Cartridges Of The World: 17th Edition
Edited by W. Todd Woodard
Soft cover 701 pages 11” X 8” X 1 &3/8”
Price $39.99 + $6.20 shipping
Available from Gun Digest Books
Phone 920-471-4522
This is the 17th edition of a classic book that attempts to compile all the world’s cartridges in one place along with their specifications and load data.
It is a one stop reference work for anyone wanting to know the specific details of any cartridge.
Over the years the 3rd edition of this great book has been one volume that I have constantly used. It needs an index showing the page each cartridge is shown on badly as not all cartridges appear where you would expect them to be. As to be expected, there are omissions but to be able to reference most calibers in one massive book is a great help.
Each cartridge is preceded by a paragraph of historical notes followed by a paragraph of general comments. There are multiple loads given which are of great value to the hand loader. These are in columns denoted as Bullet (grains/type), Powder, Grains, Velocity, Energy, and Sources/Comments so that the reader has all the pertinent information at his fingertips enabling him to evaluate the cartridge and its effectiveness with multiple loads to choose from.
Putting the basic information on a cartridge out where it can readily be compared to all its competitors is a whole lot better way to evaluate a cartridge than listening to the ad campaign put out by its manufacturers. Cold hard facts count. BS doesn’t. This is a book full of cold hard facts.
Reading through this book will give you an understanding of cartridges and their development throughout the history of the self-contained cartridge better than any other book out there. This is important if one is to get a well-grounded education in modern cartridge firearms I would not want to be without it and highly recommend this massive reference book.—Jim Dickson
