Boston's Gun Bible
by Boston T. Party, Kenneth W. Royce
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Book Reviews of Boston's Gun Bible
Book Review: Thick enough to stop a bullet
Summary: 5 Stars
Well, probably a .25 or .22.
Where to start? OK...This book has both quality AND quantity. Great bang for the buck in these times of everything costing more, and books costing even more than that.
Boston's books all have a sense of urgency that would turn into ranting in many writers' hands. But this is avoided by Boston's keen sense of organization (both on the page and out in the world, he *is* the FSW founder), combined with pretty damn good proofreading, editing and page layout, especially compared with most small press fare.
And the man can *write*. While he obviously thinks a mile a second, he still manages to get it all down in a polished way.
Being that I am a recovering liberal who used to be afraid of guns, I found this book quite an eye opener. It's not just about guns, though the gun stuff is covered and then some. (If you just want books about guns, period, there are plenty of good gun books, Massad Ayoob has written many.)
Boston's Gun Bible is very short on shotgun info (though the line about "condo beehivers and drywall" was hilarious), and not too heavy on revolvers, but Boston likes rifles and semi-autos. This is probably the best rifle book extant. And Boston doesn't cover much on shotguns and revolvers because he "writes what he knows", and he knows what he loves. He loves rifles.
If you want a shotgun book, I recommend "Modern Shotgunning" by Dave Henderson. It's detailed and sweet. Sort of feels like a knowledgeable grandpa passing on his life experience with hunting. Boston's Gun Bible feels more like it's written by your crazy uncle, who it turns out isn't crazy after all. Maybe the crazy uncle is really the only sane guy in the family, because he really understands how the world really works.
Reading this book is a direct pineal download (yes, you'll lose sleep) to the true spirit of the men who created America, men who spoke their constitution with arms. Arms not as symbols, but as actual TOOLS.
In these exponentially turbulent times where America is becoming a welfare state and a foreign country (and that includes many who call themselves "true Americans"), Boston's Gun Bible will help keep your "aim true."
When I bought this book, I was just looking for a book on target shooting and home defense. I got so much more.
Guns, as with any defensive tools, are owned and practiced so hopefully we never have to use them. But an unwillingness to push back when dragged off isn't what this country was based on. And even that has become an unpopular opinion with many of the shiny happy sheeple.
Reading Boston's Gun Bible, I'm reminded of this quote from Charles A. Beard:
"It is sobering to reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the struggle for independence."
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MichaelNotMike
Book Review: good & helpful, but flawed
Summary: 3 Stars
I was very excited to read this book. Based on the reviews, I knew that I shared most of the author's leanings on both politics and rifles.
On the plus side, Boston's Gun Bible contains tons of great information that can't be found in any other single volume that I've come across so far. When it comes to gear, this guy really knows his stuff. For that reason alone, I think it's a worthwhile book for any proud `gun nut' (like me); I don't regret the purchase and I intend on keeping the book.
That said, the book does suffer from some flaws in three areas that kept it from being as pleasurable of a read as I expected. The net result is that one has to wade through a fair amount of unfocused venting in order to glean the worthwhile information that the book does in fact contain. The flaws in question are haphazard organization, historical errors of fact and analysis*, and writing quality that I can best describe as C-.
Since it looks like all three of these problem areas have been addressed by previous reviews, I'm only going to discuss the one that I found most distracting: the author's lackluster writing skills. Perhaps I'm being abnormally picky here, but still, I think Jeff Cooper for one would agree with me on the value of good, technically correct, clear prose.
There are the usual suspects - bad grammar and typos - throughout; I often wondered whether a competent editor had ever looked at Mr. Party's manuscript. In addition, some of the author's New-Speak-like jargon seems clever at first, but rapidly gets annoying after a couple dozen pages.
By far the most annoying thing, though, is (as a prior reviewer noted) Mr. Party's constant changes in fonts, especially his ridiculous overuse of italics. When you only occasionally use italics, their intended effect - emphasis of a crucial word or phrase - comes across clearly, and everybody is happy. However, when you use italics too much, as I believe Mr. Party does, it eventually stops having the desired effect, and instead creates the effect in the reader's head that the author suffers from some kind of voice-modulation disorder. I found it very distracting.
One can only imagine how much better this book might have been if Mr. Party had also, in between all the firearms classes he's attended, taken the time to attend a writing seminar or two.
*One historical problem I can't resist mentioning: Mr. Party essentially doubles the actual number of Soviet KIA from the Afghan War; moreover, he wrongly attributes these & the resultant Soviet defeat there primarily to the Afghans' skill with the 303 British bolt rifle. In reality, the Afghans were losing the war until American aid arrived in the form of better weapons (more modern rifles, heavy machineguns and artillery, mines, and, most crucially, the Stinger missile which neutralized the Hind gunship threat.)
