Review by Larry S. Sterett
Contributing Editor
A COLLECTOR’S GUIDE TO MILITARY PISTOL & REVOLVER DISASSEMBLY AND REASSEMBLY, by Stuart C. Mowbray & Joe Puleo. ©2011. Published by Mowbray Publishing, 54 East School Street, Dept. TGM, Woonsocket, RI 02895. Price: $39.99, plus $4.50 shipping. Available direct, or through most bookstores. Phone: 800-999-4697; online at: orders@manatarmsbooks.com
This oversize 280-page softbound volume uses over 1,200 full color, close-up photographs to illustrate the step-by-step instructions for disassembling 51 different handguns—21 revolvers and 30 autoloading, or semiautomatic, pistols. These range from the Colt M187 Single Action Army and French M1873 revolvers to the Smith & Wesson Victory Model revolver of World War II fame, and the Mauser C96 “Broomhandle” pistol to the Czech CZ-82 pistol of more recent years. In between are almost all the handguns which have become surplus and available to civilians over the past century. (The French M1951 MAC wasn’t noted, but it is usually not a problem.)
In place of a Table of Contents this volume has a Handgun Locator with a color left-side photo of each handgun and the page on which the instructions for its disassembly can be found. It’s difficult to not be able to locate the correct handgun with this excellent method for locating. As examples, the Mexican Model 1893 Pieper revolver is found on page 67, the British Webley Mk IV .38/200 revolver on page 205, and the Soviet Bloc Makarov on page 263. It doesn’t get much easier than this.
All told there are seven US handguns, six German, six British, three Japanese, four Italian, four French, and four Russian/Soviet handguns covered, plus those of many other nations, including Swiss, Belgian, Swedish, Austrian, Czech, Spanish, Polish and Hungarian models. There are not many models missing for which the average handgun owner will need disassembly/ assembly instructions.
Instructions for the Model 1905 Mannlicher Pistol, which was readily available on the surplus market some four or five decades back, include a full disassembled view of components, 20 step-by-step photos with text for disassembly, and four photos with hints for reassembly. (This pistol has a note on reassembly: “Reassembly of the M1905 pistol is NOT simply a reversal of the disassembly. But once you know the trick, it’s pretty easy.”) Some of the handguns require additional disassembly steps, and some fewer, and the same comment applies to the reassembly. There are, for an example, a dozen photos with hints for reassembly of the Japanese Type 94 Pistol, but none for the Hungarian Model 1937 Pistol or the French Model 1935A Pistol, just reverse the disassembly procedure.
This is a great volume for any owner of one or more of the handguns covered, and an excellent reference book for any gunsmith, student of firearms history, or handgun designer. The step-by-step photographs are superb, and the reassembly hints a real time saver.
