Handgun Parts, Diagrams, Books

[Danko]

Greetings all! I'm looking for help in finding a few good books with diagrams and explanations of the internal parts and their functions in revolvers and auto pistols. I'm near totally ignorant of the mechanisms inside handguns. I know the name of a handful of parts, but wouldn't recognize them if they fell into my lap.

I know a lot of guys on this site work on guns as a hobby and/or are gunsmiths. You guys should be able to recommend some good books. I'm not so much interested in working on my guns. I'm primarily interested in understanding the names of the parts, mechanisms, and how they operate. My interest is solely in pistols. Rudimentary book suggestions are certainly welcome. Maybe rudimentary repair books?

It would be nice to be able to form a mental picture of what's going on inside my guns when I view and shoot them.

Any and all suggestions would be appreciated.

Danko--

[fatdog]

The various shop manuals by Jerry Kuhnhausen are my go to resource in print for understanding what is actually happening inside a particular platform, that is if he wrote one for that platform. You can usually find them at a more reasonable price on ebay, thriftbooks, etc. used than the Amazon prices.

Then my second source would be the factory armorer manuals for a particular platform, those too can be found on ebay. A lot of those courses and manuals are only available to LE armorers so you are stuck with looking for a used one.

[BN]

https://www.brownells.com/schematics/index.htm

Brownells has schematics for a lot of stuff.

[RJ]

For Glocks, I heartily recommend joining GSSF, then taking a Glock Armorer's one day class. Besides the instruction, you get a copy of the current Glock Armorer's manual, and other freebies. For the 1911, the Kuhnhausen book has already been mentioned. I have very few books these days; I rely heavily on recommended online resources or videos by knowledgeable folks (there are some out there worth watching) but since you asked about books, that's about all I have.

It might help if you specified what pistol you want a book for?

[Danko]

Thank you guys for your recommendations. I found some of the reference books out of my price range, so they're probably really good. I'm on a pretty low budget.

I found and ordered, what looks like a good book, from Thrift books for eight bucks. Its a book on auto pistols, about 10 years old, published by Gun Digest. It's a big-ass book weighing 3.5 pounds, so it will take me some time to digest a fraction of the information.

[BillSWPA]

I find the Gun Divest books of firearms disassembly to be helpful.

[Danko]

Thank you for your input. I figured if it was published by Gun Digest it would be good. I read several of their books on pistol shooting and concealed carry and found all or most of them very informative.

[LOKNLOD]

If you’re looking to get some better understanding of mechanisms, here’s an idea out of left field…

The video game “World of Guns: Gun Disassembly”. You can play it on Steam for free I believe (some unlocks may require spending to get some specific guns if you’re interested in skipping to them, if I remember correctly).

It’s not perfect, but it’s a fun way to play around with assembling, disassembling, and functioning - including slow-mo, X-ray, and cutaway views - with detailed 3D models of a lot of modern and historical gun designs.

[DDTSGM]

This is one of the best on showing how the Glock pistol's parts interact with each other during the cycle of operation:

https://crossarmory.com/how-a-glock-...ut-away-video/

Just google 'pistol name' cutaway slow motion video or How a 'pistol name' works

Not as good as the Glock example, these types of animations are more common:Sig 226: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZruZIQ2hKh8

Ideal for looking at as you go through armorer's manuals to understand how the parts interact.

[Danko]

Thank you, Dan, for the simulation videos. I viewed both. I ran them at 1/2 speed to get a better view. It's cool to be able to watch a different component during each cycle.