[Nate_m]

What is a good handgun magazine that has reviews, shooting tips, upgrades, cleaning tips, maybe reviews of schools, ect.

Something that is not predominately a 1911 mag, and something that does acutual critical reviews (not just listing good points but also listing bad points)

Thanks in advance,

Nate

[Gunfyter]

American Handgunner

[Ala Dan]

I concur, The American Handguner.

Best Wishes,
Ala Dan, N.R.A. Life Member

[mec]

check out Guns and Ammo Handguns. They seem to be trying to report accurate information.

Also check out online www.gunblast.com. they are up to the minute on new gun reviews.

[10-Ring]

I stopped buying gun mags when I noticed that they usually just rehash old stories over & over again. Sometimes, I'll pick one up to read a gun review, but that's about it. I get alot of my info here.

[Bobarino]

i agree on American Handgunner. however, i absolutley will not buy one if it has yet ANOTHER 1911 of any type on the cover. when they actually have something NEW on the cover, i buy it. it is a pretty good magazine and i enjoy the Ayoob files and the ten ring.

Bobby

[Bacchus]

Combat Handguns is also pretty interesting.

[WhoKnowsWho]

American Handgunner and Combat Handguns have both been good.

Guns and Ammo's "Handgun" mag was a joke, let's buy a S&W 1911, change the trigger and safety, throat and polish, for like $350, then review it...

Guns and Ammo normal mag, too much truck and tobacco ads... not enough good stuff.

[Boats]

The pictures in American Handgunner are worth the subscription price even if all of the topics of discussion are rehashed. It's easily the Playboy of the gun magazines.:D

[9x19]

I like the "American Rifleman" magazine that comes free with an NRA Membership... you do get that one already, yes?

If so, then next would be "Guns" magazine... lots of the Amercian Handgunner style... fewer custom 1911 reviews.

These are the only two I read with any regularity.

[seeker_two]

AG, GUNS, & AR are great....

I'll also add SHOOTING TIMES to the mix. Great stuff by Sheriff Wilson...:D

[coldshot03/04]

Combat Handguns, Guns and Weapons of Law Enforcement, Guns and Ammo. Shotgun News. If you're an 1911 fan American Handgunner.

[Standing Wolf]

I read American Handgunner and Guns, as well as Shooting Times and the N.R.A. publications. It's been quite a few years since I read a gun review with a straight face.

[9x19]

Standing Wolf,

Have you seen some of Stephen A. Camp's work on the 'net?

Might help straighten a few things out.. :D

[mec]

Camp does good. provides a good feel for what a gun will actually do when you take it out and shoot it.

[Lone Star]

Sounds as if you boys need to meet Brian Pearce's byline in, "Rifle" and, "Handloader". Pearce is the closest thing we now have to Skeeter Skelton, the early Jeff Cooper, etc. and he tells it like it is. Covers both combat and hunting handguns, as well as fine rifle writing.

I'm always amazed that more people on gun forums don't seem to know who he is.

Ross Seyfried does good work at the same titles, but Seyfried is ...unusual...in some of his gun preferences. Pretty specialized.

Lone Star

[Berg01]

Ditto Combat Handguns; don't care for Guns & Ammo lately

[fastbolt]

I dislike saying anything distinctly negative about magazines devoted to our interests, or the authors whose articles are published in them. Magazines need to sell to remain in business, and articles need to sell for the authors to make a living. I'd suspect that most folks who author articles have little input into the general "opinion & viewpoint" which the publishers desire to have expressed in their magazines ... at least I'd like to think so ... but I have absolutely no personal knowledge of this situation.

However, as long as magazines accept advertising from firearms manufacturers, trainers and "defensive-craft schools" ... I'll always take any "test" & "training" article with a heaping tablespoon of salt. I've been up & down the road a time or two, and feel comfortable being able to recognize what's interesting & useful ... and what's simply intended for the tourists.

That's the way it is with any similar publication/periodical, though, no matter what the subject ... so it's no big deal.

More and more "gun magazines" seem as if they're intent on becoming advertising catalogs, though.

