I would add E.C. Crossman's "Book of the Springfield" and also his "Military and Sporting Rifle Shooting" both of which explain the world the M1903 lived in! Neither is a "Collector's Book" in the usual sense, they were written for Springfield Users in the 1930's! A lot of wonderful information on how to actually SHOOT an '03, accesories, long gone shooting positions, and arcane accessories also. The original printings are not hard to find, at least on Ebay, and the later, revised "Book of the Springfield", updated post-WWII by Roy Dunlap for Samworth Publishing, and the NRA Palladium Press Leatherbound reprints are also not hard to find.
Campbell's book comes in three editions, I believe. Is the last one superior and sufficent, containing all the knowledge and fine drawings of the earlier works, or are there things of merit in the two earlier editions that were not completely carried over to the final edition?
It is sad that a number of great referance books, to include the Ferris/Beard books and the expensive M1911 Referance series that now goes for $5-600 are no longer available to a growing market of people who could use them. It may enrich a few rare book dealers, but it is not helpful to the collecting world to NOT have information available to more people. Some of our Experts won't live forever, and when they die, the information they spent a lifetime learning may sadly be gone forever with them. CC
Last edited by Col. Colt; 12-21-2013 at 02:12.
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