Recommend a good gun magazine to read

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Tiomoid

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So, I've been reading Guns and Ammo for a few years now along with various other magazines that I pick up at the gun shop from time to time.

Lately I've been getting fairly depressed with the quality of these magazines, including dear old G&A. It seems that all of these mags are merely a giant advertisement for various companies. I have yet to see a negative review of any tested product, or what I would call an unbiased article.

Does anyone have any recommendations of a publication that IS unbiased? I understand that they are running a business and if you bash a brand it probably won't want to advertise with you but still....
 
Best I have found.

Hey There:
Rifle and Handloader From Wolfe Publishing.
Not on the store shelf....

The writers are better then G&A and most of the others out there.
 
American Rifleman from the NRA is great.
I sure wish the NRA mags included something more towards defensive weapons overall though.
 
Guns & Ammo, Shooting Times, and Shotgun News are all under the same ownership now, and they use the same folks writing the same stuff in different ways in all three publications. Even the American Rifleman is using some of the same stuff from the same people on occasion.

If I read one more test of a $3,000 dollar Ed Brown 1911 I'm going to scream!

Oh for the days of Skeeter Skelton, Elmer Keith, Jeff Cooper, Rick Jamison, and others writing for them!!!

Presently, Handloader & Rifle mags, with an occasional Handguns and Gun List thrown in are IMO, the best.

rc
 
For reading honest reviews about shotguns, and having some real shotgun eye candy, Shooting Sportsman gets my vote.

I also previously subscribed to G&A, ST and others when the scrip ran less than 10/year. And as mentioned, they never met a gun they didn't like. The articles were boringly repetitive, predictable and the actual quality of the published rag itself went downhill.
 
You may be looking for gun tests magazine.
http://www.gun-tests.com/

It is like consumer reports, no outside advertising to color reviews. Anyone who sells advertising is colored by it in their editorial choices and reviews, present company included. The thing is that today we are in the golden age of firearms and very few bad guns are being made. Ten years ago you could spend $1000 on a 1911 that stovepiped on the second round, with roundball.
 
I like reading Guns & Weapons for Law Enforcement. I mostly just read it for the eye candy though. Their reviews aren't very in depth and I don't think I've read a bad review yet. You can find better information about a firearm with 10 minutes of internet research than you ever could in any magazine though, so that's not a surprise. They do have some neat articles about tactics for hand to hand, controlling bad guys, etc., and Massad Ayoob writes regularly for the magazine, so it definitely has it's pluses.

In the end though, G&W for LE just features more nice-to-look-at tactical weapons and gadgets than the other rags so that's why I prefer reading it.
 
I too got away from Guns & Ammo when my subscription ran out.
American Rifleman from NRA & American Handgunner. AH is every 2 months but one good Mag & it is a lot of articles. The Ayoob File there is worth a lot.

My .02cents & some think it worth about half that.
 
Rifle and Handloader are now about where Guns & Ammo was when I started reading the gunzines in the 1960s. Old Shooting Times was good, too. Everything has been dumbed down with feature articles that read like gun company press releases.

I take American Rifleman as an NRA benefit and subscribe to American Handgunner, but that is about it, these days.

I read a friend's Precision Shooting. It is not always directly related to my needs, but it is deep enough to be interesting.
 
If you are a rifle shooter, Precision Shooting is pretty good. Shooting Illustrated from the NRA is another good one. I'm with RC, if I see another D*&m review of a $3000 1911 (or another $2500 AR) I'm going to lose it... As a guy that doesn't own a 1911 OR an AR15 and doesn't want one, it really cuts down the time it takes for me to read a shooting mag. Small Caliber News used to be an awesome publication, they have gone out of business unfortunately :(
 
I don't care much for G&A anymore but I still get it because they keep giving me 2 years for $10 total. Heck, for $5 a year I'll read it. I think AR is pretty good. Shooting Times stinks except they reprint the old Skeeter Skelton articles which are absolutely fantastic. A bunch of people seem to like Gun Tests. I've never read it but I'll have to check it out. American Handgunner seems to have some really good photography but I don't buy it often because the cover price is too high.

The one thing lacking in most articles is depth. I would really like to see more detailed information and more detailed close-up photos of the guns and their individual parts.
 
Precision Shooting (ones from past decades are still relevant and interesting)
SWAT (worth a read as long as pat rogers is writing for them)
 
I think The High Road is as good as any mag out there.
Click to expand...

definitely, but you can't take it to the bathroom (unless you have an iphone or something)
 
You need a new laptop battery Taliv. :)

I have to say that I get all the print mags (I have advertised so they comp you) and they just stack up unread. But I do read this.
 
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