One of the Best firearms books ever written.  Read to the end, because author's experience/knowledge accumulates and later observations are extremely valuable.

Testing the War Weapons

IMHO, if thoroughly read, and thoroughly understood, this is one of the BEST firearms books ever written.

Pretty good read, definitely gives an infantryman's perspective on small arms from the turn of the century up into the early 90's.

Last line of the book is certainly relevant to the politics of today.

https://dokumen.pub/qdownload/greatest-handguns-of-the-world-vol-1.html


Similar, by another talented author.  Massad Ayoob's Greatest Handguns Of The World

I got three of Mullin's books on testing weapons.
Handguns, SMGs and War Weapons.
I enjoyed all three. The perspective was interesting, evaluating them from the POV of a modern practitioner as well as by the standards of their times by their doctrine.

Along those same lines, I think it bears repeating, Kearny's "Jungle SNAFU's and Remedies" is a classic that any serious gear queer should not be without.  Props to Raf for bringing that one up as well.

In his own way, Major Cresson Kearney (USA, Ret.) was a genius.

Wiki Bio

Yes he was.  Unfortunately he was one of the last generations that was comfortable working with his hands and making field expedients.  A lot of his advice is for people who used to read Popular Mechanics and do a lot of stuff themselves.  These days, not so much.  I just finished MWSS and the vast majority of his field expedient "hacks" are very dated.  People don't just "makes things from common items laying around the house" anymore.

MWSS ?

IDK about making stuff from items lying around.  I just put a couple of "reflectors" behind two Mohu Leaf indoor TV antennas from stainless steel mesh and got a bunch more TV channels.  Some of them will be weak, but if the reflector screens reduce/eliminate pixelating on most channels, I'll call it a win.

Well, if a war in the Pacific kicks off in the next few years we might all have to learn to make things from our hands with just random household stuff.

Remember what a hit COVID did to international supply/trade, imagine a full on war with China.

Seconded.  I got this book when I was like 16.  I've still got it on my bookshelf of reference books, it's worth poking through.  A few good little tips, but more than anything it shows how thought needs to go into support gear, it's development usually sucks, and that really good stuff gets designed and never implemented, or ends up quickly getting canceled, and forgotten.  Plus the bureaucratic government system sucks balls, even back in the 1930's and 1940's.  Ignoring alot of the base needs of the troops that could have been fixed with a simple improvement or new item, or even a simple change in policy.

No joke.  The vast vast vast majority of people have zero idea wtf will happen when trade with asia stops or even grinds to a halt.  

Something like 95% of our textile manufacturing and sewn goods manufacturing comes from over there.  The only industry sector that is strongly represented in the USA from that industry is tactical gear actually.  But even then, most of the base materials that go into manufacturing the textiles and hardware that we make our tactical gear out of....come from over there.  AND the industry is having issues expanding, because of lack of skilled labor.  Much less that most of the industrial machinery - including sewing machines and supporting stuff - will all dry up without trade with China and Russia and such.  ie, even if we WANTED to expand that industrial base, where are we going to get more sewing machines and such from?  Even the western made stuff depend on Chinese and Russian sourced base materials.

The same goes across almost every other sector of our industry.  Footwear is another huge one.  You WILL NOT be getting new shoes a year after trade stops with China.  Less than 5% of our footwear is made in the USA, and most of that is.....boots.  Which with a war going on, the government will be buying up ALL of that production.  Same with clothing too btw.  

You name it, it's going to disappear.  Electronics, computers, spare parts for about anything, backpacking gear and outdoor gear, knives (yes, knives - most steel comes from overseas these days and what supply we can get will be taken by the military), and almost all tools, ammo, guns and gun parts, office supplies, furniture, building materials, literally everything with maybe a small handful of exceptions....you won't be getting any more of it.  Not for YEARS.  

Look back at WW2.  Even though we started ramping up our industrial base and production 2 YEARS before the war started - full mobilization - and we had a large, trained workforce to pull from who all BEGGED for jobs...and we were completely self-sufficient with a thriving industrial base that produced all the industrial machinery we needed to expand all of our industrial bases....people were still having issues getting basic goods throughout the war, and were being rationed basic stuff like food.  My grandmother said it was harder to get new shoes during WW2 than it was during the full on Great Depression.  During the Great Depression, she got a 'new' pair (actually used hand-me-downs from male relatives) of shoes every Christmas.  During WW2, she had to deal with the same pair for 4 straight years - going from oversized to they were too small for her.

We are about to find out why our grandparents horded string and washed their aluminum foil and plastic zliplock baggies to re-use.  I always thought that was stupid they did that when I was a kid, but I got it after realizing how bad things were.  

And they will be 10 times worse for everyone here - we simply don't make anything anymore.  And it takes YEARS - like a decade or so - to ramp up the full supply chain needed to support that kind of new industrial output.  (you need to ramp up all the supporting goods manufacture too, not just making shoes for instance.  But making the stuff the shoes are made out of, packaging, etc.)