Just got one of the latest gun rags.  71% of the pages contain advertising, many of them full-page ads.  Same with golf magazines, etc.  I'm not against a publisher making money, but these guns magazines resemble catalogs more & more.

Not to mention the reviews are just advertisements.

They never say a bad thing about any gun they've tested.

Quoted: Just got one of the latest gun rags.  71% of the pages contain advertising, many of them full-page ads.  Same with golf magazines, etc.  I'm not against a publisher making money, but these guns magazines resemble catalogs more & more.

Believe it or not, gun mags are relatively minor offenders compared to other industry magazines.  Try paging through your wife's fashion magazine, or one at the bookstore when no one's looking.  Those are about 90% full page advertisements.  

Quoted: Not to mention the reviews are just advertisements. They never say a bad thing about any gun they've tested.

One time, ONE time I saw an honest review (and I think it's probably because Gabe Saurez and the author must have gotten in a pissing contest) about a gun or firearms course.

The author trashed a Gabe Suarez firearms course and the trainer as completely unsafe and incompetent.  He backed it up with several examples.  I've read some background on Suarez's history and I'm not too impressed.

Other than that you're right, never seen them trash a firearm.  Even American Rifleman gave the Kel Tec P3AT a good review. I have one and know how prone to failures it is.

EDIT: I forgot to mention shooting times is chock full of good info.  Even though their gun reviews are just like everyone else's they have other great info that is worth it.

Quoted: Not to mention the reviews are just advertisements. They never say a bad thing about any gun they've tested.

Really ain't that a bitch?  That's why I read, but don't trust reviews.

Quoted: They never say a bad thing about any gun they've tested.

Depends on which ones you read, IMO. I've read bad reviews in American Handgunner as well as American Rifleman. Both were somewhat polite in their wording, however.

My .o2

They never say a bad thing about any gun they've tested.

Ain't that the truth.  A recent "major" gun rag review of the Ruger LCP failed to state any improvements over or even mention the Kel-Tec version.  It might as well be phoned in from MS-NBC.    

Even "Swat" seems to fall into the pattern of a glowing article on a particular product, and - surprise! - there is a full page ad for the same thing prominently positioned near the front of the magazine.  

The last bastion of what I thought was some kind of credibility, Small Arms Review, has a section called something like "New Products" that are simply press releases from the manufacturers.

If I see the word "ultimate" used again in one of these rags, I'll scream. I really don't know why I bother reading any of them.

Quoted: I really don't know why I bother reading any of them.

I won't pay for them, thats for sure.
Theres no need whatsoever to pay for spam.

Even ad-free mags like Gun Tests  (http://www.gun-tests.com/) are not all that informative--though they are fun to read.
They'll go over one gun carefully, but since it is one out of a run of God knows how many thousands, who knows whether they got an "average' gun.  Even they admit that.
Therefore, one year they'll say that a gun they checked was great and another year they'll come to a different conclusion with the exact same gun.

I paid $60 for my high school yearbook in 04, plus a $10 color photo fee because I was a senior...got the book, there were full pages of ads for hot tubs and mortgage brokers and the like...I was pissed.

I read Police Magazine.  It has gun reviews/tests along with updates on case law and other neat information.