Bloated YouTube reviews?

To me, it's very hard to get much of anything out of most gun reviews, particularly of most modern guns. What am I going to learn from watching someone else shoot a [polymer service pistol here]? I've long since given up on them.

Same here.

Lots of folks on the internet just seeking confirmation bias. And it's not as though I need any more guns ...

I just don't care anymore. I'm at the point in my life where I want to experience things myself, not just watch other people doing stuff ...

Video games seem silly to me as well.

I don't have a whole lot of faith in the reviews from youtubers who post reviews of products almost everyday. They cannot possibly have used the product enough to make a review that is meaningful. At least some of the people who do this are upfront about it and don't try to claim they used the product all that much.

I must admit I get a kick out of the guys reviewing outdoor products that put up camouflage tarps as backdrops while reviewing products in their backyards. I am not sure if they are trying to fool people into thinking they are out in the woods or what. I also get a kick out of the axe and hatchet reviewers who show themselves using them in horribly unsafe ways.

personally, I would prefer a 5 or 10 minute review that hilites a product rather than a mushy 30 minute paid commercial. The paid reviews seem to have gotten out of hand.

ilbob said:

I don't have a whole lot of faith in the reviews from youtubers who post reviews of products almost everyday. They cannot possibly have used the product enough to make a review that is meaningful.

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And there is a lot of validity to this sort of concern, be it on YouTube, in a gun rag, or from your neighbor down the street. Nothing beats holding and shooting the gun yourself and seeing what you do and don't like about it.

However, what some of the reviews can shed light on, if they are accurate and honest, is how well the guns worked, issues, concerns, etc.

The problem is that reviews are often full of all sorts of biases, even by folks who claim not to be biased. The trick of the consumer is to look for patterns in reviews to find the information the consumer wants that will help make a better purchase decision.

YouTube is stupid, ignorant and never to the point! Just a bunch of know it all's who love to hear themselves talk with ranting!

Jared Campbell said:

YouTube is stupid, ignorant and never to the point! Just a bunch of know it all's who love to hear themselves talk with ranting!

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there are some honest reviewers. but you are right about many of the professional reviewers.

I appreciate the guys who will just upfront state they have not really used the product and that what they are saying is based on their first impressions. after all, that is what most of us essentially do when we look at a product for the first time. The guys who pontificate about whether the grind on a knife is better than some other grind for some purpose annoy me. I can't tell all that much difference between the performance of one grind against another for most tasks for most knives. and most people use their knives for a variety of tasks so a grind that is slightly better for one task probably makes it slightly less better for some other task.

You Tube to me, is what the History Channel was back in the good old days. Lots of content I actually want to watch. When I was younger, I wanted everything on TV to be a firearms education type of show. Tales of the Gun was great.

Now I can watch gun shows all the time. Even Tales of the Gun.

A recent iraqveteran8888 vid on an older S&W 29 DX prompted me to buy a similar 629 Classic Champion from a friend of mine. I like those kind of vids. I know others out there like seeing the most recent thing but I like watching vids on revolvers, lever guns, and double shotguns.

I never waste more than a minute on a YouTube video. If I can't find what I am interested in a minute by dragging the scroll bar across I just move onto another video.

They really need to have a setting so I can make all YouTube videos start at the 1 minute mark... so I can automatically skip all that fancy logo, introduction and self grandizing cr@p.

And a navigation bar so I can click on a part of a table of contents and jump to the part of the video I am interested in. And you should be able to not only link to a specific video but also link to a particular time in a specific video.

<<click>> summary portion of video.

I guess I need to start my own video hosting sight called meTube and blow YouTube out of the market!

I like hickock45 but I haven't seen a single one of his videos that couldn't be cut down to a half or third the time and be just as informative. I generally avoid hickock45 videos any more... there is just too much bs to wade through before he says something I am interested in.

ilbob said:

I don't have a whole lot of faith in the reviews from youtubers who post reviews of products almost everyday. They cannot possibly have used the product enough to make a review that is meaningful. At least some of the people who do this are upfront about it and don't try to claim they used the product all that much.

I must admit I get a kick out of the guys reviewing outdoor products that put up camouflage tarps as backdrops while reviewing products in their backyards. I am not sure if they are trying to fool people into thinking they are out in the woods or what. I also get a kick out of the axe and hatchet reviewers who show themselves using them in horribly unsafe ways.

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I agree! This is why most of the "professional" review sites are completely worthless... they have never lived with the product.

Personally I find Hickock 45 very entertaining. I just like the guy, seems really down to earth.

YouTube is garbage!

Some are interesting, some informative, some comical and some that have down right weird freaks. Those two guys that look like they escaped from some Romanian commune or mental facility. Cannot remember the names. One looks like Manson and the other guy has a Hitler style hair cut, only fat and blond. They look like they did "Vape" video reviews before they decided that did not work and now review old rifles that they like to thrown in the dirt. One guy is named Karl, and I forget the fat slop with the Hitler hair cut. I think his name is Ivan or something.

