Just finished reading a popular firearms magazine and had to comment on a couple of things. (Before we get started, I want to make it clear that I don't intend this post to be a blanket indictment of all gun magazines and gun writers.)
One frequent author commented that: How could a gun company "make this popular pistol even more popular? Well, if the company had asked me, I would have told it to chamber the gun for the most popular of all American pistol cartridges: the .45ACP."
Sounds good, right? Unfortunately, it's simply not true that the .45ACP is the most popular of all American pistol cartridges. If we wanted to nitpick we would say that the .22LR holds that title--but that's not fair, he's clearly talking about centerfire semi-auto pistols. So then, what's the winner in that arena? Well, according to Winchester as quoted by M. Ayoob in his COPTALK column in American Handgunner, the "9mm is still far and away the best selling centerfire handgun caliber among retail customers" and "40S&W is the clear-cut bestseller in the police sector, followed by the 9mm".
I guess this particular gunwriter thinks if he says it enough, it will make it true... Or maybe when he says "most popular of all" he means "my favorite". I certainly wouldn't want to impugn his knowledge of the gun world by implying that he doesn't know the truth.
But that's not all, in the same magazine there's a review of a certain $1500 pistol done by another commonly known gun writer. This gun fared quite well in the accuracy testing. At least until you read the small print. The author apparently believes that this full-sized semi-auto with a "5 inch match grade" barrel should be tested at SEVEN yards. Yup, a whole 21 feet. So, all you folks willing to spend $1500 on this semi-custom pistol are no doubt extremely happy to know that it will keep all its shots under 2" at 7 yards. The best group was an "impressive five-shot string that measured only 1.5 inches" at seven yards. Wow.
Fortunately that's only a couple articles out of the entire magazine, and even in the articles with the gaffes, there was some useful information. It just goes to show that a person can't accept what's printed as gospel, nor should we neglect to read the small print.
One frequent author commented that: How could a gun company "make this popular pistol even more popular? Well, if the company had asked me, I would have told it to chamber the gun for the most popular of all American pistol cartridges: the .45ACP."
Sounds good, right? Unfortunately, it's simply not true that the .45ACP is the most popular of all American pistol cartridges. If we wanted to nitpick we would say that the .22LR holds that title--but that's not fair, he's clearly talking about centerfire semi-auto pistols. So then, what's the winner in that arena? Well, according to Winchester as quoted by M. Ayoob in his COPTALK column in American Handgunner, the "9mm is still far and away the best selling centerfire handgun caliber among retail customers" and "40S&W is the clear-cut bestseller in the police sector, followed by the 9mm".
I guess this particular gunwriter thinks if he says it enough, it will make it true... Or maybe when he says "most popular of all" he means "my favorite". I certainly wouldn't want to impugn his knowledge of the gun world by implying that he doesn't know the truth.
But that's not all, in the same magazine there's a review of a certain $1500 pistol done by another commonly known gun writer. This gun fared quite well in the accuracy testing. At least until you read the small print. The author apparently believes that this full-sized semi-auto with a "5 inch match grade" barrel should be tested at SEVEN yards. Yup, a whole 21 feet. So, all you folks willing to spend $1500 on this semi-custom pistol are no doubt extremely happy to know that it will keep all its shots under 2" at 7 yards. The best group was an "impressive five-shot string that measured only 1.5 inches" at seven yards. Wow.
Fortunately that's only a couple articles out of the entire magazine, and even in the articles with the gaffes, there was some useful information. It just goes to show that a person can't accept what's printed as gospel, nor should we neglect to read the small print.