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Posted: 8/28/2014 12:51:45 PM EDT
[#1]
I completely agree, gun magazines (most) have lost almost all credibility in my eyes. I find myself swearing as I turn the pages, unable to really tell the difference between their advertisements and articles because everything is so damn positive. I thought the same thing when reading about the "amazing, game changing R51". I keep telling myself I won't read that crap, but somehow when bored at the grocery store with my wife I still end up rifling through their pages.
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Posted: 8/28/2014 1:02:19 PM EDT
[#2]
I gave up on them 20 years ago and it sounds like nothing has changed. Every new thing reviewed was the greatest ever and will revolutionize the industry. Could have two different guns in the same glossy magazine that were both the ultimate carry piece and the last handgun you'll ever need to buy.
Picked up one a few years later and saw that the Remington EtronX was going to revolutionize the rifle industry and put it right back down |
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Posted: 8/28/2014 1:21:44 PM EDT
[#3]
Gave up on gun mags a long time ago, do not miss them.
Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile |
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Posted: 8/28/2014 1:27:44 PM EDT
[#4]
Gun rags are just a profit deal. Nice photos and that's about the only thing worthwhile.
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Posted: 8/28/2014 1:36:32 PM EDT
[#5]
I still get them because my father has a number of subscriptions to them and when he is done reading hem he mails them to me in a bulk package.
I read them for entertainment when I'm on the throne. Most publications that review anything are for profit companies. If they give out negative reviews then they loose advertisement dollars; which happen to be their main source of income. The subscribers aren't the main money maker. They are just the main source that the ads are directed too. Firearms as a whole have not evolved much since the 1980s. Just about everything under the sun is a comestic update or slight redesign of a design that has been out for a while. There will not be any revolutionary advancements in firearms until we develop a new source of ammunition.
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Posted: 8/28/2014 2:08:50 PM EDT
[#6]
I'm certainly not implying that they should lose money by pissing off their real customers, and my opinions on the matter aren't important to them because I wouldn't subscribe to print mags even if they were 100% honest, but if enough people get tired of it and no one is reading magazines the advertisers won't be advertising anymore.
Jeez, I've really had a problem with run on sentences lately. Like with Playboy (back in the dark ages), I suspect many people do not buy Guns & Ammo for the articles. |
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Posted: 8/28/2014 2:26:41 PM EDT
[#7]
Quote HistoryQuoted: I'm certainly not implying that they should lose money by pissing off their real customers, and my opinions on the matter aren't important to them because I wouldn't subscribe to print mags even if they were 100% honest, but if enough people get tired of it and no one is reading magazines the advertisers won't be advertising anymore. Jeez, I've really had a problem with run on sentences lately. Like with Playboy (back in the dark ages), I suspect many people do not buy Guns & Ammo for the articles. They're still shrinking in readers just like newspapers and other print magazines. Real honest reviews are found online nowadays by honest consumers. But even there is starting ti get murky. A number of "reviews" are paid by the company or they are slanderous attacks on a product or company. Some have been arrested because of it.
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Posted: 8/28/2014 2:42:20 PM EDT
[#8]
True dat.
With the exception of Americqan Handgunner, gun rags are nothing but bootlickers for the manufacturers |
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Posted: 8/28/2014 2:43:15 PM EDT
[#9]
I liked to read GunTests, and feel as though they are somewhat more creditable since they do comparisons of 3-4 very similar makes/models of guns at the same time. It is just more than I want to pay for a newsletter format. I might go for $10-$15 a year for a digital version though.
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Posted: 8/28/2014 2:43:49 PM EDT
[#10]
There is a gun mag "gun reviews"IIRC(Nope gun tests, ^ Bastard beat me) , that does pretty objective reviews and is fair, they rate them with pluses and minuses and very little "OH THIS IS AWESOME!!! NEWEST BESTEST"
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Posted: 8/28/2014 5:28:15 PM EDT
[#11]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
There is a gun mag "gun reviews"IIRC(Nope gun tests, ^ Bastard beat me) , that does pretty objective reviews and is fair, they rate them with pluses and minuses and very little "OH THIS IS AWESOME!!! NEWEST BESTEST" That's true enough as far as it goes. Gun Tests is fairly short on typical gunrag fuckery like shooting a 5-shot group at 7 yards, getting a group that looks like Helen Keller heaved railroad spikes at the target, and then saying "Good enough for combat accuracy". (See most recent Blue Press article about the CZ 999). 
