I got my first subscription to a gun magazine 43 years ago, and I've seen an awful lot of BS printed as gospel, mostly to please a manufacturer or ten. I started with Guns & Ammo, later on found Shooting Times, Gun Tests, Petersen's Handguns, there was even one for a while called Handgun Quarterly, which came out six times a year. I still giggle over that.
Sometime during the Cameron Hopkins era, I found American Handgunner and GUNS, their sister publication. Ayoob was there, as was Mr. Petty, and there was a LOT of experience there, if not outright expertise. My subscriptions have never lapsed in the 20 years since, something that can't be said for the Super-shills, the gunzines that never met a piece of junk they didn't love.
I don't over-analyze the writing, I just try to hear what the writer is getting at without parsing it. Venturino is very open about how vacuous most articles are and why they have to be, given the restraints of their editors. Clint Smith has a lot of experience, and makes a good trainer, even if he's not Pulitzer material. No Big Deal, we're talking about guns and shooting here, not Shakespearean theater.
And Massad Ayoob is...........Massad Ayoob. I've been reading his stuff for what seems like 35 years, and it may actually be that long. I may not agree with everything he writes, but I find very few points that aren't well made and well-reasoned. The Ayoob Files is something I savor every 65 days, and I also have the book. There are LOTS of good lessons, for cops and civilians alike. He writes about something no one else even whispered about for a
long time.
Roy Huntington may not be Henry Luce, but I like him. He's genuine, passionate, and reminds me of a lot of the cops I've worked with. He doesn't pull punches with readers who send him hate mail over stupid stuff, and if there's something un-PC to be said, he's your man. And proud of that.
Connor writes some stuff I like, when he's talking about past "Excursions" or incidents in faraway places. Most of it includes a lesson, and a well-illustrated point. Some of his columns about equipment and toys are as dry and ponderous as reading Shooting Times cover to cover three times in a row. But when he's funny and/or poignant, he's VERY good.
As for being lied to..........no, never. Disparate opinions, yes. But nobody agrees with much I say, let alone ALL of it.
That's why we call them opinions.
Papajohn