What if YouTube gun channels were 100% honest?

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I run into the same dilemma doing T&E on knives and related products. Some are given to me and I'll write a report on the product and send it back with critique of it before releasing the public consumption critique. Most of the time I pay wholesale or even distributor. Upon rare occasion I pay street retail when I just can't wait to get my hands on something.

In all those cases work to be objective and to state my personal biases since I view the evaluation of products a service to the manufacturer and the public.
 
I have spoken with some YouTubers who advised that some of the companies refused to send test samples unless the YouTuber agreed to submit the video for review before publishing. That's something I would never agree to. I won't go out of my way to make a company look bad, but I won't cover up failures, either.
 
You have the mainstream "gun channels" that I personally take with a grain of salt. The best part of YouTube is the general public who posts videos on "their" guns. You have five different people who own the same gun. You usually get to see it fired and it's accuracy depending on the poster. Best of all the only bias is personal, they aren't getting anything for reviewing a gun they bought. Some are funny, some are over the top with informative, some are outright dangerous. The comment section makes for good reading. You will have people who have the same gun, people who are trolls and people who have genuine questions about said gun. It's one thing to read about a gun but it's quite another to see it in action. As for the mainstream "gun channels" , I'll watch them but it's kind of like the magazine article forum the other day. If someone say rips on the new Sig says something bad about it, then that's the last Sig they are going to get to test. The real information is from the people who actually spent their money on a gun. Just my two cents.
 
Excellent points. The internet has provided us a way to gather a great deal of data all at once. A little common sense and discretion can transform that data into information.
 
The videos I am most skeptical of are ballistic tests. While I give the shooter a lot of credit for going to the expense and trouble to make the gel the shooter will only fire one round into ballistic gel and then form their opinion on the performance of that one round.

Shooting The Bull Ammo Quest are professionally done and he usually fires five rounds into the block twice. One block covered with demin and another block not covered by anything. This testing gives us a better idea of average performance of the rounds he is testing. Personally as a result of his testing I switched to Hornady Critical Defense 115 gr. FTX for my short barrel 9mm's.

When I researching a particular gun I like to watch the different videos. Some use different testing methods and ammunition which gives another viewpoint. Some are just plain entertaining.

All in all though I consider the videos more creditable that articles in the gun rags.
 
That's a very good point. I do mostly gel tests and I do not collect a statistically relevant sample size. I actually mention that in this video.
 
Like an idiot I didn't watch your video and pretty much wrote a lot of what you had said in it. To pretty much reflect what you said there are channels where it's obvious that they are to put it bluntly are taking spiffs or outright payoffs from companies. That's where the comment section comes in handy. "It must of taken him 20 takes to get that POS to fire the whole mag without jamming". When you get a bunch of comments like that, you know that you want more info before even thinking about buying that gun. You also have to watch for people complaining about removed comments, a big red flag. Having read this forum for years but just starting to post, I wasn't about to mention any particular channel and am still not going to. I did watch some of the 10mm
ammo tests on your channel, I still have the "old" Black Talons in my Delta Elite and shoot one every now and then to make sure they are still good.
Anyway the Fer rent was pretty funny!
 
People make mistakes and misjudge things all the time, some by choice and some repeat what others have said. Anything above specifications are just opinions and we know what those are like.
I watch a lot of channels, but can only watch a certain few for long periods. I think Nutnfancy, Hickok45, Sootch00 and MAC are pretty honest people. I think nutnfancy is the best about being honest. You may not like his reasoning but he does not pull his punches.
 
TanklessPro said:
People make mistakes and misjudge things all the time, some by choice and some repeat what others have said. Anything above specifications are just opinions and we know what those are like.
I watch a lot of channels, but can only watch a certain few for long periods. I think Nutnfancy, Hickok45, Sootch00 and MAC are pretty honest people. I think nutnfancy is the best about being honest. You may not like his reasoning but he does not pull his punches.
Click to expand...
I like sootch00, but honestly I've NEVER seen him give anything a bad review.
 
Thanks chopinbloc. That was entertaining & made a point. To be honest there are some of the youtube channels I have more faith in that others. Usually even if a reviewer doesn't come right out & say they don't like a firearm there are often things they say that let you know that is the case. That is with the more honest reviewers anyway.

To be honest I like to watch Hickok 45 because it is fun. I can't sit through a nutnfancy video due to the fact that he bores me to tears.
 
I wish I could get some of the toys I see on gun channels, but my avenues are very limited. The guns you see me shooting on my You Tube channel, (very limited videos, I have a full time job that uses a lot of time), are all mine. :) The funny thing is when I get flak for my shooting ability by people who won't post video of themselves shooting. THAT'S always good for a giggle!
 
Who's been caught faking stuff?
Click to expand...

I can't name any names but one YouTube poster saw another YouTube poster experience multiple malfunctions on a gun and then report in his video that the gun was reliable.

Vickers did a video pimping Fireclean where they swapped ammo to fake a result.

http://bearingarms.com/fireclean-larry-vickers-rig-product-testing-video/

There's a ton of this going on, really, it's just rare that anyone can prove it.
 
He mentions the Yankee Marshal utube channel. In my opinion, Yankee Marshal is THE best utube gun channel out there. The dude is hilarious and knows his stuff.
 
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