Books about Carbine from Amazon.com

The Book of Two Guns is a reference of principles and techniques for fighting with firearms, specifically the 1911 pistol and AR carbine .
Price: $22.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

U.S. M1 Carbines, Wartime Production, 5th edition, revised and expanded, by Craig Riesch. ISBN-13 978-1-882391-43-1. The 5th edition of this best-selling bible of the World War II M1 Carbine has been completely revised and expanded. The author, Craig Riesch, has compiled twenty years of surveys and research into this new 237 page volume. The book contains 38 charts and 212 photographs, and fourteen drawings. The book provides a history of the M1 Carbine s development, manufacture and use during World War II, as well as through the Korean War and the war in Vietnam. The M1 Carbine is analyzed and described by its ten manufacturers, model and serial number range. The U.S. Army Ordnance Department required that virtually every part of the M1 Carbine be marked with a manufacturer s or subcontractor s code. Riesch has unraveled the manufacturer s and subcontractor s codes by serial number range and eliminated many spurious codes. Every major and most minor parts can now be conclusively identified by manufacturer and serial number range, making it possible to examine an M1 Carbine to determine its authenticity with a high degree of confidence. Using the charts and photos the collector can identify the manufacturer and period of use for the receiver group, barrel group, trigger housing group, stock group and their component parts. Butt plates by the various manufacturers are shown in full-size photographs for easy identification. All variations of the M1 Carbine are discussed M1, M1A1, and M2 by manufacturer. The aspects that make up the two types of true M1A1 folding stock paratrooper carbines are described and photographed. Serial number ranges for original manufacture of the M1A1 are also included. Reproduction folding stocks are shown and points of difference are identified. The book is divided into six chapters and ten appendices. Each chapter describes a major subgroup of the M1 Carbine: receiver, barrel, trigger assembly, and stock. Chapter six covers.
Price: $14.36 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The SKS Carbine $19.95, 4th Revised and Expanded Edition by Steve Kehaya and Joe Poyer.

A complete analysis of the Communist Bloc's SKS Carbine the first detailed study of this fine, collectible carbine in twenty-five years. Every part analyzed to tell you how to determine its country of origin and whether or not those parts are compatible between SKS carbines of different Nation s manufacture.

This famed Soviet-designed shoulder arm, which together with the AK-47, armed hundreds of thousands of National Liberation Front fighters from Vietnam to Angola. It was manufactured in six countries and its total production ran into the tens of millions. Since 1986, over 1,000,000 of those Albanian, Russian, East German, Chinese, North Vietnamese, North Korean, Romanian and Yugoslav SKS Carbines were imported into the United States. That vast number not only provides a fertile field for collectors, but helps keep prices low enough to make the SKS carbine a fine plinking and hunting rifle.

The SKS Carbine examines the firearm on a part-by-part basis so that you can determine 1) which parts are original on a particular SKS carbine, 2) in which country they were produced, 3) which of those parts are interchangeable between different manufacturers and which are not, 4) how to read serial numbers to determine date of manufacture and country of origin, and 5) what the inspection markings stamped on metal and wood parts mean.

Since the vast majority of SKS Carbines in the U.S. are military surplus, you will learn how to examine and select a fine, shootable SKS Carbine. You are also provided with complete assembly/disassembly instructions, how to manufacture most parts if you cannot find a commercial source, and ammunition characteristics, and ballistic information.

An expanded list of factory codes for the Chinese SKS carbines has been made available to the authors by collector Howard Bearse. That information and more has also been included in this 4th revised and expanded edition of The SKS Carbine..
Price: $16.50 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The world's most popular and respected author on World War II firearms presents his most complete examination of the M1 Garand and the M1 Carbine ever. It's absolutely huge - nearly 300 pages packed solid with the kind of useful, hands-on knowledge that readers have been demanding. Detailed, close-up photographs show the specific features that separate valuable rarities from fakes and rebuilds. Covers all the manufacturers, with easy-to-understand explanations of all the components, parts, variations and markings. Learn which parts are proper for which guns and avoid being fooled. Over 300 clear, large photos show you features, markings, overall views and actions shots of the guns being used in battle. 33 tables give you instant reference to the facts you need the most. This is simply the most complete and useful guide to these very important military firearms..
Price: $39.49 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Enthusiasts of the venerable Mosin-Nagant bolt-action rifle, one of the most basic of the Russian and Soviet small arms, will find a wealth of information in the latest Soviet military manual translation by Maj. James F. Gebhardt. The manual, available in English for the first time, covers disassembly and assembly, cleaning and lubricating, and firing for zero at the specified zeroing range of 100 meters. Described in detail are all the steps, procedures and criteria that will ensure proper and safe function of the rifle or carbine. Also included are several data tables describing the ballistic performance of the 148-grain type-1908 projectile and the weight and length of the basic rifle and carbines in various configurations. For those interested in the sniper version of this rifle, an appendix describes both the PE and PU scopes. This is the ultimate source for Mosin-Nagant owners..
Price: $12.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The Krag rifle and carbine were the first smokeless powder, magazine loading arms used by the United States ArmyThe arm was adopted from a Norwegian design in 1892 and reached the troops starting in mid-1894. The American Krag Rifle and Carbine provides the arms collector, historian and target shooter with a part-by-part analysis of what has been called the "rifle with the smoothest bolt action ever designed." Each of the fifteen models of the American Krag rifle and carbine are described in detail. All changes to all parts are described and matched to serial number ranges. A monthly serial number chart by production year has been devised that will provide the collector with the year and month in which his rifle or carbine was manufactured. The mystery of the so-called Philippine Constabulary rifles is solved and the "School" rifle is introduced. A new and complete exploded view is included as are instructions for assembly and disassembly of the rifle and carbine. It was the ideal time to introduce a new rifle. The U.S. Army in the 1890s was a peacetime organization. The frontier had been settled in the late 1880s and the Army had been reduced in strength to not quite 18,000 strong, and was scattered halfway around the world from Plattsburgh, New York to Anchorage, Alaska to Honolulu, Hawaii. All but two troops of cavalry were still stationed west of the Mississippi River and no military formations in regimental strength had been assembled since the Sioux Wars in 1876-1877. The Krag was the first precision-machined, small caliber, magazine loading rifle adopted by the U.S. Army. This meant that the production facilities and work force had to be completely rebuilt and reorganized. In just four short years, the entire U.S. Army, both mounted and dismounted branches, were completely equipped with the new rifle and carbine. So successful had been the design and initial production phase, that only minor changes were made to the rifle and carbine afterward. The combination of Spanish imperialism in Cuba and the sinking of the battleship, USS Maine, led the United States into a short, sharp war in 1898 that gave way to a longer, more bitter fight in the Philippines. In 1900, Chinese revolutionaries styled the "Boxers" threatened to murder all foreigners in China. The U.S. Army and Marines brought their Krag rifles to mainland China in concert with forces from other European nations and quickly relieved the siege of the Foreign Legations at Peking and then helped clear the country of insurgents. Even though the Krag only served the U.S. Army for eleven years, it did so admirably and saw much hard fighting. It only gave way to the Model 1903 Springfield as the latter rifle could be loaded quickly and easily with a five round clip..
Price: $14.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

This Soviet military manual, originally published in the Soviet Union and now available in English for the first time, covers instructions for use and maintenance of perhaps the most widely distributed of all weapons produced by the arms factories of the former Soviet Union: the ubiquitous 7.62mm Simonov self-loading carbine (SKS)..
Price: $9.55 [Notify me when price goes down.]