Relic Discussion > Recommended Reading

Civil War Projectiles II , W.Reid McKee -M.E.Mason, Jr

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PIA:
CIVIL WAR PROJECTILES was a bible of sorts to many of us before 1975.  My 1966 and 1971 editions were much more than gratefully received and appreciated.  Heck, I wore them out.  Your more recent volumes were also as well received. 
Best regards,
Gary

Jim T:
Carl, et al., (that’s “and others” for you iron collectors),

I stand by my assessment of “Projectiles II”.  I try to refrain from this topic when it comes up, because I fear it will appear no more than “sour grapes” coming from me since I am the author of a similar reference book.  However, the topic was presented by others, and I obviously have serious feelings regarding the repetitive presentation of incorrect information in reference materials.

Carl, your very own words seem to support my views: “while it might not any longer be THE book for bullet identification…” and “there are now more accurate and more complete choices for reference.”  We are discussing REFERENCE books here, so the latest factual information available should be what any collector seeks. So by using past tense in reference to Projectiles II you prove my case.

Do not confuse my statements about the contents of a book with feelings about the authors!  It seems any bad word about this book is seen as a personal attack on M&M.  I most certainly agree that this was an important and ground-breaking reference. It was also my first “bullet book” that I happy admit I wore out thumbing through the pages.  Even in the more recent past, prior to smart phones and the internet, this book was very useful, not for the identifications (as there were still many errors), but because as we all admit, everyone had a copy. You could converse with fellow collectors and simply mention the M&M# and all involved could view the specimen in their respective books wherever they were.  But now, we can just send a bullet “selfie” to friends for comment or identification thus eliminating even that use.

But new research (probably unavailable to M&M) has come to light.  And while many identifications have yet to be discovered, that doesn’t validate older “educated guesses”.  The subject of this thread is “Recommended Reading”.  So, when asked, do you recommend a source with the best available information, or the book you had as a kid that was written by two great guys?

CarlS:
Jim,

Well thought out and presented case. I agree with everything you said.  But as with you "I stand by my assessment" that it is "of little help now" is too harsh.  While it is not what I would (or do) recommend, it is clearly of value though it has the issues you state.   

As to the authors, I've only separately met them once briefly and while they each seemed nice enough my book thoughts too are independent of the authors.

divedigger:
I think this discussion is pretty funny, When this section opened up and went for several days without anybody making any recommendations I figured somebody has to go first. So I put some of my favorite books on the list. This book was like a sears roebuck catalog to a little kid. It had all kinds of bullets, artillery and fuses. This was heady stuff for a guy whose friends referred to different bullets as "smoothies, ringers and thumb tackers". Now it was possible to see that there was quite a variety out there. And while to me a bullet is just a recycled fishing sinker I can see where the bullet nerds get all wadded up at the inaccuracies. But while there are much more thorough studies published for the perfectionist this book is still fun to look at for the average digger, people like me. 

pipedreamer65:
Agreed, I like belt plates and iron projectiles.  That said, I have enjoyed the Mason/McKee book and would recommend it for any collectors bookshelf... if only for nostalgia.   

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