The red covered KRA published "The Kentucky Rifle" book vs Second Edition

[Frank Graves]

Is the second edition as good, better or worse than the original first edition in terms of photograph quality?  The original seems to be harder to find and a lot more expensive when in very good condition.

Thanks.

[Fullstock longrifle]

If memory serves me right, the 2nd edition is just a re-print of the red book, same stuff, same quality.
Frank

[HIB]

I have never had the two printings side by side. But do remember passing up the opportunity to purchase the 'Black' cover because the thought at the time was it was just a reprint.

If you have access to a 'Black' cover book look on the first several pages beyond the cover. The publishing info should be there; date, publisher and edition.

Also, Volume I, Issue I of the Kentucky Rifle Foundations CD series contains many of the black and white photos found in the early books.  These pics were taken from the high quality negatives we found in the KRA Bulletins storage locker and a number of the Red & Black cover guns are in there. The CD advantage is the images can be increased in size for a more accurate close up viewing and study.  Regards, HIB

[Frank Graves]

Great advice and information - thanks.

Happy New Year.

[JTR]

I have both, and for all practical purposes there's no difference in picture quality between the two.
I just layed them both out and turned to random pages and studied details in the pictures with a magnifying glass, and both copies show equal resolution, at least to me.

As Henry points out, if you don't care if the pictures are in book format, the CD's are great with very high zooming in resolution.

John

[eastwind]

Couldn't help but be curious about this one. Fact is the Red Book is better printed. The print dot (so many dots per inch seen in a loupe appear the same-probably 133 dots).but, paper or the printer himself may have made the difference. Note page 76-the Sell rifle with silver face decor on the cheek piece is very slightly better rendition in the Red Book. Even by the naked eye this subtle difference can be recognized. The papers may be different -higher clay content, or chemical coating, which accounts for better sharper printing.
Both Shumways and the Kindig book suffer from uncoated paper--which is a bad choice for sharp printing. Imagine what those would look like had they been printed on the same paper as the Red Book...printed about the same years incidentally.
Probably more than you wanted to know...but dollar for dollar the Red Book is a better buy.

Patrick Hornberger
Eastwind Publishing