This second volume in the "Field Uniforms of the Indian War Army" series covers the period 1872 to 1886 when the foundation was laid for the modern "Army" uniform. The stockpiles of clothing left over from the Civil War were dwindling away and Congress and the Quartermaster Department had begun to succumb to the begging and pleading of officers and enlisted men on the frontier for new, properly designed uniforms. 
Rutledge traces the development of new trousers, jackets and undershirts the ancestor of today's "T-shirt", coats, boots and cold weather gear. Again, the emphasis is on what the regulations called for and what the soldiers actually wore when on campaign. Hollywood never got it right. If any cavalry trooper ever wore a yellow bandana, he bought it himself. White hats were never worn they gave your position away and were too hard to keep clean. Fancy leather gloves were privately purchased, not issued, and the buffalo overcoat for cold weather wear was issued sparingly because they were very expensive. 
For every regulation quoted, Rutledge provides at least one, and often more, quotations from Army personnel showing how the issue item was modified, really worn or substituted. Line drawings and period photographs accompany the text.

Campaign Clothing: Field Uniforms of the Indian War Army (Part. 2 1872-1886)

Rutledge, Lee A.

North Cape Publications, Inc.

The SKS Carbine $22.95, 5th Revised and Expanded Edition by Steve Kehaya and Joe Poyer. A complete analysis of the Communist Bloc's SKS Carbine the first detailed study of this fine, collectible carbine in twenty-five years. Every part analyzed to tell you how to determine its country of origin and whether or not those parts are compatible between SKS carbines of different national manufacturers.
This famed Soviet-designed shoulder arm, which together with the AK-47, armed hundreds of thousands of National Liberation Front fighters from Vietnam to Angola. It was manufactured in six countries and its total production ran into the tens of millions. Since 1986, over 1,000,000 of those Albanian, Russian, East German, Chinese, North Vietnamese, North Korean, Romanian and Yugoslav SKS Carbines were imported into the United States. That vast number not only provides a fertile field for collectors, but helps keep prices low enough to make the SKS carbine a fine plinking and hunting rifle. 
The SKS Carbine examines the firearm on a part-by-part basis so that you can determine 1) which parts are original on a particular SKS carbine, 2) in which country they were produced, 3) which of those parts are interchangeable between different manufacturers and which are not, 4) how to read serial numbers to determine date of manufacture and country of origin, and 5) what the inspection markings stamped on metal and wood parts mean.
Since the vast majority of SKS Carbines in the U.S. are military surplus, you will learn how to examine and select a fine, shootable SKS Carbine. You are also provided with complete assembly/disassembly instructions, how to manufacture most parts if you cannot find a commercial source, and ammunition characteristics, and ballistic information.
An expanded list of factory codes for the Chinese SKS carbines has been made available to the authors by collector Howard Bearse. That information and more has also been included in this 5th revised and expanded edition of The SKS Carbine. 
K. Stewart;Bookwyrm's review below is not quite correct. The 5th edition has been updated to include information on the Romanian SKS Carbines.

The SKS Carbine, 5th Revised and Expanded Edition (For Collectors Only)

