GUNS REVIEW

The now defunct journal.

THIS IS THE ONLY AVAILABLE ONLINE LISTING ANYWHERE OF THE ARTICLES AND CONTENT OF MOST OF THE ISSUES

THE FACILITY IS SEARCHABLE

TO ALLOW DISCOVERY OF MATERIAL OF SPECIFIC INTERESTS, OR BY SPECIFIC AUTHORS

This once enormously popular British firearms journal was well-known for its remarkable coverage of smallarms of all kinds,
and particularly historically important muskets, rifles and pistols.
The contributors included military and civilian pundits with huge experience and knowledge of all manner of firearms,
and who collectively presented fine and valuable detail of everything from the earliest muzzle-loaders
to the introduction of the latest military hardware of the day,
providing a fund of information that has sadly been all but lost to younger historians.
The journal ran from late 1960 until early 1997, being, from 1980 to 1996,
under its capable editor and author Colin Greenwood.
The last edition was for January/February 1997, after which the journal, along with the famous motoring magazine "Motor Sport"
was sold by the Ravenhill Publishing Co. Ltd. to Haymarket Publishing, and immediately closed down.*
Motor Sport survives to this day.
Hitherto, a researching historian's only recourse to this unusual archive has been
either via the collections of the Royal Armouries' Library, also linked to the Imperial War Museum's website),
or by purchase of old copies, usually from internet sources.
For those currently researching firearms of almost any particular type,
the magazine offers a significantly important archive of material.
The problem has been knowing which of the many editions may hold articles on one's particular subjects of interest, and,
whilst it is possible to search the collections of the museums, accessing relevant articles is not straightforward.
Nonetheless, for those currently researching firearms of almost any particular type,
the magazine offers a near indispensable archive of material.
Quite apart from the plethora of articles and other pieces,
the advertisements represent a fascinating insight (or nostalgic look back for some) into past times. The "Rifleman" archives hold a significant number of the magazine's total production of 433 issues.
We hold nearly 85%, and it seemed sensible to develop some means of searching the contents listing of each edition.
To that end, we have scanned the content page at the beginning of each edition we have on hand, and built a searchable PDF file of the output.

The results of this are afforded below; we hope they may prove useful.

The table below shows the complete production with our archive holdings asterisked.

 

YEAR VOL. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
1961 1   * * *         *      
1962 2 *     * * *   *   *    
1963 3   * * * * * * * * * * *
1964 4 * * * * * * * * * * * *
1965 5   * * * * * * * * * * *
1966 6 * * * * * * *   * * * *
1967 7 * * * * * * * * * * * *
1968 8 * * * * * * * * * * * *
1969 9 * * * * * *            
1970 10 * * * * *   * * * * *  
1971 11 * *               * *  
1972 12       *   *   *        
1973 13 * * * * * * * * * * * *
1974 14 * * * * * *   * * * * *
1975 15 * * * * * * * *   *   *
1976 16 * * * * * * * * * * * *
1977 17 * * * * * * * * * * * *
1978 18 * *   * * * * * * * * *
1979 19 * * * * * * * * * * * *
1980 20 * * * * * * * * * * * *
1981 21 * * * * * * * * * * * *
1982 22 * * * * * * * * * * * *
1983 23 * * * * * * * * * * * *
1984 24 * * * * * * * * * * * *
1985 25 * * * * * * * * * * * *
1986 26 *   * * * *   * * * * *
1987 27 * * * * * * * * *   *  
1988 28 * *     * *            
1989 29 * *   *     *          
1990 30 * * * * * * * * * * * *
1991 31 * * * * * * * * * * * *
1992 32 * * * * * * * * * * * *
1993 33 * * * * * * * * * * * *
1994 34 * * * * * * * * * * * *
1995 35 * * * * * * * * * * * *
1996 36 * * * * * * * * * * * *
1997 37 *                   *

Should you hold copies of those editions missing from our archive, and be willing to donate them to be recorded for posterity,

please contact us via the link at the top or bottom of this page; thank you.

Below is the searchable flip-page facsimile of the magazines' contents indices,

which is a VERY large file and may take some time to fully display.

 

N.B. the format of the contents page was changed several times over the years.

The position of the edition date also altered, and this,

and the description of the cover picture, were not always in the same column.

As only the contents list column is shown, we have added the date where needed, but not the cover picture text.

The year can also be confirmed from the volume number in the above table.

After all thumbnails have loaded it may be necessary to click the search magnifier two or three times and wait, as the file is very large.

* Haymarket was owned by Michael Heseltine, a cabinet minister in Margaret Thatcher's Government, of which he was also, perhaps ironically, Secretary of State for Defence between 1983 and 1986, resigning from the Thatcher Cabinet over the Westland Helicopters affair, as he wished a rescue of that then ailing company to involve European integration, whilst Margaret Thatcher and others preferred that it should be linked with United States interests and Sikorsky. He became deputy prime minister in the subsequent controversial prime-ministership of John Major, both their positions being lost along with the May 1997 general election, which placed one Anthony Blair into leadership of the Country.