The Book of Gun Trivia
Essential Firepower Facts

By Gordon L. Rottman

Are Recoilless Rifles really recoilless?

What is a Pedersen Device?

Were abandoned Civil War muskets found loaded with multiple powder and bullet loads?

Is it true that silenced revolvers are effective?

Think you know the answers to these questions? These and many more pieces of information are available in this book. The book is divided into four sections:

Chapter One – Essential Gun Facts

Chapter Two – Weapon Myths

Chapter Three – Ammunition, History and Facts

Chapter Four – Ammunition Myths

Followed by a six page Glossary of gun and ammunition abbreviations

To get back to the questions asked above:

Are Recoilless Rifle really recoilless? The answer is yes, although the weapon is shown to “bounce” when shoulder fired. This “bounce” is caused by thee combined effect of the muzzle and back blasts “bouncing”, or being reflected off the ground.

What is a Pedersen Device? The Pedersen device was developed to allow the bolt-action M1903 Springfield rifle to be fired semi-automatically using a smaller cartridge then the 30-06 it was designed for.

Were abandoned Civil War muskets found loaded with multiple powder and bullet loads? The answer here again is yes. The extent of this multiple loading was due to the training received by both side’s recruits. Loading by the numbers was the prescribed method of training soldiers. In the heat and confusion of battle, following this procedure caused the soldier to due the necessary steps in order, but did not permit him to note if the musket actually fired when the trigger was pulled. After the battle of Gettysburg some 35,000 muskets were recovered from the battlefield, of which 24,000 were found to be loaded. Of these 6,000 had one charge; 12,000 and two; 6,000 held between three and ten charges and one had 22.

Is it true that silenced revolvers are effective? The answer to that is no. The space between the cylinder and the end of the barrel will emit a significant report negating the reason for fitting a silencer to the weapon in the first place.

I hope these little tidbits of information have whetted your appetite for more. This book is filled with 200 pages of such information. I recommend this book to anyone who wants more in depth information on the firearms used by our military and civilian populations.

This book is available from Osprey Publications.

This book is available in three different formats and they are;