Steve Kehaya

Joe Poyer

The M14 was the last large caliber rifle adopted by the U.S. military. It was derived from, and replaced the M1 Garand of World War II and Korean War fame. It in turn was replaced by the 5.56 mm M16 in the early stages of the War in Vietnam. Although the M14 lasted less then 10 years as the military service rifle, its effect was overwhelming in civilian and military match target shooting for thirty year, especially at ranges exceeding 600 yards, and in the development of military and paramilitary sniper rifles. 
The M14-Type Rifles presents both the military and civilian side of this fine rifle along with a complete run-down on non-military clones of the M1A variety. The M14 was built for the U.S. military at the Springfield National Armory, at Winchester Repeating Firearms, Harrington and Richardson and TRW. Civilian versions have been built by a host of companies including Springfield, Inc., Armscorp and others. Very fine receivers for building do-it-yourself match target rifles have been manufactured by, among others, Entr‚prise Arms, Smith, Armscorp and DPS. Topics covered include a complete examination of parts and means of identification by manufacturer, the development, manufacture and use of the M14, the development of the M21 and M25 sniper rifles and their telescopic sights and mounts which are covered in a separate chapter, and the National Match M14 and M1A target rifles. 
The book provides a history of the development of the civilian version of the M14 and the civilian version, the M1A,by its various manufacturers, including those in both Chinas. A chapter is given over to accurizing the M1A rifle for "do-it-yourselfers and for custom rifle smiths and the U.S. Army's National Match Specifications and building techniques are listed. Ammunition selection and preparation for match shooting and shooting techniques and positions are detailed. The book is heavily illustrated with photographs and line drawings. Also included are a list of manufacturers, parts and accessory suppliers and custom rifle smiths capable of building less than 1 minute of angle rifles. 
In the preparation of this book, manufacturer's of both of complete M1A rifles and of M1A receivers were reviewed and their products tested. Three M14-type rifles were then built by well- known custom rifle smiths. The complete procedures are laid out along with tips and cautions so that the reader so inclined can build his or her own service or target M14-type rifle for competition or target shooting.

The M14-Type Rifles: A Shooter's and Collector's Guide, 2nd Edition

Poyer, Joe

Hollywood has given us the image of the American soldier in the Western Plains from the end of the Civil War in 1865 to the closing of the frontier at the turn of the century as a heroic figure clad in immaculately tailored blue trousers with a yellow stripe down the leg, a variety of lighter blue shirts, white hats and big yellow bandanas. Nothing could be further from the truth. In the years following the Civil War, rarely were more than half the 35,000 man Army stationed west of the Mississippi River at one time. And these few soldiers were scattered among a series of primitive forts and posts from Texas to California, from Montana to Arizona. They were ill-fed, ill-housed, ill-equipped and ill-clothed. Millions of uniforms had been manufactured for use by Union troops between 1861 and 1865, all designed for the conditions of terrain, weather and climate found on the Eastern seaboard of the United States. Troops sent to the Rocky mountain regions or the deserts of Texas, New Mexi

Campaign Clothing: Field Uniforms of the Indian War Army 1866-1871 (Collector's Guide to Military Uniforms) by Lee A. Rutledge (1998-01-08)

Although the Mosin-Nagant rifle was in use for more than sixty years by half the world's military forces, no book in the English language has ever traced its development and identified all its models and variations as manufactured around the world, including in the United States. No provided the part-by-part information needed by the collector and shooter. 
This is the first book in English, ever written about the Mosin-Nagant. It identifies every single model manufactured in Russia, France, the United States, Poland, Romania, Hungary, Finland, China and North Korea. Every part is described with all changes and markings, making it possible to identify the national origins of not only the rifle as a whole, but of every part. 
Chapters provide a history of its development and use from 1892 to its last manufacture in Hungary and China in the mid-1950s. Then each part is analyzed showing all changes in chronological order. All variations are described from the original rifle to the M1944 carbine with its unique folding bayonet. All Finnish variations are described and a history of the tiny country's relations with its giant next door neighbor is included to show the derivation of Finland's line of Mosin-Nagants. 
Sniper rifles from all countries are listed in a separate chapter as is the ammunition produced for the rifle and all accessories issued to the combat soldier. Of great value to the collector is the huge list of markings and codes found on all Mosin-Nagant rifles of whatever national origin, the first ever compiled. 
The Mosin-Nagant was one of the earliest small-caliber battle rifles developed in the late 19th century. Its rugged design and construction are borne out by the fact that the only changes ever made to its basic design were to shorten and lighten the rifle as ammunition improved and battle conditions changed. The Mosin-Nagant is without doubt, one of the premier battles rifles of the late 19th and early 20th century and a testament to skill of it Russian designer.

