doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com 1/2 Price Books = doublegun treasures

Never would have thought that half price books would have anything that would get a doublegun guys heart racing... but I was looking in thier old book section and right there staring me in the face was Lt. Col. William S Brophy's Plans & Specifications of The L.C. Smith Shotgun. First edition, numbered and signed (#604/1000).

They also had several copies of Parker - America's Finest Shotgun by Peter H. Johnson for $5 bucks each. Good reading material.

I had a coupon for 25% off and was looking for a cookbook for my lovely Wife when I stumbled across these fine treasures.

Any reviews on the Parker book? Brophy's books seem to be the Bible of L.C. Smith guys. Sure am glad Col. Brophy dug this stuff out of the dumpster!!!

Glad he went dumpster diving to say the least......I have Plans & Specifications book 1st edition #250 Brophy signed.... and L.C. Smith Shotguns by Brophy is also good....all his books are worthwhile IMO.....

Houchins "L.C. Smith, The Legend Lives" is the real knock out book for L.C. enthusiasts.....

Good find for you....

Not to knock Mr. Johnson, his work has been eclipsed by later Parker books. He was a good man and dedicated enthusiast. Some say books are the only immortality so $5 is worth making it so for Mr. Johnson.

Was your "find" in a retail store or an internet site?

Half price books is a retail store that buys and sells used books. Very cool chain of stores. They buy books for 25% of retail and sell them for 50% or less. They always have some neat stuff in thier "rare books" section. I always assumed that they were nationwide, but maybe they are unique to Central Ohio. There are at least 3-4 in Columbus.

About the Peter Johnson book... is there inaccurate info? I remember (slightly) a conversation on another forum referencing this book and saying something to the effect of "it was the best info he had at the time, but has since been shown to be wrong about certain facts." Would anyone care to expand on the accuracy issues?

They are all over the country, but the nearest to me is about 400 miles.

I've see the Parker book there, too.

But I haven't seen any Half Price books that pays 25% of retail for any book.....more like 5%.

It's unreasonable, in my view, to ask for opinions of where Mr. Johnson didn't get it right, ironman. He wrote from what he knew as an enthusiast when there wasn't much around about Parkers. The cognoscenti have since filled us to the gills. When I bought his book I was hungry for information. When I finished it I felt I was only half-way through the soup course. Regards, King

King is right, when books first come out about certain guns, those interested get the research done by the author at that time. Some of this information might be incorrect, but at the time this is the only thing out there to go by.

In "L.C. Smith Shotguns" by Brophy, this was the first book that really gave the L.C. Smith student a chancce to see the differences and learn about these guns. In "The Legend Lives", Houchins basically uses the same information but with more pictures and now shows differences in guns of the same grade. However, in both books there are descrepancies in some of the writings and dates.

Most of these books are usually a collaborative effort of researchers and is so noted in the begining of the book. Very hard for one person to do this alone, so credit is due to those that write these books even though mistakes are found. Without that first printing, most of us would not know what we have and subsequent books will probably have mistakes also.

The thing about writing a non-fiction book is you are presenting yourself as an authority on the subject....presumably what you write are facts. Johnson does not state "I think" or "Maybe" very often in his book - he holds forth as facts things which are not facts.

That said, for $5 it's a good deal.