Book review: Ball's Mauser military rifles of the world, 4th ed

Robert W.D. Ball

MAUSER
Military rifles of the world
Fourth Edition


Do you collect military rifles?
Do you collect Mauser's?
Do you own this book?

If the answer is no to the first two questions, then the third makes sense. If the answer to either or both the first two is yes, then how can you live without this book?

I hadn't owned this book a day before I was racing to a local gun store trying to secure an old Columbian Mauser gracing their rack...... and of course it was gone.

Through my own lack of knowledge I had missed what could have been the star of a Mauser collection.

This book is full of things like that.

448 pages of excellent documented research and high quality photos by someone who truly loves the topic.

For a Mauser addict, this book is a narcotic combined with a shopping list that could bankrupt a small nation.

While I spent several hours browsing the book after (and before) buying it, I find myself going back again and again. Not to read it's entirety, as it's no great novel, but to brush up on a countries offerings, or the results of a Czech contract.

The information is not deeply in depth, but between the data and the excellent photos it's enough to make informed buying and collecting decisions.

Would I recommend the book? Most certainly. It it easily worth twice the $29.90 retail price I paid at Barnes and Noble (minus the 10% discount, and minus another 10% with a coupon (G)).