WarMachine,
As you stated:
"I guess my feelings for the site came from some underlying bias that I had developed over the years from reading gun rags. I am sure that you have seen a trend of their love for most anything they test. I find it amusing when they have an advertisement for a gun they are reviewing in the same issue."
You Sir, are precisely right. This is the very reason that I started Gunblast 5 years ago. Most of the gun magazines have whored out to advertisers. I have learned a lot since starting Gunblast. Most manufacturers are shocked at first when I offer to review a product with no strings attached. I have had several, especially those young start-up companies trying to get exposure for a new product, tell me that they cannot get a review in a major magazine without taking out a large ad, but then they would be guaranteed a good review. This is just plain wrong. It is a disservice to both the manufacturer and the reader. We now receive in excess of 242,000 readers per day. Not "hits", but actual readers. Like you, they are tired of reading reviews that are written from advertising. They are just good, hardworking shooters who want the straight scoop. We also do not test prototype weapons, but insist upon an actual production gun. That is how every gun rag in the industry beat us by at least two years on a review of the new Ruger Gold Label side-by-side shotgun. I shot the weapon two years ago also, just like they did, but will not write a review without a production gun. Testing a gun at a writer's seminar, luncheon, and butt-kissing party is not the same as a gun off the line. Same with the New Vaquero. Shooting Times had a prototype for a review, but we were the first with an actual production gun review, beating the paper magazines by about two months. If sometimes I write an article that is particularly glowing, with me drooling over the gun, that is because I can't help it. Some guns are just that good.
And Sir, no apology is necessary. I understand how one can become very cynical from reading gun magazines. They ain't what they used to be.
Jeff Quinn
gunblast.com