The firearms and content in Vickers Guide have been sourced and curated by Larry Vickers – twenty year U.S. Army Special Operations veteran and combat marksmanship instructor, 1911 custom builder, and firearms industry consultant. 

Larry Vickers

Larry Vickers is a retired U.S. Army combat veteran with years of experience in the firearms industry as a combat marksmanship instructor and industry consultant.

Larry Vickers’ background is one of the most unique in the industry today. Having spent over 20 years in the U.S. Army (the entire time in Special Operations), the last 15 years of which were in 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment – Delta, commonly referred to as “Delta Force”, he has been directly or indirectly involved in a number of noteworthy Special Operations missions. He participated in Operation Acid Gambit – the rescue of Kurt Muse from Modelo Prison in Panama City, Panama, and also saw service in Desert Storm, Somalia, Bosnia and other locations on operations and activities which remain classified. 

Larry Vickers served as a combat marksmanship instructor for new operational members of Delta, during which time he trained more Delta and Tier One operators in combat marksmanship skills than any other person in U.S. Special Operations history up to that time. As a tactics and marksmanship instructor on active duty, he helped train some of the Special Operations personnel who later captured Saddam Hussein and eliminated his sons Uday and Qusay Hussein. 

Larry Vickers was directly involved in the design and development of the Heckler & Koch® HK45 and HK45C handguns and the Heckler & Koch® HK416 assault rifle, which was employed by Naval Special Warfare personnel to kill Osama Bin Laden and, along with multiple variants, remains in use by special operations forces around the world. Additionally, at the request of Lipsey’s® Distributors, Glock® has manufactured factory production, “LAV” serialized, Vickers Tactical Series Glock® G17 and G19 pistols built to his specifications. Beyond firearms development, Larry Vickers has developed numerous small arms accessories, the most notable of which are his signature sling manufactured by Blue Force Gear®, which is issued with the USMC M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle and authorized for use with the M4, M4A1, and M16 series weapons, and his Glock® accessories made by TangoDown®.

Larry Vickers is the founder of Vickers Tactical® (www.VickersTactical.com) and travels the world conducting combat marksmanship classes for law abiding civilians, law enforcement and military personnel. In recent years, he has hosted tactical firearms related TV and streaming video shows, including TAC-TV and the Vickers Tactical YouTube Channel (www.youtube.com/user/VickersTacticalInc).

James Rupley

James Rupley is a book publisher, professional photographer, former practicing attorney, hunter, fisherman, and amateur competitive shooter. He is a founding partner of two separate publishing companies – Mott Lake Publishing (Vickers Guide) and Headstamp Publishing – both of which are industry leaders in the firearms reference genre.

James is the co-founder and producer of the Vickers Guide series of premium coffee table reference books (published by Mott Lake Publishing), in partnership with U.S. Special Operations combat veteran Larry Vickers. The Vickers Guide book series revitalized the firearms reference book genre, and its sales have set a new benchmark for the firearms publishing industry. James and Larry have traveled to multiple public and private collections around the globe, researching and photographing historically significant small arms which have largely been inaccessible to the public. As of August 2026, Mott Lake Publishing has published eighteen (18) critically-acclaimed titles in the Vickers Guide series on a wide range of firearm topics.

As Headstamp Publishing's creative director and founding partner, along with N.R. Jenzen-Jones and Ian McCollum, James Rupley helped reinvent the traditional high-end reference book. Headstamp Publishing’s first title, Chassepot to FAMAS: French Military Rifles, 1866 – 2016, was pre-released in May 2019 via Kickstarter and became the second-highest grossing publishing category Kickstarter to that time (of 30,200 total publishing category releases at that time). Headstamp Publishing’s third title, Pistols of the Warlords: Chinese Domestic Handguns, 1911 – 1949, released via Kickstarter in 2021, surpassed all of its prior releases, bringing in US$1.54 million in its first 30 days and thereby becoming Kickstarter’s third-highest funded publishing category Kickstarter to that time (of 53,800 total publishing category releases at that time). Headstamp Publishing has published over twenty (20) books and continues to publish new books on an increasingly wide range of topics, which can be seen in the list below.

James Rupley has also served as a proofreader and firearm subject matter reviewer of the six most recent novels by New York Times Bestselling Author and former U.S. Navy SEAL, Jack Carr: Savage Son, The Devil’s Hand, In The Blood, Only The Dead, Red Sky Mourning, and Cry Havoc published by Atria/Emily Bestler Books.

James Rupley is also a regular photographic contributor to Watches of Espionage, a horology-focused media platform run by a former Case Officer with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), with whom he is currently producing a book covering a selection of watches utilized by military and intelligence units.

A graduate of The Citadel (The Military College of South Carolina) Honors Program (Magna Cum Laude) and Tulane University Law School (Cum Laude), James has practiced law in the New York City offices of a large international law firm and has served as general counsel for a retail and wholesale business, and held memberships to the legal Bar Associations of the States of New York and Tennessee. He has had his photography and commentary published in a multitude of publications. James has also held a commercial drone pilot license through the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.

Visit www.JamesRupley.com for more information.