The Mosin-Nagant Rifle, 6th Edition (For collectors only)

Terence W. Lapin

Sports & Outdoors

Three semiautomatic battle rifles had been designed by the mid-1930s, but only two reached the production stage. This is the story of the third, the SAFN-49 which did see production and service until the Nazis were forced out of Belgium and defeated. 
Designed in the mid-1930s by Dieudonn‚ J. Saive, a former assistant to the great firearms designer, John M. Browning, the SAFN-49 was kept out of production by the Nazi invasion of the Low Countries in May 1940. Saive and certain of his colleagues fled to England with the engineering drawings and were immediately put to work by the British on variety of armament development projects. Work on the new semiautomatic battle rifle resumed late in the war and by mid-1945, prototypes in .30-06 caliber ready for testing. Ammunition problems delayed the project and by the time the solution was found, the British had moved on to other designs. But the Fabrique Nationale factory persevered and ultimately, the SAFN-49 was built in four different calibers and adopted by a number of countries. 
Today, the SAFN-49 is sought after by collectors of military battle rifles is also little known. The FN factory has rarely released information about any of its projects. But the author, a collector of SAFN-49s for years, by gathering information from secondary sources and examining well over 70 SAFN-49 rifles in detail has produced a comprehensive guide for both collectors and shooters. 
The author begins with a complete history of the rifle's development and use, followed by an extensive analysis using the part-by-part system for which North Cape Publications has become well known, of every part in each rifle by each of the four calibers. A chapter is devoted to the first analysis ever of the sniper version of the rifle, including the scopes and mount which have never been completely described in an English-language publication before. 
For shooters, the author tells how to improve the rifle's already fine accuracy to that approaching a fine target rifle, with simple fixes. Shooting positions and the use of a good shooting sling something not taught in most European armies are included. Complete assembly/disassembly instructions are included as are maintenance instructions for conditions ranging from the target range to the battlefield. 
The SAFN-49 Battle Rifle is in large format (8 x10.5 inches) and is illustrated with over 100 photographs and line drawings.

The SAFN-49 Battle Rifle (A Shooter's and Collector's Guide)

More than 7 million M1 and M2 Carbines were manufactured by ten different companies between 1941 and 1945 when production ended for all time. In a feat of organization and industrial coordination unparalleled before or since, the U.S. Ordnance Department supervised the design and production from scratch of this second-most famous American shoulder arm of World War II. The M1 Carbine served in every single theater of the war and was present at every major and minor battle from the Philippines to Okinawa. When the Vietnam War ended in 1975, thirty-four years later, it was still in service with certain American special forces units, the U.S. Navy and with South Vietnamese forces. 
Today, the M1 Carbine is one of the most popular U.S. military collector rifles. It is relatively inexpensive and offers a wide variety of collecting options. It is also a modern firearm and is therefore fun, easy and cheap to shoot. 
The fact that it was manufactured by ten different companies, combined with the military's propensity for improving, updating and refurbishing its weapons has provided collectors with a great challenge finding and original, as-manufactured specimen or else restoring a battle- hardened veteran to original specifications. Perhaps 40 to 50% of all M1 Carbines manufactured were provided to military allies and friends during World War II and the Cold War. The first M1 Carbines available to the collecting public were those obtained from the Director of Civilian Marksmanship and they remained relatively few and far between. Then in 1986, Congress allowed the reimportation of a significant number of M1 Carbines and other military firearms considered to be collectible. Hundreds of thousands of M1 Carbines returned home. Most had been upgraded and refurbished in foreign armies, but with parts from the vast stores manufactured before production was shut down in 1945. The collector, faced with the task of restoring an M1 Carbine to its original condition can obtain parts readily available from many dealers, local gun shows or any one of a dozen or more mail order dealers. The problem is which part goes with which rifle. All told, there are more than 90,000 possible parts combinations for any single carbine!
"The M1 Carbine: Wartime Production" book provides this information. Through a combination of text and charts, every single part of the M1 Carbine manufactured by ten different manufacturers is listed by serial number range. 
Is your M1 Carbine manufactured by Inland the barrel is stamped Saginaw Gear? This may or may not be correct depending on the serial number of your carbine. 
The barrel date on your IBM Carbine is 1944 and it has a rear sight adjustable for windage. Is this correct. No. IBM manufactured M1 Carbines only until very early 1944. The windage adjustable rear sight (there are two variations to confuse things further) were not installed until beginning in mid-1945. 
Will replacing a barrel or a rear sight reduce the value of my M1 Carbine? No, in fact if you install the correct part, the value will be increased. 
You can take an M1 Carbine that saw its last service with the Israeli, South Korean or Philippine armies, for instance and which has undergone many repairs and refurbishments until there are only a few original parts left, and restore it to completely original condition, making it a very valuable collector's carbine. 
In addition to explaining which parts are correct for which M1 Carbines by manufacturer and serial number range, the book also explains all those mysterious markings on wood and metal parts and shows how they can be used to select the correct parts for restoration. 
Also included in the book are descriptions and proper identification for all accessories issued to the soldier with the M1 Carbine, including various types of ammunition. Also, complete instruction on assembly/disassembly and on maintenance and cleaning.

