We’ve been digging through the Forgotten Weapons Archives, and compiling all the rifle manuals were can put our hands on, and there were enough to justify Volume II: Rifles of the Manual Archive (you can still order Volume I: Machine Guns as well, if you don’t have it already).
This collection includes 154 different manuals in PDF format, for a total of 1.3 GB of data (hence the use of a DVD – it would require two full CDs to fit the information). These manuals cover guns both common and exotic, from the AN-94 Abakan to the ZH-29. You can see a full table of contents below – there is something here for everyone, whether you are a researcher, collector, or shooter (or all three!)
Our mission here at Forgotten Weapons always has been – and will continue to be – making information about firearms history and technology widely and freely available, so you might wonder why we are offering data for sale. Well, a couple reasons:
- While most of the manuals on this disc will eventually be available for free download individually on the site here, it will take a long time before they are, simply because we want to pay attention to each item as we post it, instead of making a big data dump. So this DVD is a way for you to get all of our rifle manuals now, to browse through at your leisure.
- Even once all of this material is on the web site, it will not be a trivial task to download several hundred separate files, and 1.3GB is a pretty healthy amount of data for someone without a good fast ‘net connection. This DVD gives you everything in a quick and easy package that will make an excellent addition to your own reference shelves.
- While we love what we do here, the time we spend traveling to find great guns and manuals isn’t free. We have loaded this DVD chock full of great information in the hopes of providing you a great value for your dollar (less than 8 cents per document) while allowing us to continue to do what we do best.
The disc covers both older and new firearms, with the oldest being the model 1871 Mauser and the newest being the AN-94 Abakan. The type of manual varies – some are just sales brochures (like the AAI caseless rifle), some are operators’ instructions or general-purpose manuals, and some are full armorer’s manuals with instructions for complete detail stripping (like the R4/R5 South African Galil). The are also in a variety of languages, although a significant majority are in English. When rifles are issued to a military in which English is not the primary language, the manuals are of course often not printed in English – although in these cases the illustrations are often still of significant value to folks who cannot read the text. The second most common language for the items on this DVD is Russian, with a few items also in Polish, German, French, Dutch, Finnish, Croatian, and Italian.
Price is just $11.99 plus shipping, available in the US and 57 countries internationally (for the same shipping charge as inside the US!). Order your copy today!
Here are a few examples of the material you’ll find inside:
The manuals on this DVD include information on these rifles:
AN-94 Abakan
Beretta AR-70
Beretta BM-59
Beretta BM-62
FN Light Auto Rifle
British X8E1 (FAL)
British X8E2 (FAL)
British L1A1
FN-FNC
HK G3
HK G41
H&R T223
HK G11
HK33
Kalashnikov AKM & AKMS
AKS-74U
Yugoslav M70 & M72
Puska M21A
Krag-Jorgensen M1898 & M1899
Lee Enfield No1, No4, No8
Lee Enfield L39A1 and L42A1
M16A1 and M16A2
German Mauser M1871
Argentine Mauser M1891
Polish wz.29 Mauser
Polish wz.98 Mauser
Yugoslav M48 Mauser and grenade launcher
Mosin Nagant M1891, M91/30, M38, and M44
Finnish M1891 Mosin Nagant
Canadian Ross MkI, MkII and MkIII
Swiss PE57, StG57, and AMT
Sig 510
Sig 540, 542, and 543
Sig 550, 551, and StG90
Stoner 63
Russian AVS-36
Russian SVT-38 and SVT-40
Valmet M62 and M76
AAI Caseless Rifle
Russian APS underwater rifle
Armalite AR-180
Bang Automatic Rifle B1
Busche Automatic Rifle
Carcano M1891
Cristobal Model 2 Carbine
British EM-1 and EM-2
German Fallschirmjager FG-42
French FAMAS F1
Russian Federov Automatic Rifle
French FR-F1 sniper rifle
French Lebel M1886-93
French Berthier M1916
FN49, aka SAFN
German Gewehr 41(M)
German Gewehr 41(W)
German G43/K43
French Halle rifle
Johnson M1941
Chinese Liu rifle
Leader T2/SAC
Sig KE7 and KE9
Ljungman AG-42B
M1 Carbine
M1 Garand
M1C and M1D sniper Garands
M6 Survival Rifle
M1895 Lee Navy
M1903A4 Springfield sniper
MAS 49/56
Madsen M1962 A-Carbine
Madsen M1947 Light Military Rifle
Russian OSV-96
Mauser Selbstlader 1910
Dutch CETME Model 58
Pedersen Self-Loading Rifle
Pelo Semiautomatic Rifle
Enfield M1917
South African R4 and R5
Remington Lee magazine rifle
VG-44 and VG-45 grenade launchers
Czech vz.58
Singapore SAR-80
Sig AK-53
Sig SK-46
SKS
Boys Antitank Rifle
Sturmgewehr StG-44
SVD Dragunov
Swiss K11, K31, and K53 rifles
Swiss Kar 55
TRW Low Maintenance Rifle
Type 99 Arisaka (US .30-06 conversion)
Winchester Lee Navy
Winchester Lightweight Military Rifle
Czech ZH-29
US Military .22 Trainers
I’m going to order both of these when I get home. That’s a damn good deal!
Will there be pistol dvd?
Yes, but I want to have more of them before I put out a DVD. I only have a 50-odd different ones at the moment.
will the pistols be the end of the serise or will their be a time period specifc serise like early 19th century breech loaders
Ordered and done! I already have the MG DVD, but I might be back for additional orders of both volumes for a couple of fellow enthusiasts I know.
Great job, Ian, as always, and thank you once again for a real labor of love :)!
How did you order it? I can’t find the link to an actual order page. On the Volume 1 page, the link was the picture of the DVD case … easy. I’ve clicked on everything. What am I missing?
OH HELL YES
I am ordering the hell outta this. Thanks a whole lot for making this happen!
I won the machine gun DVD a few months ago. Its worth the money if your interested in such things. Still waiting on that armpistol review by the way.
Great Job Thanks
What information do you have on the Madsen M1962 A-Carbine?
I’ve been looking high and low for info on this gun and I’d buy the DVD just for that.
I have a Madsen company brochure for the A-Carbine – not as much as I would like. It’s 6 single-side pages plus covers, and shows one photo of the gun field stripped plus several of soldiers holding it. The text is a basic description of the gun’s mechanism and a pretty comprehensive listing of statistical data (dimensions, weights, etc).
It’s more than I’ve been able to find myself. I’ll make sure to order it then.
Just received my copy in the mail four hours ago — thanks so much to Ian and his crew! No price can be put on information and knowledge like this, no matter what the pundits say.
It is an excellent resource. I’ve been reading the manuals on my copy that arrived in the mail. On my copy, the Federov only has three images out of the 41 pages? The other pages on the PDF appear totally blank? Do other folks copies have this glitch, or is it just mine?
Where is the link to actually purchase this? When I bought Volume 1, I could get to a purchase page by clicking the picture of the DVD. I’m not finding any way to actually buy this one. What am I missing?