Gun Journalism

[Last Escape Pod]

So the other day, I'm at the store browsing the magazines, looking for the ones that interest me. It's something we've all probably have done before.

I was tempted to get a gun magazine, but I didn't. I generally don't buy gun magazines because it is my understanding that the gun journalist are slaves to advertisements. They don't give completely honest reviews and opinions because they don't want to contradict the advertisements that fund them.

My question is: Is there any gun journalism that's honest and tell it like it is?

 

[KyJim]

This sort of thing has been discussed many times here before. While advertiser influence is always a concern where a magazine covers a particular industry (automotive magazines for example), you have simply painted with too broad a brush. I do think the Internet has really changed how much of the shooting community gets its news, but you still have to be careful of agendas.

 

[MTT TL]

Several of the military periodicals are good. Journals that cover antiques are by and large ok. Watch out for the ones selling guns though.

 

[Newton24b]

is very erratic, changes from issue to issue, and no writer ever seems to keep one stance on something.

for example, in the news stand the other day was a "home defense" magazine aimed at women. the issue was anyway.
problem is, in their ultimate lineup of easy to use and carry around home defense handguns, every one of the 10 selected for "small statured women", was a full size 38+ ounce semi automatic. and the cheapest one cost a mere 1200 dollars.

theres an older article i have on hand that says the 38 special and 357 are equally "very powerful cartridges in both recoild and bullet energy" and "are to much for the average person". the article however was set up to sell the 5.7x28 fn handgun that retails for oh, 1200.

 

[Achilles11B]

I like gun mags for the ads, to be honest. I like learning about what's out there and what's in the pipeline.

However, if I see something that piques my interest, I'll do my own research and make my own opinions. It seems EVERY rifle reviewed anywhere is lighter, more modular, more reliable and capable of .00005 MOA (with $7 a round ultra-match ammo, of course).

 

[Glenn E. Meyer]

Perhaps you didn't read Tom Given's analysis of the Judge in SWAT? Positive -oh yeah, that was positive.

Tom told it like it was - sorry, Judge fans.

 

[Uncle Billy]

In a magazine review of a gun, you can get some pertinent info, like its weight, capacity, a description of its action, sights, etc. which are likely to be accurate. At a gun shop you can handle it to see how it fits your hands, how easy or difficult it would be to carry (and conceal, if that's your intent), etc. So it takes more research than a magazine article to objectively decide whether or not to buy a gun you are otherwise unfamiliar with. I would never buy a gun model I had never handled myself, and I'm reluctant to buy a gun sight unseen even if I'm intimately familiar with whatever model it is.

Magazines are good for announcing new guns and stuff, handload info and stories of shooting experiences, gun-associated history, bios of important figures in the gun world, etc.

The only gun mags I subscribe to are "Muzzleloader" and "Handloader"; they are the only ones that I find consistently have information that's useful to me. Any other gun mags I sometimes buy at the supermarket reside in the john with "Hot Rod", "Rod & Custom", "Model Railroader" "CQ", and in case it takes a while, "Atlantic Monthly" and "New Yorker".

 

[Sarge]

I buy an occasional gun magazine for entertainment purposes, but that's about it. Of course I grew up reading Skelton, Keith, Cooper, & Askins and that's a hard act to follow.

 

[locnload]

Gun Mags like any other publications receive most of their revenue from advertising, not magazine sales, but magazines sales drive the price of advertising. It stands to reason that they are not going to degrade the industry that keeps them afloat, but they also know that if they become shills for junk products, no one will buy their publication and their advertising department wont be able to sell magazine space to anyone. While I have heard for years the comments about "gun rags" and how they would pump up the value of junk just to please the manufacturers, I can say I have not seen it. Reveiwers get one or two copies of the gun they are writting about, they try them with several different types of ammo, and they report the results. Sure they dont put a lot of negative personal opinions in there like "why would you spend $5000 on a Wilson Combat 1911, when a $900 Kimber would serve you just as well" or "it works OK, but I still prefer my XDM". Our job as readers is to harvest the information on different products that are of interest to us, make our own informed decisions about what we spend our money on, and get out of the mode of looking to other people to tell us "whats Hot and whats Not".
There are lots of good articles by folks like Duke Venturino, John Connor, Massad Ayoob, Clint Smith, John Taffin, Roy and Suzzie Huntington, Denny Hansen,and Louis Awerbuck just to name a handful. As someone said previously, you can read the reviews to get the particulars on a product, then make your own mind up if you want to pursue it further. Dont just spend your money because someone in a magazine said "its the best new 1911 to come out in ten years"!
Publications generate interest, interest generate sales, and sales keep the firearms industry alive and well. Aint Capitalism Great?

 

[g.willikers]

It's kind of like the auto magazines.
The articles used to be written by serious car/gun guys, who could write well enough.
Fortunately, there's still some of those guys around.
But, nowadays, the articles are mostly written by journalists with some car/gun background, maybe.
When they don't know something, it seems that they mostly just parrot the manufacturer's P.R. department.
Might just as well go directly to the manufacturers' websites.

 

[wcar]

I stopped buying gun (and car) magazines from the newsstand when I realized I was paying $7.95 and up for maybe 15 minutes of reading time amid 35-40 pages of advertising, and that was only after tearing out 10-15 stiff cardboard inserts.

 

[Glenn E. Meyer]

We don't need insulting rants. Deleted one and a reasonable reply to such.