New York: Winchester Press, 1971. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Hard Cover. Format is approximately 8.75 inches by 11.25 inches. 249, [7] pages. Illustrations. Index. Cover has some wear, soiling, and bumped corners. Minor endpaper and some page soiling. Contains Introduction, as well as chapters on Early Muskets and Muzzle-Loading Pistols; Muzzle-Loading Ammunition; Muzzle-loading Rifles; Breech-Loading Ammunition; Early Breech-Loading Rifles; Single-Shot Cartridge Rifles; Springfield Single Shot Breech-Loading Rifles; Repeating Firearms; Conclusions; and an Index. The first century of American gunmaking witnessed a flowering of new and more complex and technologically developed firearms designs. This book explores that growth, the gun systems and designs, their manufacture, the arms inventors, and the Civil War, which forced a rapid change to the use of modern breechloading arms and self-contained metallic cartridges. More