Does anyone know of a single comprehensive book, encyclopedia or "all there is to know" manual for AR15s? I'm about to give my 11yo son his first AR and I'd like to get him a book that has a lot of history, technical info, mechanical diagrams and of course pictures of the various models and configurations of the weapon. I realize such a book may be limited to Colt's rifles but that's okay. I've looked at Barnes and Noble and couldn't find anything other than generalized books on assualt weapons.
--RR

My first AR book and First AR were from here:

[url]www.fulton-armory.com[/url]

Click on "Books" on the left column and it has a nice list on the page that comes up.

The book "The AR-15 Owner's Guide (2000) by Walt Kuleck and Scott A. Duff. - History, development, selecting the rifle, disassembly, assembly, inspection, cleaning, zeroing, and much, much more" is a great book and beginners book.

Send him here:

[url]www.ar15.com[/url]

Look on the left side of the home page under "Information."

“The Black Rifle” by R. Blake Stevens and Edward C. Ezell is certainly the definitive book on the development of the M-16.  However, it doesn’t cover areas like safe handing, maintenance, and the shooting of the AR.  Also, as Troy mentioned, it’s dated.

I suspect an 11 year old would find it pretty dreary.

For complete coverage, I’d recommend “The Complete AR-15/M16 Sourcebook” by Duncan Long.  Admittedly, Long can be a little sloppy at times, but that is made up for by enormous amount of good information in this book.  Be sure and look for the second edition (2002) of the book.

Other, shorter, but worthwhile books are:

“The AR-15 Complete Owner’s Guide”, by Walt Kuleck and Scott Duff.  (I’ll agree with dcoke76 that this is a great beginner’s book for an AR owner.)

“The Complete Guide to AR-15 Accuracy”, by Derrick Martin and Barrett Tillman.

“The M16/AR15 Rifle, A Shooter’s and Collector’s Guide”, by Joe Poyer.