Thread: What gun mags do u read?

Don't read any. Too many damn ads. I hit this forum and a few others and the internet in general for info.

American Rifleman but only because it comes with my NRA membership. Does have some pretty good articles occasionally.

I think gun magazines can be an "okay" introduction to shooting for a newbie, especially one who doesn't have a shooting mentor to feed him basic info. However, at some point it becomes apparent that the reader knows more than the writers. When I reached that point, I gave up reading them. I think that has probably happened to a lot of guys on the forum.

Three other things about the gun rags:

1. They recycle articles with regularity. Combat Handguns is especially notorious for this, but they all do it to some degree. In 2007 you still see crap like "Auto vs. Revolver Shootout!" and "9mm vs. .45 - Best for Defense?" Stuff like this just isn't subject to much debate among really serious shooters, and hasn't been for, oh, two decades or so. If you read gun rags for more than a couple of years, you will find yourself spending money on recycled material, and I don't mean the paper.

2. They are beholden to their advertisers. They make way more money from advertising than from subscriptions, so you will seldom see an honest review of anything, even a poor product. Everything reviewed will be glowingly stated to be more or less perfection. Look for weasel phrases like "accurate enough for its intended purpose," "the malfunctions weren't attributable to the pistol," and other such garbage. Reading between the lines will tell you a lot.

3. As a corollary of (2), some (though certainly not all) writers are completely for sale. I say that as a guy whose civilian job is in the shooting industry, and I have experienced the prostitution first hand. You'd probably be shocked at the low price charged for a good review. That said, there are still excellent guys like Dave Spaulding writing for gun rags. Any article by Dave, John Taffin and a few others is worth the price of admission. I note that some very excellent writers have dropped out of the gun rag business over the years. I am not sure it's an integrity thing, but I suspect it may be.

Basically, look at the pretty pictures, but take the information in gun magazines with a very large grain of salt.

Mike,

Thanks for the info. I am pretty much in the position you stated at first, I do not really have anyone to "show me the ropes" so to speak. I like them for general articles and to see what is out there. I do have some friends and a Brother-in-law that know quite a bit about guns, but are not readily available to me. I see stuff in the mags and then ask them or now I will ask on here, as this seems like a great place thus far.

Thanks again and I will keep the salt shaker handy.

t

Here in the swamp we don't read a lot but the pictures are good to look at. We cut the pictures out of a fancy gun and hang them in the shed. Some of them smiling picture we tack to a tree and at twenty feet we bet on who can part their hair.

Originally Posted by samskara

American Rifleman but only because it comes with my NRA membership. Does have some pretty good articles occasionally.

I used to read the gun mags. I got tired of the 1911 articles in EVERY issue.
regards
J

I suscribe to Gun's and Ammo and American Rifle (with NRA membership). I'll look at others at the book store and buy one if I find intresting articles.