I particularly found the September issue of Combat Handguns illuminating ... especially the article about the new Taurus Millennium Pro 9mm.

Aside from the cover's bold print announcing the "MACHO MINI-9", which I'm sure would help make any anti-gun folks browsing the magazine isles consider us in the "best" light ... the featured article contained an excellent picture of a lady, identified as the photographer's wife, holding the pistol in an apparent "stacked-grip" 2-handed hold, "squinty-eyed", and without any obvious eye protection. At least she's wearing hearing protection. Naturally, we're not told whether this is simply posed for the picture's sake, or whether she's actually engaged in shooting the pistol in this fashion ... but this wouldn't be a picture I'd recommend to someone desiring an example of how to improve their shooting skills and range safety practices ...

I agree about the excellent quality of the photos in AH, by the way ... and it's a bonus if there's an interesting article.

[gptrent]

The Accurate Rifle is the best magazine of its type on the market... It is a spin of off Precision Shooting. The magazine started out as "The Tactical Shooter". They have changed the focus a bit, renamed Tactical Shooter to "The Accurate Rifle" . They have very good equipment and school reviews and the topics are wide ranging.

The just completed a decent interview of Jeff Cooper and have been running a series of articles on Glocks. During this they have also had some great rifle articles.

If I could only have one shooting magazine subsciption this would be the one.

I throw most of the other Gun rags out with the trash, but I have yet to discard a single issue os this magazine.

GPT

[mec]

Fastbolt is reading the magazines in a way that will allow him to keep on enjoying them. A lot of things can happen to an article on its way to print. the writer can mess up, the editor can mess up for him, then the art department can lift their leg on the situation and then the gremlin who writes captions can negate the body of the text.

The magazines can show what new stuff came out at the SHOT show and provide a limited review of a single example- over a brief period. for instance, your new Beanfield Artillery Spillmec might shoot five hundred rounds just fine and then go to blazes on number 501. Sometimes companies abandon quality control for quite a period of time. The writer is going on his previous experiences with the company writing about how fine the products are. Meanwhile your local distributor quits handling Bimbell Shell -shuckers because he has a 50% return rate. Same writer says he has never had any problem with inferior extrators and this doesn't help the guy whose out-of-spec rim grabber just gave up the ghost.

The deadline- driven staffer may be in need of stuffer material for his regular column. Gets a nice promo picture of a set of nicely finished traditional grips. Writes how pretty the sample grips he got are. Customer orders a set and finds out the grips are actually pretty dang ugly-open grained and not a speck of finish on them. Customer wonders if:
1. the company makes special grips for gunwriters;
2. the gunwriter has ever even seen a set of the grips.

[Safety First]

I have found Combat Handguns to be worth the the money and time spent reading. It has a variety of articles and my favorite writer, Ayoob articles are always worth the time " to me ". Check it out at your favorite news stand

[Dave R]

I like Stephen Camp's reviews better than any magazine. And they're free! Do a search.

[Nate_m]

Thanks for all the info everyone!

[MoNsTeR]

Gun Tests.
ALL the glossy mags are pure advertising fluff with nary a word of criticism.

[Sean Smith]

In my experience, finding an honest review in a gun rag is like finding a Pinto that will go 200 miles per hour.

Gun Tests is more honest, but not especially well informed or competent.

[mec]

Two recent examples that appear honest:
jeff johns- this months G&A Handguns. - He tested a Ruger Single Six that threw 25 yard groups in the 3" range. The velociites of both Hornady and the CCI rounds spread out over 200+ feet per second.

This is honest reporting. He did voice the opinion that this was a nice, accurate trail gun but it was clearly an opinion unsupported by the shooting results leaving the reader informed enough to make up his own mind.

Clapp in the American Rifleman a few months ago: Wrote up the then new Ruger Super RH in .454. The ammunition clearly showed that the test revolver was about as accurate as and old lady with the hives throwing a baseball. You don't right up results like this if all you are trying to do is hump the advertisers.

( My 9.5" single six frequently groups magnums into an inch and less at 25 yards and a friends super redhawk .454 does about the same.)

