"Gun Rags"

[Cagemonkey]

I subscribe to Small Arms Review and American Rifleman. Also get Soldier Of Fortune. Its firearms reviews suck since Kokalis left.

[SteyrAUG]

I think the consensus is in.

The Tactical Yellow Visor needs to start his own magazine that touches on all the subjects here at M4C.net. It would totally fly and RobS could monitor the content and writers. Surely with everyone on here, articles, evaluations and gear would not be hard to find.

Lets do this Rob!

KC

We could have articles on:

Merits of Law Enforcement
Guns & Religion
Colt vs. HK
Unions
Do NFA Guns Make You Special

[ucrt]

.

"What would you like to see more/less of in the articles?"

I'd like to see:
- "a run to fail" section like some car magazines have. Where a gun, scope, mount, flashlight, etc. is used by different people and commented on, rounds counted, no cleaning, accuracy check every 1000 rnds or so, etc. But every gun would subjected to the same "shoot & don't clean", specific number of 30-round mag dumps, etc. This could be a section were this the info on the different gun is reported on monthly or whenever new info comes in?


- "Stress Tests" Such as: There are a lot of QD adapters being made for the MOE. Mount one and hang a 100-pounds off of it to see if it breaks and so on. See where different equipment gives out. Some kind of serious tests with flashlight mounts, scope mounts, handguards, folding sights, etc. instead of, "It has a nice finish and just feels like quality."


"If you could ask a gunwriter a question, or make a suggestion, what would it be?"

- What is an average price paid for an article?
- Have you ever had anything printed that when you read it in a magazine, you weren't "proud" of or thought was lame? What was it?

Thanks.

.

[MarshallDodge]

Like many here, I receive American Rifleman due to my NRA membership. While there are many things I dislike about the magazine, I do enjoy the articles on military firearms and learning about the latest stuff on the market.

[Suwannee Tim]

Here's a question for the gun writers: After drinking Ruger booze, eating Winchester steaks and lobsters and shooting Remington tame pheasants, how can you bring yourself to criticize one of their guns?

[Iraqgunz]

I have been reading Small Arms Review since the days when it was Machine Gun News. For the most part there are good articles and I like all the historical stuff.

I also read SOF simply because I have been reading it since I was 14 years old.

Most other gun mags make me want to gag. It is either the same stuff over and over or nothing but an ad for the company.

Very rarely are any reviews negative or do they find fault with a certain product.

The most recent rant is the gay ass article in Gun World about suppressors. That guy should be run out of town and never allowed to write a gun article again.

[BWT]

I bought my first and last magazines in High School.

Honestly, I got tired of every gun's trigger breaking like a glass rod, or hearing about a prototype.

I got tired of 'ragged holes", and basically a 700-800 word sales pitch.

If I feel like someone is giving me genuine opinions, and it's quality info, I'll subscribe to them, or give them money.

I gave nutnfancy some money (I don't agree with him on everything, I don't, but, his knife reviews, flash light reviews, certain gun reviews, concepts, etc, it's good material, with a lot of honest effort and good revelations in the review. He's largely responsible for helping me find the AK that I wanted but just honestly didn't think existed, from a company I had the impression was priced out of the reasonable market, my Arsenal arrives Friday. I like the Spyderco knife, I watched the review he gave enough info, I bought without handling it, and have been satisfied. Cut the shit out of myself with it today to prove it too. ).

I've given NFAtalk.org money because I liked the information they were putting out.

If I felt magazine reviewers were being honest and giving the kind of disclosure we wanted the majority of the time, I'd buy them, or sponsor them. But honestly, those magazines would go out of business quickly, or at least not a lot of people would pay for ad space.

I've always felt like you personally have put out good/great data that had those characteristics, I just honestly haven't taken the time to go out and buy a magazine that you have an article in.

[Redmanfms]

I stopped reading gun rags long ago when every article started having things to the effect of, "must have for (insert type) defense." Even if the weapon had a MRBS of 50 rounds.

If a company ever put out a true Consumer Reports-style magazine I'd subscribe to it.

[SteyrAUG]

I have been reading Small Arms Review since the days when it was Machine Gun News. For the most part there are good articles and I like all the historical stuff.

I also read SOF simply because I have been reading it since I was 14 years old.

Most other gun mags make me want to gag. It is either the same stuff over and over or nothing but an ad for the company.

Very rarely are any reviews negative or do they find fault with a certain product.

The most recent rant is the gay ass article in Gun World about suppressors. That guy should be run out of town and never allowed to write a gun article again.

While you have been reading SAR a lot longer than I, you have otherwise voiced my experiences exactly.

I stopped reading SOF around 2001 simply because it wasn't the same SOF I grew up reading as a kid. But even still it is probably superior to the other "rags."

If there were still such a thing as a newsstand (they have gone the way of the video store for the most part) I'd probably still be reading SOF.

Damn, now I miss Newsstands. They used to have an awesome one at the Broward Mall, even made Malts and Egg Creams.

[rob_s]

Followup questions.

Those of you that used to read them but don't anymore, do you think that something actually changed in the magazines, or did you simply get older/savvier/more experienced?

In general, do you believe online blogs/reviewers/websites to be better or worse than print? More honest or less honest? More "on the take" or less?

Since someone above asked what writers get paid, I'm curious to hear what the group thinks they are paid, and what kind of expenses they incur and how those costs are covered.