I learned of this book a few years ago. It is a wealth of knowledge and provides some personal in sight to Art Alpin and his cartridge development and his company A Square(his name A x 2). Chapters are written by Art and other contributors include Craig Boddington, Finn Aargard, and other well known individuals. There is a lot of opinion, theory and personal experience mixed together in this book.

Art was apparently a controversial figure. I read some criticism (or out right slander) on another forum. But; on that same forum members constantly quote right from this book as if they were presenting their own ideas.

This book is out of print, but copies can be found for $25-50 price range if you are patient. There are always a pack of hyenas asking $100-$500 a copy for any good out of print gun book. And this is no exception. Please, do not let yourself get screwed. If you dont already have a copy, I recommend keep you eye open for an honest offering. I got mine from Amazon, but dont see any fairly priced today.

One topic I found of interest was the 577 TREX chapter. Developed By Art. I believe is fatally flawed. Reading the fine print I discovered the A2 rifles used a 1/12 twist! Compared to 577NE with a 1/30 twist. Now, watch the infamous video of guys dropping the gun shooting the TREX. What is happening is the gun twist out of their grip. That EXCESSIVE twist is due to 1/12 twist with 750 grain bullet at 2400fps. Crazy enough ballistics, and too much twist. I think the consensus is some where around 1/18 to 1/24 is proper.

Why over spin? Art had a reason, discussed in another chapter. That is for a projectile to travel straight and true in game requires enough spin to remain stable during penetration. Simply having sufficient stability to punch a hole in paper was is not nearly enough. This is being re-discovered and verified by good scientific work today.