[Sean Smith]

This is honest reporting. He did voice the opinion that this was a nice, accurate trail gun but it was clearly an opinion unsupported by the shooting results leaving the reader informed enough to make up his own mind.

You've got a funny idea of what "honest" is... all the data indicates the gun is a turd... and the writer whores himself out by saying it is great... and you call that HONEST?! :rolleyes:

[mec]

"Honest" is reporting the turdaform groups the guns shot and the comodatrophic massive velocity variations of the .17 rounds is "Honest"

The statement that the gun is " an accurate trail gun"{sic}
is clearly an opinion. In my opinion three inches at 25 yards is not at all accurate for a varmint cartridge. In somebody else's opinion it might be accurate.

" Dishonest" would have been to say that the thing shot one inch groups and the velocity spreads were less than 50 feet per second.

[mec]

1 .this, on the other hand, is a .17 tracker from Taurus - one of the first to hit the country. It is accurate and the measured velocity of the hornady cartridge was 2170 fps.
2. It is an accurate Trail gun.

1. Fact
2. Opinion

Fact: If the article on this ever hits print ( and I hope to God it DOES'NT), nobody will believe it because the Rugers, Reeders and Smiths are all so spazmodic that nobody will believe this sort of perfomance from a Taurus.
http://www.thehighroad.org/attachment.php?s=&postid=383120

Encarta Dictionary:Honest- 1. morally upright: never cheating, lying, or breaking the law


2. truthful or true: expressing or embodying the truth


3. impartial: presenting information in an impartial way


4. reasonable in a particular situation:

[Sean Smith]

Mec,

Your posts are a classic example of the difference between "informative" and "pedantic."

:rolleyes:

Data: gun is inaccurate.
Statement: gun is accurate.

Thesis #1: Writer is a liar and an advertising whore, and hopes you are too stupid to interpret the numbers.
Thesis #2: Writer is too stupid to know what constitutes "accurate," in which case he should be fired for imbecility.

I don't pay money to sift through disingenuous articles for what passes for "data" in a gun rag, sorry.

[mec]

writer has possible set his sights high and does not particularly care to write for those who are unwilling or unable to reach their own conclusions.




Apologies to the board for feeding the flames.

[Moondancer]

Combat Handguns - like it and read it cover to cover.
American Handgunner - love the pictures. Love the Ayoob Files. There isn't enough other articles that interest me to keep me buying.
Shooting Times - haven't bought one since Skeeter died.
Guns & Ammo - haven't bought one since the Survival column was axed (or did the author die; I can't remember which).
Never bought enough of the others to know if I liked 'em or didn't.

Since you have this question in the Handguns: General Discussion forum I assume you are interested in our preferences in magazines having to do with handguns.

[mec]

The Guns and Ammo Survival guy could have been Dr. Mel Tappin. He wrote a book titled " Survival Guns" and was very informative and entertaining. He did die at least a couple of decades ago. The book is hard to find now.

[22luvr]

for one year. They do not advertise and their tests give little margin for error. If the example they are testing has any sort of mechanical malfunction, they just flat give it a "don't buy" rating. Love'em or Hate'em, but the folks at GUN TESTS don't seem to have an agenda beyond giving the most unbiased test results they can.

[C. H. Luke]

Combat Handguns & Handguns mags.

[Ironbarr]

I was asked to check out S.W.A.T. since it has a new owner and motif. Trouble is, I can't find it anywhere where I live.

Has anybody any opinions on S.W.A.T.??

[CB900F]

Fella's;

I have the best of both worlds. I don't buy any gun magazines, don't have to. Get the American Rifleman with my NRA membership & that's the closest I come to buying. But ooohhh yes I do read them. 'Cause my long tall, cool lookin, brunette, female type barber, with the softest touch this side of fantasy land, stocks her waiting rack with Guns, Field & Stream, Sports Illustrated, Hot Rod, etc. Gee, most of her clientel is male & most don't mind reading or just watching her cut hair.

And no, selfish pig that I am, I'm not going to wait for a cut any longer than I have to.

900F