US M1 Carbines: Wartime Production, 4th Editon

Engineering & Transportation

Riesch, Craig

Engineering

The Swedish Mauser is considered by many collectors to be the finest of the pre-World War I designs for military rifles. Resembling a fine sporting arm, it was extremely accurate due in part to its 6.5 x 55 mm cartridge but also to the skill and precision with which it was manufactured. The Swedish Mauser Rifles provides North Cape Publications famous part-by-part description of these fine rifles complete with all markings, codes and inspection markings, plus translated lists of unit and regimental markings. A complete history of the rifle's development is included, as are detailed descriptions sniper and target rifles. The bolt action rifle adopted by Sweden in the mid-1890s was based on the Mauser design for Spain with significant changes to make it suitable for use by Swedish forces. While Sweden has not fought a war since Napoleonic times, they have maintained a strong military defense force based on universal conscription for over 150 years. They key to that defense system's effectiveness against German expansionism and Warsaw Pact-NATO competition has lain both in the willingness of the nation's citizens to defend their territory and in the quality and precision manufacture of their weapons. Sweden has long been known as a center for the manufacture of fine firearms. As early as the 16th century, individual gunsmiths began to group together to provide firearms for Swedish armies. Nine great state-operated armories were constructed and operated in Sweden between 1560 and 1812 of which the greatest and longest-lived was the Carl Gustaf's stad Gev„rsfaktoriet of Eskilstuna (Carl Gustav's City Factory) which was responsible for the design and the major production of the famous m/94 carbine and m/96 series of rifles between 1896 and 1925. The contract for an initial 52 carbines based on the Spanish Mauser carbine was awarded to the Mauser factory at Oberndorf, Germany and after short trials were completed, a second and third contract for additional carbines with the new changes were awarded for a total of 12,185 additional m/94 carbines. Meanwhile, design engineers and tool makers in Sweden were busy completing the design of what would become the m/96 rifle. This new rifle with a 29.1 inch entered production at the Carl Gustaf factory in early 1896. Before rifle production was completed at that factory in 1925, more than 517,000 rifles would be built. The Mauser Oberndorf factory in Germany was also awarded a contract in 1899 to produce and additional 40,000 m/96 rifles. Thus, Sweden's armed neutrality made it possible for her to resist the blandishments of both sides during World War I. In the mid-1930s, with war clouds once again gathering over Europe, the Swedish government undertook another complete review of here military readiness.
A massive rearmament program was instituted, and in 1938, the barrels of some 30,000 m/96 rifles were reduced in length to 24.5 inches to produce the m/96-38 rifle. In 1941, contracts were awarded to the manufacturing firm of Husqvarna to produce 60,000 more rifles with the short barrel, now designated the m/38 rifle. With the end of the war, it was clear that the bolt action, five shot rifle was obsolete. Sweden was already experimenting with a semi-automatic battle rifle, the AG42B, and with a variety of automatic personal weapons. Large stocks of the m/96 rifle had gone to Finland in 1939 during the Winter War against Soviet aggression, and now, thousands more were sold to Denmark and Norway to reequip their military forces after the German occupation. Most American firearms enthusiasts became aware of the Swedish Mauser in the early 1950s when the first m/94 carbines were imported by two companies called Pasadena Firearms and InterArms Company, respectively. Rifles followed until 1968 when the Gun Control Act of that year forbade the further importation of military firearms. But

