’re serious- a couple of bursts with a .50 BMG M2 “Ma Deuce” will easily set you back a car payment or three. And that’s not even getting anywhere close to counting the initial tariff on Browning’s unsurpassed heavy MG platform itself. The chapter on suppressed and night-vision firearms is very timely in view of their increasing popularity. Not to mention the utility of such combos in fulfilling hog-eradication duties in places like Texas. Stan is always a pleasure to read when he gets his teeth into something. And in this case he has." –Payton Miller, Guns Magazine

"I always enjoy good reads—and can't say too much about one by a good friend. I love big guns—although I always pay the price for shooting them too much. But I like knowing about them even more than shooting them. If you're the type who'd also prefer straining an eye to detaching a retina, Stan Skinner's assembled a big book about big iron for you. It's the Shooter's Bible Guide to Extreme Iron and it covers everything from the express rifles and hand cannons of previous eras to the sub guns, suppressors and night-vision devices from today's front-line fighters. There are also some tricked-out .22s that include full autos and belt feds, so there's literally something in there for every recoil level." Outdoor Wire

"With chapters devoted to express rifles, hand cannons, night vision optics, big-bore sniper rifles, machine guns, field artillery and more,the Shooter's Bible Guide to Extreme Iron introduces readers to many of the gun world's most exclusive niches. The book also sheds light on some of the rarest, most expensive and heavily regulated segments of the firearms market. —American Rifleman

"I’ve known Stan Skinner for a lot of years and it’s safe to say, if there’s anything out there that shoots, he’s probably shot it. Most of us will never have access to the types of exotic hardware Stan has had his hands on, but with his Guide to Extreme Iron: An Illustrated Reference to Some of the World’s Most Powerful Weapons, from Hand Cannons of Field Artillery, he’s given us armchair aficionados the next best thing. Express rifles, submachine guns, heavy machine guns, Gatling guns, miniguns, suppressed firearms- even field artillery pieces such as the Parrot Rifle of Civil War fame are featured. If you’ve ever wanted to know what it’s like to cut loose with a drum-fed Lewis Gun or 7.62x25 Russian PPSh-41, it’s all here. Stan covers the biggest and baddest in handguns in the appropriately titled “Hand Cannons” chapter. And his chapter on submachine guns covers stalwarts from the legendary Thompson, M3 “Grease Gun,” German MP-40 on up to a true “machine pistol”- a select-fire 9mm Glock 18. In fact, if you are seriously interested in owning Class III weaponry “your own self,” there’s a chapter that lays the application process out in step-by-step details. But you’d best have a case of “wallet overload” if you’re serious- a couple of bursts with a .50 BMG M2 “Ma Deuce” will easily set you back a car payment or three. And that’s not even getting anywhere close to counting the initial tariff on Browning’s unsurpassed heavy MG platform itself. The chapter on suppressed and night-vision firearms is very timely in view of their increasing popularity. Not to mention the utility of such combos in fulfilling hog-eradication duties in places like Texas. Stan is always a pleasure to read when he gets his teeth into something. And in this case he has." –Payton Miller, Guns Magazine

"I always enjoy good reads—and can't say too much about one by a good friend. I love big guns—although I always pay the price for shooting them too much. But I like knowing about them even more than shooting them. If you're the type who'd also prefer straining an eye to detaching a retina, Stan Skinner's assembled a big book about big iron for you. It's the Shooter's Bible Guide to Extreme Iron and it covers everything from the express rifles and hand cannons of previous eras to the sub guns, suppressors and night-vision devices from today's front-line fighters. There are also some tricked-out .22s that include full autos and belt feds, so there's literally something in there for every recoil level." Outdoor Wire

From the Publisher