Not trying to be a wise guy....but

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Bill_G

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has Gunblast ever had a negative review on a product? Im not trying to knock them (or praise them).....just trying to judge how reliable they are in their reviews.

Your opinion?

thanks.............Bill
 
My opinion, I think that the firearms reviewed are selectively chosen on behalf of the authors personal interest. I think his reviews are honest and accurate and I enjoy the site. Call it coincidence, but I seem to have an active interest in most of the guns reviewed on the site.
As far as reviews are concerned, If I have it in my head I want it, I will find a way to get it and find out for myself. Except for a BM-59 of course, I am still figuring out how to add one to my collection.
 
Bill, in 30 plus years of reading the gun rags, I've seen exactly one article that didn't praise the firearm as the best thing since the proverbial sliced bread. It was about the HK VP-70, by Cooper, as I recall. He called it a jam-o-matic. Mind you, the HK VP-70 started out as a machine pistol. FA with a shoulder stock.
Quit reading them long ago. A lot of that has to do with Canadian prices. $10 + with taxes. They're not worth that much money. Hard to find too.
The gun rag writers are taken on free hunting trips, etc. by their magazine's advertisers. They can't risk losing their advertiser's money. The gun rags have become nothing but written infomercials.
 
Being honest with myself...

I trust the opinion of people with track-records on internet gun forums regarding guns and equipment FAR more than I trust anything I read bound on a newstand.

I am a firm believer in "follow the money and find the crime." Objectivity is suspect in the rags.

My ONLY exception to this thusfar is Zak Smith. I'll buy one (and I NEVER buy one on its own merit) if I see that he has an article in it.

But Zak spends a good amount of time on THR and AR15.com giving his honest thoughts about firearms and equipment. Hell, he helped me via PMs through an costly optics decision a while back.

So...

Gun rag reviews? No.
Zak? Yes.

:)


-- John
 
It was about the HK VP-70, by Cooper, as I recall. He called it a jam-o-matic.
Click to expand...

Hey, I've got a VP-70, and it is NOT a jam-o-matic. There are about four other reasons to hate it, but not because it jams! Cooper was an egotistic tool with the best of them, but if that's what he had to say about the VP-70, he missed the boat entirely. But honestly, anyone want to buy a VP-70? I've got one on offer...

As to Quinn and Gun Blast, that's a frequent comment - he/they rarely find anything wrong with the guns they are given. Emphasis on "given." As far as most of us can tell, they like to keep the free stream of guns coming. If you want an honest opinion of a gun, internet forums are your best bet - just filter out the raving reviews from those who just bought it and/or only own that gun.

THR is the best resource for gun reviews, bar none. Yes, you have to filter out the idiots, but that's not too hard for the thinking person.
 
It's about making money. The gun and accessory manufacturers advertise in these magazines and advertising is where much of the revenue comes from. These guys are not going to bite the hand that feeds them by saying anything negative about a product that they test.
 
I think a decent purse could be made by an enterprising gun enthusiast, by establishing a 'consumer reports' style magazine for firearms. Nonprofit organization, Purchase anonymously all weapons tested, and run through a standardized battery of tests as well as publish the informed opinions of firearms testers/experts insofar as the handling and feel of the weapon.
 
There is a "Consumer Reports" magazine out there called "Gun Tests" that takes no advertising and buys their guns over the counter and tests them as they find them. I've been subscribing since 1989 and find it useful. You may not agree with their conclusions, but they say why they rated the gun the way they did and can use their data for your own decision. The biggest complaint that I have ever read is when somebody's favorite noisemaker gets a poor rating.
 
I believe Jeff Quinn never handled or shot a gun he didn't like. I think he is somewhat selective in what guns he tests and writes reviews on however. I don't believe they get to keep the guns as some suggest although they may purchase them at a much discounted rate. That is true of many of the outdoor writers. They get prices less than dealer cost and it comes straight from the manufacturer.

I have no problem with following the money. Some magazines take great exception to hinting that their reviews are biased. I would too if I were them.

The recent articles on the Ruger LCR is another one... hmm, does it slice bread too? Then Ruger has a recall about 6 months down the road. :)
 
I did see Quinn blast a SW Model 60 3" Target not too long ago. Said it was so inaccurate that he would not be tempted to take it afield. He was sent another 60 and retested. The new example was accurate.
 
I really like Gunblast even though I recognize they lean toward favorable reviews and always seem to produce targets most mortal men could never duplicate.
 
I would think that if a writer really disliked a gun he wouldn't want to waste the effort testing it.... and if he wanted to maintain good relations with the maker, he could deliver his negative review privately, and just deprive the maker of the good publicity of a favorable review.

Besides, there is something good to say about any gun that goes bang, if it is fairly priced for its function.
 
I remember thinking the same thing, so I spent a few hours reading through a bunch of the reviews.

The only negative thing I remember seeing, was a bash on some higher-end 1911 manufacturers because they wouldn't send him guns for testing.

I know these guys gotta "scratch some backs", but that just rubbed me the wrong way.
 
Yeah, but that Patrick Sweeney hack just loves to shoot extreme shock ninja ammo and never has anything negative so say about it either. Despite the manufacturer's claims that their bullets violate the laws of physics.

They really bring their integrity into question when they print stuff like this.

/Gun rags are just advertisements full of lies.
 
Gunblast is great. Ya they like Ruger (LOL if you couldn't tell) but I feel their reviews are good. They are telling you what to like about the gun, not what is crappy. I find there reviews on the money, and Ruger is a rock solid company that gets a lot of my business so im a little biased towards em.:D
 
If you read reviews very carefully, you will begin to hear the difference in tone between the praise for a favored gun and a flat, factual review of an unfavored one. For example, if you read Jeff Quinn's review of the KelTec Sub-2000, you will see that he says it works OK, but he doesn't really see the point. He starts off by saying he didn't get around to shooting it for a while because it didn't interest him.

Chuck Hawks at Guns & Ammo blasts "Eurotrash" styling. Hardly a favorable comment.

There is a guy who reviews boat designs for a boating magazine who revealed that when his review contains a long anecdote about what someone did somewhere, it means he didn't like the boat. Reviewers in all sports have to figure a way to get to the bottom of the column without saying an advertisers product is crap, preferably without actually lying.
 
I read a book about hobby rags a while back. It was just as you suspected, the advertisers give the writers a pile of X product and a pile supplies and tell them they'll be back in 6 months to collect. The writers are just that... writers. They wouldn't know a good or bad product if it hit them between the eyes.

These writers may work on 10 different magazines a month put out by the same publisher. A chopper magazine, a wine magazine, a gun magazine, and a ski boat magazine.... Whatever hobbies are hot that they can sell a magazine describing. That's where the girls in bikinis come in. You never have to show the device in action if you can simply get a pretty girl to pose with it. They have to do this becasue of the price of bulk magazine paper. You have to use a certain amount of paper every month in order to get the volume discount. If choppers are really hot then one publisher might have 3 competing chopper mags on the same news stand. Same for guns or anything else.

The only articles you can believe are by the guys that don't accept advertising money. That's why internet forums are such a hit. They're honest.
 
eye5600, are you referring to Bob Perry? I don't subscribe to that mag anymore but I liked his stuff....
 
The picture on the website of Jeff Quinn with his finger on the trigger of a Winchester says a lot about his credentials!
 
I met Bob Perry at the US Sailboat show in Annapolis, once, for a couple minutes. Interesting man. Thanks, eye, I'll look it up.

I liked sailing but it's less practical than shooting. And guns, expensive as they can become, are a lot cheaper than sailboats.
 
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