The Swedish Mauser Rifles (For Collectors Only)

Reference

The plumed and spiked dress helmets worn by the U.S. Army between 1872 and 1904 have become exceptionally rare today. But these helmets have intrigued collectors and military historians since their use was discontinued shortly after the turn of the 20th Century. They were the most colorful helmets ever worn by the American Army and they are more reminiscent of Europe than North America. Following the defeat of France during the Franco- Prussian War, the German army was seen as the most powerful in the world. Their tactics, arms and uniforms was emulated and the United States was no exception. Beginning in 1872, the plumed shako was replaced by a tall, bell shaped helmet with a deep lobster-back tail and short brim. Mounted soldiers and officers wore cords and flowing plumes in the colors of their branch of service yellow for cavalry, scarlet for artillery, black or orange for signal corps foot soldiers and lower ranking officers wore spikes. Some regiments allowed the use of unadorned white helmets during the summer and tan helmets were worn by enlisted men for fatigue duties. Because these felt helmets were quite delicate, their survival rate is not high. Over the years, numerous reproductions have been offered to collectors, reenactors and even to military units wearing past uniforms for ceremonial occasions. Many of the reproduction metal parts were struck from original dies and are quite difficult to tell from the originals, as are many of the felt helmets produced in the 1950s and '60s. Mark Kasal and Don Moore have studied and collected the original Model 1872 and 1881 helmets for years. They used their expertise and collections, as well as those supplied by authorities in the field and museums to explain the history of the development and use of these helmets. They have also described on a part-by-part basis, each component of the helmet and described the differences between original and reproduction parts.

A Guide Book to U.S. Army Dress Helmets 1872-1904 (Collector's Guide to Military Uniforms)

Moore, Don

Kasal, Mark

This 4th edition contains 42 new pages of information about the M16/AR15/M4 rifle and carbine. 
You will read a comprehensive, fully illustrated part-by-part description of the rifle. You will learn of the latest developments in the M16/AR15 based on experience collected over fifty years and four wars. 
What are the best new models by company? How many new calibers has the M16/AR15/M4 been chambered for . . . would you believe 17? .22 Tactical rifles? Nearly a dozen new .22 Long Rifle caliber AR15s are now available. And much more. Whether a shooter or collector, inside the cover of this book is a minutely detailed history of Eugene Stoner's AR15 and M16 rifles. The development of the M16 rifle is traced from the adoption of the first American-made flintlock musket in 1798 through Vietnam, the Gulf War, and the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and other areas around the world to the present to show how the history of the country's military requirements molded the need for a small caliber, large magazine capacity, select fire rifle. 
The development of the M16/AR15 rifle as the current National Match Service Rifle for civilian and military target shooting is also described. It is safe to say that no other general issue military -derived rifle in the history of this, or any other nation, is as inherently accurate 
If you are interested in the history of this fine battle rifle, or in tactical, bench rest, service rifle competition, or in just every day fun plinking, then this book will provide all the information you need to select, maintain, shoot and keep in good repair any AR15 rifle. 
The M16/AR15 Rifle provides a list of all models and variations being produced today complete with their features to aid in selection. It also provides a part-by-part break description for the M16 and AR15 rifles and their variations and the M4 series of carbines. 
Want to use your AR15 in competition? A detailed chapter describes the interaction needed between custom gunsmith and shooter to produce a tack-driving rifle, plus a survey of parts and accessories from barrels to sights. Three custom AR15s were built in the process of writing this book space gun, service match rifle and .22 rimfire version for short range and indoor practice. The step-by-step process is described. 
Also included are chapters on ammunition selection, shooting, maintenance and repairs, telescopic sights, .22 rimfire conversions, .308 AR15-type rifles and the future of the American military rifle as embodied in the OCIW concept. 
The M16/AR15 Rifle is as complete a book on the M16 and AR15 rifles as you could wish for.

The M16/AR15 Rifle, 4th Ed. (A Shooter's and Collector's Guide)

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