Think of this as a digital encyclopedia of guns — the mother of all gun reference guides. The sheer amount of information is mind-boggling. The Firearms Guide covers over 50,000 models of firearms, airguns, and ammo from 425 manufacturers. Products are illustrated with 27,000 high-res color photos, plus 1,550+ schematics with parts lists for 130 gun-makers. If you’re a gunsmith or armorer, you’ll want to buy this DVD, just to have the searchable schematics with part numbers handy.

If you are a gun collector, or just an information junkie, you’ll find this DVD to be an invaluable resource. The DVD’s scope is truly worldwide, with coverage of gun makers in Western Europe, Eastern Europe, South America, South Africa and Asia as well as North America. With the DVD’s search capability you can search by gun caliber, manufacturer, and key features (e.g. “.223 Rem, Colt, folding stock”). There are 14 different search criteria — this allows you to “drill down” precisely to find the gun you want in seconds. Shown below are typical profiles of listed products:

There are some cool bonus features that significantly enhance the $39.95 DVD:

• 500 Printable Targets: game animals, silhouettes, crosshairs, sight-ins, fun targets.
• FFL Locator – Searchable database of over 60,000 gun dealers in the USA with contact info.
• US-EU Ammo Caliber Chart: Cartridge equivalency charts identify the correct domestic equivalent of European ammo.

Editors’ Comment: We were amazed with the sheer volume of data on this disk. It’s nice to be able to view the entire line of guns from major manufacturers (such as Ruger, Sako, Savage, and Sauer), along with products from “boutique” arms-makers. On the other hand, the vast majority of entries are mass production items. You won’t find many of the custom-built precision rifles that readers of this site prefer to own and shoot. Nonetheless, we enjoy being able to quickly see an entire product line, search a particular gun, and then access parts lists for repairs. I’ve got a .22LR Marlin Model 39A with a busted buckhorn rear sight, and I was able to find a replacement sight fixture in a matter of seconds. The FFL directory is handy and, as Gun Blast said in its review of this product: “The DVD is worth the price for the target images alone”.

Disclosure: Impressum Media provided a review copy of the DVD at no charge.