On the other hand, the quality of their input is not much better than asking Fred at the range what he thinks about his new gun, and if a gun is expensive, that seems to count against it. I subscribed for a few years but I wasn't learning much from it. |
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Posted: 8/28/2014 6:57:47 PM EDT
[#12]
Gun mags are the print version of GD. Multiple threads all talking about the same subject. None of which are objective, like gun rags, merely an opinion.
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Posted: 8/28/2014 8:46:52 PM EDT
[#13]
20 to 30 years ago I started noticing that gun magazines would amazingly have an ad in the middle of the article about the same gun that was being reviewed, and not-so-much to my surprise I noticed the same thing in magazines for other interest.
I think you can still obtain some basic information from gun magazines, but like a smart consumer of any product you have to get all of the info from as many sources as possible and sort of weed out the crap. |
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Posted: 8/31/2014 3:10:27 PM EDT
[#14]
Only 20 ads from Springfield Armory & Kimber in a 60 page magazine.
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Posted: 8/31/2014 3:54:53 PM EDT
[#15]
The gun mags (uh that usually means a form of ammo container) here in Sweden aren't at all as overwhelmingly positive as the American magazines. I guess our market is way to small for any form of bribed reviewing to occur.
The downside is that sometimes articles are based on kind of crappy and inconclusive testing. It's not all bad, but accuracy testing for example is often not done in a very in depth manner. The writers really do what they can to honestly report their inconclusive results,though. |
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Posted: 8/31/2014 4:17:22 PM EDT
[#16]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
I gave up on them 20 years ago and it sounds like nothing has changed. Every new thing reviewed was the greatest ever and will revolutionize the industry. Could have two different guns in the same glossy magazine that were both the ultimate carry piece and the last handgun you'll ever need to buy. Picked up one a few years later and saw that the Remington EtronX was going to revolutionize the rifle industry and put it right back down me too......... oh,yeah..................I have some EtronX ammo too! |
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Posted: 9/1/2014 9:43:32 AM EDT
[#17]
Gun magazines are completely pointless. I don't read them any more. I look at the model photos in the Blue Press and then I put it in the garbage. What is the point of a monthly catalog that features no new products, ever?
All the mainstream gun magazines are rags. Nothing negative is ever said and most of the authors are FUDDs or wannabe SEALs. To them shooting one box of ammo from a clean pistol at 7 yards is a sufficient test of a new gun. |
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Posted: 9/3/2014 9:32:22 AM EDT
[#18]
Gave up on them during that whole "My short magnum is better than your short magnum" debate years back.
I did subscribe to Gun Tests for a number of years and really enjoyed it but they sort of ran out of stuff to compare so they got pretty silly too. ARFcom, 6.5Grendel.com and THR are all I read anymore. |
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Posted: 9/3/2014 10:24:14 AM EDT
[#19]
I quit buying the rag mags because they were costing me too much money. It is much cheaper when you don't know the new stuff that is hitting the market.
And then came the arfcom............. 
