Gun Magazine Bloopers

[PacketStorm]

I was just reading one of the local gun magazines at our local library and found one of those bloopers that you guys might appreciate.

The magazine just got a new pistol editor and he was being interviewed to share what he will be brining to the new position. He had a lot of experience and stated that the magazine will not be rubber stamping the big mfg. products and will fully evaluate the firearms and not use stock pictures, only photos from the test and evaluation.

A few pages later was an article about the new Glock 21 or Smith & Wesson M&P (sorry, I forget which). Right in the middle of the article photo showing the author holding the pistol. Well unless the article had switched to Sig Sauer pistols, a stock photo had slipped into the mix. Gotta love it.

I was wondering how hard it would be to find talented/qualified editors and graphics artists who also have an extensive firearms background for magazines such as those. I just flipped through the magazine in a few minutes and was able to spot the mistake. Not sure how the publication missed it.

Anyone else find funny blunders in the rags?

 

[whitetiger7654]

I was wondering how hard it would be to find talented/qualified editors and graphics artists who also have an extensive firearms background for magazines such as those.

Couldn't be that hard. You should see some of the gun photographers on the net. These "amatuers" take amazing pictures. Better than the ones in magazines.

 

[Zundfolge]

I was wondering how hard it would be to find talented/qualified editors and graphics artists who also have an extensive firearms background for magazines such as those.

As a graphic designer with both a lot of design experience and a good helping of Firearms experience I'll tell you the main reason why I've never worked for any gun magazines; They're all in California.

 

[Justin]

I'd telecommute to work on gun mags in Cali, but I wouldn't move there unless offered an obscene amount of money.

 

[220_Swift]

I used to have a few pics from gun mags I would definitely call bloopers. One was a pic of a bolt action rifle with the scope mounted backwards. The other was a pic of a writer firing a revolver. It had this massive ball of fire at the muzzle, and the hammer was still cocked.

 

[grampster]

220 swift,

Just goes to show you that your thumb is faster than a speeding bullet.

 

[Zundfolge]

...I wouldn't move there unless offered an obscene amount of money.

There's not enough money in ad sales AND subscriptions to come half way close to enough money to get me to move to the PRK.

 

[rcellis]

In this case the photo error could have slipped through during the change of leadership. Occam's Razor.

 

[armoredman]

Don't forget the famous HK company catalog, with a loaded magazine featured...ammo in backwards.

 

[220_Swift]

220 swift,

Just goes to show you that your thumb is faster than a speeding bullet.

I thought maybe it was one of those "Automatic revolvers" that are used so often in crimes, according to the media.

 

[Ghost Tracker]

It's often the responsibility of a less than "gun-savvy" Administrative Assistant to align the photos with the written copy, arrange the layout to match the page & place the advertising. While most of these details are supposedly checked by Editors & Art Directors it's my experience that the higher on the food chain your title gets you...the less "hands on" you actually are. The exceptions to these generalities are the Gun Mags we respect, buy & read the most. For instance, it's harder to find a publishing error in American Handgunner than it is to find in "less professional" magazines. But the news-stand cover price reflects that @ almost $6.

 

[cnorman18]

Don't EVER use a handload that you see in a magazine. I once ruined a .45 (and very nearly my face) by using a load that turned out to be 25% over max. If it ain't in the manual, don't use it.

That said, I've seen a lot more howlers on the Net than I've seen in magazines. There USED to be a guy on another forum who claimed to be a cop with umpteen years of training in various martial arts, lots of personal experience with combat, and an expert shooter and fighter. He recommended (among other things) that you leave your gun in the holster at close quarters and pull a knife; that "shooting to wound" is the best tactic; and--get this--he claimed that he had licenses to carry in more than a dozen states, some of which he had to take classes in those states to obtain. Of course, if were actually a cop, he could legally carry everywhere in the US already--and would have known that. After he was exposed, he mysteriously vanished.

 

[Jim Watson]

For instance, it's harder to find a publishing error in American Handgunner than it is to find in "less professional" magazines.

I do it every issue. The recent piece by Mike Venturino on the USFA .38 Super was a mass of regurgitated company press releases. A real hoot... if you did not make an expensive purchase decision and find you had bought a "reproduction" of a gun that never existed.

