In conjunction with my recent FN 49 rifle acquisition, I became acquainted with Wet Dog Publications, via their publication of the late Wayne Johnson's "The FN-49 The Last Elegant Old-World Military Rifle."
It's a superb one-volume essential reference for pretty much all things FN-49, with superb information and layout; it's aimed at historians, collectors and users, and succeeded in my opinion on all accounts.
I had some questions, which led to my speaking directly with Anthony Vanderlinden, the publisher, and an FN expert of world-wide repute; we had an excellent conversation on some of the interesting features on my Luxembourg contract FN-49. I noticed that he had a two-volume set on the FN Browning pistols overall, which I thought would be interesting to review, and Anthony was happy to accomodate.
Shortly, the two volume set "FN Browning Pistols Sidearms That Shaped World History" arrived, literally triple-boxed for protection, and weighting 11.1 lbs-that's more than my FN-49 rifle, which weighs in at 9.5 lbs...
The retail price of the 2-volume set is $149.95, and Anthony has been kind enough to set up free shipping for any pistol-forum members interested in purchasing; order from him directly at www.fnbrowning.com and here is the free shipping code: PISTOLFORUM Just use that in your order.
Pistol-Forum is noted for being populated by serious users and students of the handgun, so here's a spoiler alert: There's virtually nothing about actually shooting these pistols in the books; they're a compendium of detailed knowledge about FN itself, John and Val Browning and the relationship with FN, his designs and patents, the political and manufacturing histories of the factory, organization, and pistols themselves. Discussed in thorough detail are FN Models 1899, 1900, 1903, 1907, 1905(06), 1910, the Grand Browning, 1922, Baby, Grand Rendement, the High Power, and the 100-Series guns. as well as their cases, grips, magazines, sights, holsters, manuals, accessories, marketing and special/engraved editions.
The information is exceptionally organized and laid out, with color-coded page indexing for the models.
Of particular interest to both collectors and users are discussions about counterfeit components/guns, which are icon highlighted:
Another topic that is very thoroughly discussed are occupation FN pistols produced under the Nazi occupation of Belgium. The discussion goes into how the Resistance worked throughout the factory, and the specific Resistance and production sabotage techniques. Of specific interest to p-f WWII Occupation produced High Powers is the warning NOT to shoot any WaA140 or Eagle N pistols produced during December 1942-August 1944, as the sabotage techniques included difficult to detect irregularities and induced manufacturing flaws in the heat treatments and component tolerencing.
These volumes should be among a serious FN/Browning pistol user's library, along with the late Stephen Camp's "the Shooters Guide To The Browning High Power (preferably the later {and currently still available} Revised Edition, Collector Grade Publications "The Browning High Power Automatic Pistol" by the late R. Blake Stevens, and Duane Thomas' superbly researched article on the .40 High Power in the May 1995 issue of Handguns magazine.
The Vanderlinden books give collectors and users of FN Browning pistols a superb research base for the guns and their associated accoutrements. There's a great concurrent review of the books on YouTube, where the reviewer uses the books to explore and validate his personal FN 1900 pistol, which does a great job of walking the viewers of the facets of both volumes; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wtb2Bsx0i0E
There are no shooting reviews or techniques discussed in the Vanderlinden books-that's not their mission; those aspects are best covered in Stephen Camp's book, or in pistol-forum discussion threads or on 1911forum.com threads. But if you're like me, knowing about the details, intricacies and history of ones' weapons is powerful stuff, and a tangible aid to fully utilizing them. These are quality books, in terms of information, editing, layout, quality of images and paper stock itself. I highly recommend them.
Best, Jon
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Originally Posted by JonInWA