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Posted: 9/3/2014 12:00:01 PM EDT
[#20]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Gave up on them during that whole "My short magnum is better than your short magnum" debate years back. LOL... I saw the collateral damage from that in American Rifleman at the time. |
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Posted: 9/3/2014 12:17:17 PM EDT
[#21]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
That's true enough as far as it goes. Gun Tests is fairly short on typical gunrag fuckery like shooting a 5-shot group at 7 yards, getting a group that looks like Helen Keller heaved railroad spikes at the target, and then saying "Good enough for combat accuracy". (See most recent Blue Press article about the CZ 999). <a href="http://s241.photobucket.com/user/kemays/media/cz999_zpsb24e1d65.jpg.html" target="_blank">http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff35/kemays/cz999_zpsb24e1d65.jpg</a> On the other hand, the quality of their input is not much better than asking Fred at the range what he thinks about his new gun, and if a gun is expensive, that seems to count against it. I subscribed for a few years but I wasn't learning much from it. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
There is a gun mag "gun reviews"IIRC(Nope gun tests, ^ Bastard beat me) , that does pretty objective reviews and is fair, they rate them with pluses and minuses and very little "OH THIS IS AWESOME!!! NEWEST BESTEST" That's true enough as far as it goes. Gun Tests is fairly short on typical gunrag fuckery like shooting a 5-shot group at 7 yards, getting a group that looks like Helen Keller heaved railroad spikes at the target, and then saying "Good enough for combat accuracy". (See most recent Blue Press article about the CZ 999). <a href="http://s241.photobucket.com/user/kemays/media/cz999_zpsb24e1d65.jpg.html" target="_blank">http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff35/kemays/cz999_zpsb24e1d65.jpg</a> On the other hand, the quality of their input is not much better than asking Fred at the range what he thinks about his new gun, and if a gun is expensive, that seems to count against it. I subscribed for a few years but I wasn't learning much from it. Either that shooter sucks or that pistol does. That is a TERRIBLE group. |
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Posted: 9/3/2014 12:36:06 PM EDT
[#22]
I have the greatest gun magazine issue of all time. It is an issue of Concealed Carry Volume 10 Issue 6. There is a 4 page article about how if you carry a 1911, you will be under armed unless you carry TWO 1911s and 4 spare mags. It is the most hilarious piece of writing I have ever seen. I kept the magazine around to show the article to people when they start trusting "professional gun reviewers" .
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Posted: 9/3/2014 12:55:13 PM EDT
[#23]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Either that shooter sucks or that pistol does. That is a TERRIBLE group. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
There is a gun mag "gun reviews"IIRC(Nope gun tests, ^ Bastard beat me) , that does pretty objective reviews and is fair, they rate them with pluses and minuses and very little "OH THIS IS AWESOME!!! NEWEST BESTEST" That's true enough as far as it goes. Gun Tests is fairly short on typical gunrag fuckery like shooting a 5-shot group at 7 yards, getting a group that looks like Helen Keller heaved railroad spikes at the target, and then saying "Good enough for combat accuracy". (See most recent Blue Press article about the CZ 999). <a href="http://s241.photobucket.com/user/kemays/media/cz999_zpsb24e1d65.jpg.html" target="_blank">http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff35/kemays/cz999_zpsb24e1d65.jpg</a> On the other hand, the quality of their input is not much better than asking Fred at the range what he thinks about his new gun, and if a gun is expensive, that seems to count against it. I subscribed for a few years but I wasn't learning much from it. Either that shooter sucks or that pistol does. That is a TERRIBLE group. You probably meant to say, "decent combat accuracy." 
But seriously, if all shots aren't touching at 7 yards, there is a big problem somewhere. |
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Posted: 9/3/2014 2:19:29 PM EDT
[#24]
I dropped subscriptions to all of them except two: American Rifleman and Outdoor Life. The former comes with my NRA subscription. There is some decent info there about exposed schematics for gun repair, reloading data and occasionally some comparison tests on bullets, ammo, or such. The rest is just advertising, including the "reviews," which never seem to say anything negative about the products.
I read Outdoor Life primarily for the hunting and fishing stories, ignoring the product reviews. Annual comparison testing does have some credibility. I find their annual comparison testing of new optics is actually pretty objective. Otherwise, its only more advertising disguised as product review. |
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Posted: 9/4/2014 3:12:47 PM EDT
[#25]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
I have the greatest gun magazine issue of all time. It is an issue of Concealed Carry Volume 10 Issue 6. There is a 4 page article about how if you carry a 1911, you will be under armed unless you carry TWO 1911s and 4 spare mags. It is the most hilarious piece of writing I have ever seen. I kept the magazine around to show the article to people when they start trusting "professional gun reviewers" . Would it be a copyright infringement to ask if you might scan and post the article? Not wanting to get anyone in trouble!! Doc |
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Posted: 9/4/2014 6:45:06 PM EDT
[#26]
When I was in my late teens and early 20's, I would read just about any gun magazine I could find, but I came to the same conclusion you did. Most were nothing but glorified advertisements.
