If you are looking to build a bolt-action rifle, buy this book first! It will teach you step-by-step how to make a rifle from scratch in a small, inexpensive shop. The simple instructions and drawings guide you through selecting materials; manufacturing the bolt, trigger, safety and sights; chambering the barrel; finishing the stock; and everything else you need to know…. More >>
Master Gunmaker’s Guide to Building Bolt-Action Rifles
Tags: bolt action rifle, bolt action rifles, BoltAction, Building, drawings, guide, Gunmaker's, Master, Rifles, scratch, selecting materials, stock
#1 by AK on January 30, 2010 - 2:18 pm
I am getting into Benchrest Shooting and gunsmithing match quality rifles. I was hoping that this book would give me some good info and teach me some new techniques. Unfortunately the book is pretty dated and is more suited to hunting rifles and actions. The illustrations are sometimes blurry and all are in black & white. There is some good information but there are a lot better books out there in my opinion. For benchrest precision, I just got a book from John Hinnant titled “Complete illustrated guide to precision rifle barrel fitting”, it is a lot better. YMMV
Rating: 2 / 5
#2 by M. Steensma on January 30, 2010 - 3:29 pm
This was a gift for my husband, an avid hunter and gun enthusiast. He read a bit and handed it back over and said, “Nah”, the guy is to grumpy.
Rating: 2 / 5
#3 by Dina Puckett on January 30, 2010 - 3:48 pm
The reason I gave this book a 4 star rating is because the way Bill Holmes wrote this is like he expects you to know what all the words mean. What I mean is that all the “hard” words dealing with gunsmithing (i.e. chuck, broach, etc.) are not told what they mean and he doesn’t have a glossary. This is a good book for advanced riflesmiths but not beginners.
Rating: 4 / 5
#4 by Jeremy W. Colby on January 30, 2010 - 3:53 pm
I like the books by Bill Holmes, as well as many books from Paladin Press, but the drawings in this title are terrible. Having a mechanical engineering, machining background, and a decent amount of common sense, I can mostly make sense of them, but I can see where many people would have trouble. And this is a real shame, as this book, though not for the beginner to begin with, could be a real gem but loses some credibility with the very unprofessional drawings that don’t actually reflect Bill Holmes’ ability. Many if not all Paladin Press books appeal to the DIY person and perhaps by letting the authors create their own drawings they maintain this image and keep costs down as well. I personally would rather pay a few extra dollars for a book and have it contain quality drawings. Still, the text is worth the price of the book, and many of the other photographs and illustrations found in the book are just fine. For these reasons it definitely deserves four stars and I recommend it though to people with some experience.
Rating: 4 / 5
#5 by Joseph on January 30, 2010 - 4:55 pm
This book is a very interesting read and there is no doubt that Bill Holmes knows what he is doing when it comes to building a rifle. However, the drawings are not accurate and there is simply to much information left out of the plans for an individual that has never built a rifle before to read this book and build a bolt action rifle. The information that I found most useful in this book is the information about materials selection, heat treating, and the machining processes used to build a one off rifle.
Rating: 3 / 5