I also bought mine, one a month, from Rowe/Broadfoot Publications. $80 a volume, and worth every cent. Not only does it cover most of the time period of the dominance of the “antique” and “vintage” guns we are interested in, it’s a fascinating look into a lost world that now seems to be another civilization on another planet. A civilization whose inhabitants were racist, sexist, ageist, speciesist, heteronormative, only rudimentarily environmentally sensitive, and paternalistic enough to give today’s Cancel Culture the galloping wim-wams, but they still showed a lot more class than the “educated” media “influencers” of today. They could also write more clearly and coherently, and did better at spelling and grammar than those “influencers,” somehow accomplishing this task in the absence of Spellcheck and Grammarcheck. It rarely occurred, but the least deviation from reasoned argument towards scurrilous quarrel and Ye Ed, Mr. Gould, was there, with his red pencil, writing “finis.” This was even more remarkable because there were relatively few of what today would be called “staff writers,” professionals penning the major articles. Most of the content was “correspondence,” letters and notices from amateurs, often with pseudonyms, like Internet posters today. No doubt Gould did some polishing on this correspondence, but it couldn’t have been too extensive, as the personalities of the correspondents are still distinct. Vols V, VII and VIII were sent out twice, because the publisher said there were problems in the printing of the first copies. Subscribers were told to destroy the flawed copies, but I never had the heart. Nor could I find any obvious printing problems in the first copies. Given that I am no slouch in finding (and griping about) missing or smeared words or lines, overly-dark or washed-out photos, and all the other problems that reprints are subject to, Mr. Rowe must indeed be a perfectionist. I don’t wonder that complete sets seldom come on the market. As reference material, especially with the Index, it’s easily worth its weight (and cost) in fine guns. There are a few volumes of Arms and the Man on Line, and I would doubt a reprint of the series would sell. By then it was Military shooting and WWI developments; a few articles of general interest in a sea of ephemera.
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