I read three gun mags. American Handgunner and Guns Magazine (both owned by the same publishing company with the same writers) and the other is S.W.A.T Magazine. S.W.A.T. Went through a positive change a year or two ago. They changed from a mostly law enforcement format (Special Weapons and Tactics) to a non-LE format called "SURVIVAL Weapons and Tactics". It was a good magazine before and an even better one now. Those are the three general gun mags I read. I usually pick up the annual Glock, AK and AR magazines, and I always read Guns of the Old West. If you like western guns, western movies and frontier history it's the best magazine out there. |
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Posted: 9/4/2014 6:46:55 PM EDT
[#27]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Would it be a copyright infringement to ask if you might scan and post the article? Not wanting to get anyone in trouble!! Doc Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
I have the greatest gun magazine issue of all time. It is an issue of Concealed Carry Volume 10 Issue 6. There is a 4 page article about how if you carry a 1911, you will be under armed unless you carry TWO 1911s and 4 spare mags. It is the most hilarious piece of writing I have ever seen. I kept the magazine around to show the article to people when they start trusting "professional gun reviewers" . Would it be a copyright infringement to ask if you might scan and post the article? Not wanting to get anyone in trouble!! Doc After seeing that post I looked online for it. I haven't read it yet but here is the complete magazine available online. Concealed Carry Magazine |
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Posted: 9/7/2014 3:32:24 AM EDT
[#28]
This reminds me of what happened to the car mags about 30 years ago. You would actually get an honest review on a car back in the day. Then various corporations would buy them out and there was no car brand that you shouldn't buy according to the new talking heads. The advertising became the most obvious sign.
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Posted: 9/7/2014 9:42:42 PM EDT
[#29]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
After seeing that post I looked online for it. I haven't read it yet but here is the complete magazine available online. Concealed Carry Magazine Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
I have the greatest gun magazine issue of all time. It is an issue of Concealed Carry Volume 10 Issue 6. There is a 4 page article about how if you carry a 1911, you will be under armed unless you carry TWO 1911s and 4 spare mags. It is the most hilarious piece of writing I have ever seen. I kept the magazine around to show the article to people when they start trusting "professional gun reviewers" . Would it be a copyright infringement to ask if you might scan and post the article? Not wanting to get anyone in trouble!! Doc After seeing that post I looked online for it. I haven't read it yet but here is the complete magazine available online. Concealed Carry Magazine Page #? |
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Posted: 9/8/2014 9:23:03 PM EDT
[#30]
Ever read a negative review of a gun in a gun rag? I haven't. Which isn't surprising, since the gun press is supported by the advertising dollars of the industry. If you want unbiased evaluations, you are more likely to find them in online gun forums, like this one. Considering that more and more people are waking up to this fact, and gun magazine readership is falling, these publications are relying more and more on the advertising revenue, and less and less on the sales and subscriptions of the magazines themselves. Eventually the advertisers will wake up to the falling circulation, and that stream of revenue will dry up as well. What we have is a classic death spiral of this particular genre.
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Posted: 9/9/2014 8:02:14 AM EDT
[#31]
I have not bought a gun magazine in about 15 years. I have a friend who has all the subscriptions to G&A, Handguns, Field & Stream, Outdoor Life, American Rifleman, and a few others. About 4 years ago, every few months he passes them on to me. He knows I won't pay for the rags and he prefers to pass them on to recycle. I then pass them on.
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Posted: 9/16/2014 3:52:25 PM EDT
[#32]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
There is a gun mag "gun reviews"IIRC(Nope gun tests, ^ Bastard beat me) , that does pretty objective reviews and is fair, they rate them with pluses and minuses and very little "OH THIS IS AWESOME!!! NEWEST BESTEST" HEY, I RESEMBLE THAT REMARK!!!!!!!!!!!!! 
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