Mark Moritz once did an A.H. column ridiculing the errors in other gunzines. I would every once in a while send in a list of theirs and inquire why he did not fact check his own writers. I finally got back a letter from the editor to the effect that I was taking it too seriously, they were just having fun. Strange, that is what they told me when I pointed out the errors in the above USFA puff piece; just having fun.

 

[Ghost Tracker]

So. Mr. Watson, am I to guess that you don't consider AH more professional & less error-prone than say...Shooting Times? Do you have a favorite?

 

[Old Fuff]

Gun writers often have a specialty, in which they are very knowledgeable. However outside if it they may not be so sharp. Usually editors make assignments based on the writer's background, but I notice that lately some writers are getting assignments that are way outside their supposed field.

As for photographs, some magazines have professional photographers to do the principal work, while others require the writer to submit their own. Not all writers have graduated from the snapshot level.

The Old Fuff knows...

 

[Jim Watson]

Fuff,

That is almost EXACTLY what the editor of AH said about having a BPCR shooter write about an automatic pistol. They just have to depend on the manufacturer's information if they do not have anybody handy with actual knowledge.

As to centerfold guns, I also commented on a feature illustrated on one gun but not discussed in the article. Seems the one sent to Ichirio Nagata for pictures was equipped and the one actually shot was not.


Ghost,

I cannot say that I really have a favorite magazine any more, they are all pretty light entertainment. I subscribe only to A.H., Rifle, and Handloader; and those last two are not what they used to be. I have a letter from THEIR editor explaining that. Of course I get American Rifleman, which seems to be making a slight comeback. Slight.
I can look at old back numbers and learn from them; just not about current models.

 

[hankpac]

I stopped reading Guns and Ammo when a well-known gun writer there in wrote about the difference between bullets traveling faster and slower that he speed of sound. He was doing pretty good until he stated "...the subsonic bullet arrives unannounced..." I re-read that stement several times to make sure I didn't misread it.
Perpetuating myths rather than expanding knowledge, I can do without it.

 

[sacp81170a]

I still remember the SOF issue with someone on the front holding an M-16 with the ejection port on the left... someone got the negatives turned around or switched it to make it fit on the cover or something.

(This was several years ago, long before Stag, DPMS and others started offering left-handed models.)

 

[Ghost Tracker]

Yeah, flipping negatives for better "Page Continunity" has gone on since photos were first introduced to publishing. Art Editors & Graphic Layout types seem to worry little about the engraving or features being "mirror reversed" as long as the page "frames well".

And yeah Jim, I have to agree. Elmer Keith might have exaggerated at times...but he seldom got his S&W Model Numbers or calibers wrong. I've been reading these things for a while as well.

 

[Jim Watson]

Most of Elmer Keith's career, S&W didn't HAVE model numbers. Guns had names. What sounds better, Combat Masterpiece or Model 15?

I miss Jan Stevenson, Ray Ordorica, and Ed Harris in the 'zines. Henry Stebbins was before my time... but I have three of his books and a couple of Gun Digest articles that I treasure. I am not so sure about Phil Sharpe. He knew his stuff, no doubt about it, but he talked down to his readers. Not as bad as Ed Matunas, though.

 

[Matt King]

I don’t understand why anyone would subscribe to gun magazines, when THR is free.

 

[strat81]

I don’t understand why anyone would subscribe to gun magazines, when THR is free.

I can't leave THR behind in the seat pocket of a plane or take into the bathroom with me.

 

[Brad Johnson]

The other was a pic of a writer firing a revolver. It had this massive ball of fire at the muzzle, and the hammer was still cocked.

That's not a faux pas, it's the result of using fill flash and a very slow shutter speed (probably a half-second or longer). The shooter mounted the camera on a tripod, set the timer, and waited. As soon as the flash fired the shooter pulled the trigger. The fill flash caught the gun and shooter in the unfired state, then the muzzle flash "took it's own picture" as soon as the gun was fired.

Brad

 

[Matt King]

I can't leave THR behind in the seat pocket of a plane or take into the bathroom with me.

Wi-Fi!~

As for Airplanes, I would take a good book over a magazine.