Book Review: A tome distilled from several dozen tomes
Summary: 5 Stars
If you are involved in an aspect of arms ownership that is not completely relegated to target/hunting matters, then this is the book to give that person. One problem with defensive/offensive arms and their handling, is that the entire industry of munitions as available to the U.S. civilian is made of junk, useless junk, non functioning junk, and the occassional gem. While Boston may be able to tell you in one sentence why rifle XXX is way inferior ro rifle YYY, but in this book, first and foremost, he explains WHY one is inferior. Then the 'why' is placed in the context of the legal availability of certain weapons. And from that is distilled the cream. the cream being the best available to the civilian under current regulations. If these implements are going to be such that 'you would bet your life on them' only the cream will do. You get a little 'combat rifle history' which will make you understand the importance of proper control placement, and why a rifle was designed a certain way. While the book will not nail on the head the only things you should buy, what the book will do is allow you to eliminate 90% of what is not feasible and otherwise junk. The T&E of weaponry takes up the largest part of the book. There is also a large section concering handguns and handgun ammo. I thought rifle ammo was neglected. ALso the statement that 'SS109 5.56 is a major improvement over 55 graim ball' is now proven to be wrong by its performance in Afghanistan. You then have a section on sniper rifle choice. OUt of 300 available calibers you are honed down to perhaps 10. An artcile on .50 cals. .50 Cal ammo. Night vision, I actually learned the difference between various Gen. devices. Scopes. Really every conceivable piece of fighting gear is touched upon. That is why if you read this book, you will eliminate 90% of whats out there from your vision. There are philosophical sections on the warrior mentality, philosophy, shooting, these make entertaining reading. In all, there is no book like this, and it is worth every penny but it is not the end of knowledge, it is the beginning. In other words, even though you may have narrowed your search for a tactical scope down to 10 models, you must then fill in the rest of the picture about the 10 and how they work and then train, train, and train some more.I do have one caveat. The author is obviously and tremendously trained in almost all aspects of martial arts. Yes, shooting is a martial art too. However, to my knowlegde, and Boston makes no reference to it in anything I have read by him, that he has taken down an oppenent with karate, knife, etc., or had someone in his custody and 'under his gun', much less shot anyone or been shot at. Its not like I have either, but if Boston has one weakness, it is this. No practical combat experience. You might want to balance his book with other material by bona fide veterans, etc.
Book Review: Excellent technical manual with some impractical advice
Summary: 4 Stars
This book gives the best information about the technical specifications and advantages of different guns than any other I have ever seen. It also gives a lot of information regarding the law, your rights, and which states are gun-friendly. There are also substantial portions of the author's philosophy written about in the book. Kenneth Royce is truly an expert on the subject of guns, and this book has changed my way of thinking forever. The most valuable part of the book, I believe, is the section dealing with the advantages and disadvantages of various guns. He thoroughly exhausted that subject. I recommend this book for everyone, not just gun owners. If you are a gun owner, I guarantee that this book will have some information you can use. If you're planning on becoming a gun owner, this book will help you decide which gun to buy first. If you're not sure, I believe this book will convince you you need a gun. If you are anti-gun, this book may very well change your mind-- if not with its philosophy, then with its statistics.
In the title of my review, I mentioned that there is some impractical advice in the book. Mr. Royce strongly encourages everyone to devote a major portion of their life and money to purchasing and training with guns. While it's fine to talk about different training ranches and expensive guns, Royce goes so far as to imply that if you don't do this, you're a fool. In reference to people who say that they can't afford a multi-thousand dollar sniper rifle, he responds, "how much protection can you afford not to have? Save money in other areas so you have enough to purchase guns." He says basically the same thing about expensive gun training courses offered by Thunder Ranch and others. It's the arrogance of his statements which really bother me. I don't know how Royce makes a living (I doubt that much of his income comes from books), but normal people have families to feed, and simply cannot afford to buy a $6,000 Barrett because the USA is an expensive country and people with normal jobs don't make that much money. He also says that there are two kinds of people in an army: riflemen and cooks, and refers to those firearms owners who aren't expert riflemen as "cooks" (his criteria for graduating from "cook" status is in the book). Not everyone can be Carlos Hathcock. His attitude throughout the book brings the term "gun snob" to mind, and really put me off after I thought about it for a while. From reading this book, I'm sure Mr. Royce thinks very highly of himself.
Although his superior attitude offends me, most of his statistics about crime are hard to argue with, most of his philosophy makes sense, and I certainly can't knock the technical information contained in Boston's Gun Bible. Again, this is a must read. Buy this book NOW.
Book Review: Awesome book on liberty, guns, self protection, dealing with the antigun liberal psychos
Summary: 5 Stars
I got this book due to recommendations from many excellent websites and other authors whom I know to stand for Freedom and Liberty as established by our Founding Fathers and the many excellent riflemen who fought the Revolutionary War and all the men who have fought in subsequent wars to preserve our Constitution. What I got was a super bargain for the price. It is enlarged from the original by some 200 pages and reads so fast and easy that it is phenomenal. He gives the reader a good Index of terms/acronyms that you will use. It is located in the front of the book and is easy to refer back to when necessary. Aside from that, this guy gives you history, heritage, explanations on WHY we need to protect ourselves, especially from over zealous liberals who want to remove our 2nd Amendment Rights and who keep bogging us down with "Regulations" in effort to try and take our guns away. You get reviews of rifles, handguns, shotguns in as much depth as you could wish for from a man who knows what he is talking about. He brings in views from "experts" in many areas and topics to back up what he is trying to explain to you.
You cannot go wrong with BTP. He's right for every FREEDOM LOVING person in the U.S. If you are a Liberal and are against anyone except the police and military having guns, then you are going to find yourself very much abused in this book for being already enslaved and under control of other people who think they know what is best for you, regardless of what you think about it.
I must emphasize one very outstanding focus BTP makes in this book. He has a fully detailed section for Women and how they need to protect themselves. He helps with gun selections and other protective means.
Lastly, he gives you resource referral information on where to go to get what, things to watch (videos, movies), books to read, and important names/addresses/contact info, website addresses, etc.,on other resources including within the government. This is a super resource and learning book that is very timely in this day and time when it looks like we may be faced with some kind of issues in self protection/survival from terrorists, bad governmental agents, or people who want to bring you and your family harm. It will lift your "Freedom Loving" spirits in showing you how YOU can survive and how you MUST protect yourself and your family. I find myself picking it up and rereading here and there all the time. It is almost a daily thing to review something or some section in my Gun Bible and get Boston's views on it again. I found this as one of the best ever books I've ever owned and it is definitely very inspirational to this old Constitutionalist who feels that his freedoms are slipping out from under him very fast in this day and time.