Happens with real life people too. I've mastered the "I'm really interested in your mouth movement" look.

MikeInOr said:

They really need to have a setting so I can make all YouTube videos start at the 1 minute mark... so I can automatically skip all that fancy logo, introduction and self grandizing cr@p.

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Lol, then all that would be at the1 minute mark.

Yep, 20 minutes of blah, blah, with some music I likely don’t like etc.

That said, if you started at the one minute mark on most of mine, it would just take you to the next video suggestion.

Most often request from my over 500 subscribers or from the one 250,000 views are folks want longer videos.

I guess I video like a teacher told me to write long ago. Make it like a good dress, long enough to cover the subject but short enough to keep it interesting.

Yeah, an instructor these days would be fired has she said the same thing today but most of my videos are 2 minutes or less, with no BS.

Odd to me that the most viewed video I have (over 38,000) is 2:07 long, I imagine because it had lots of key details packed into such a short time that others don’t point out, so it’s shared the most.

It certainly isn’t my cell phone camera skills, videography, sound, etc, just “meat and potatoes.



To keep it somewhat gun related, thats the template I cut the 1” plate steel samples I shoot with the 50 BMG.

Most people think you’re lying when they see something that looks like this with no grinding and tell them it was cut with a 101 type hand torch, with a simple machine.

If I'm interested in a particular handgun I'll go to YT for a review. Regarding reviews I usually read what other viewers have said and if I see enough negative comments I'll go to another review. BTW, I really like Hickock45 because, as others have said, he's not fancy or a showoff, he just presents a down to earth review but his isn't the only review that I'll watch. As far as YT, I've learned a lot of useful information from YT (not necessarily gun related) so I'm glad it's there.

Jared Campbell said:

YouTube is garbage!

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Some of it is, for sure. So is some of THR.

YouTube is a wealth of information for DIYers.

YouTube is full of bad videos. Pick the producers you like and ignore the ones you don’t.

Or ignore YT completely.

I can read faster than I can listen to someone talk in a Youtube video, thus I don't get annoyed with the content, but rather take with a grain of salt the very notion that someone who does that sort of thing for fun will do it to my tolerances for brevity and clarity.

Not many I like, one I do like is Sootch00. I want info on a pistol. I want to see it broken down, what the sights look like, the grip, maybe a little history of the gun etc. He does a great review and always seems Honest, likable man. I love Hickcock45, just fun to watch him shoot and Love the "compound".

I do love this vid.

Glock, Glock, M&P, Just kidding, Glock, Glock, Glock.

If I am interested in a firearm I read about it on sites like THR. Then I go out to a rental range or a gun store and put my hands on one.

I used to go look at YouTube but I got sick and tired of the hand model wannabes and the guys that think they have a clue.

As for Hickok 45 I think he’s a nice guy. I have watched other popular YouTube channels but for most videos when they start shooting I lose interest. I too could be a primo marksman through video editing...

Old Dog said:

Video games seem silly to me as well.

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Don't me get started. My son has, for years watched youtube videos of strangers' video game screens. He doesn't actually play the games himself. From what I gather from my students, it's a popular pastime. For Gen Z.

DB, my boy does the same thing, can't understand it either.
I have fun doing the few videos I put up. There is always someone who doesn't like the added music I use i some of them, some love it. Some hate the intro, others don't mind - I did it for the fun of it. I'm not monetized by any means, and usually I try to not gab TOO long, and prefer to show the firearm actually cycling from several angles and shooting steel for that audible feedback for the watcher that even a lousy shot like me can use X pistol/rifle to hit something at Z distance. If nobody wants to watch, no worries, it's for fun, entertainment, (like the lint "torture"t est ones ), and a brief overview on what it is I am showing to anyone who might be interested. In my last video I used still pictures in the first part due to filming restrictions, then move to video for the last part of the session, because I have to use a public range, and I don't want to bug other shooters if I can help it. The one thing I AM irked about is I misplaced my expensive windproof microphone and the last vid has some seriously annoying wind noise for about two lines of dialogue.
As for what I will watch, Forgotten Weapons is top, InRange, (same guys), is next, and that's about it. I used to watch Hickock45, (saw him at SHOT 2015), but not lately.

Edit to add - if you hate intros, mine is 30 seconds, skip all you want.

armoredman said:

I did it for the fun of it.

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I think this spells out everything that used to be right, and now is wrong, with youtube. When YT first got started, it was a hobby. It was people showing themselves doing things they liked. Then, somewhere along the line, someone tried to make it a job. YT should not be your job. There a little kids in my family (1st and 2nd graders) who want to be youtubers when they grow up.

I'm sorry, but I have a really difficult time crying for these gun channels who have been "demonetized." This never should have been their career in the first place. Get a real job to make ends meet, then do videos in your spare time. 96.5% of "youtubers" make less than the national poverty line.

(http://fortune.com/2018/02/27/youtube-success-poverty-wages/)