I get them both but I prefer Handguns by G&A.

I voted other, they are:
1. Combat Handguns
2. American Handgunner

Neither.

I find AH annoyingly cliquish, what with the silly man-love thing between Clint Smith and Mike Venturino and the editor. The sole exception is John Taffin. Mas Ayoob mainly recycles his stuff.

Handguns is mainly amateurish. The exception is Dave Spaulding, who is a great source of innovative info.

Gun magazines are three months behind the latest news because of publication lags, beholden to advertisers, recycle their articles every few years, and try to create controversy where there is none. Bah humbug.

Originally Posted by Mike Barham

Neither.

I find AH annoyingly cliquish, what with the silly man-love thing between Clint Smith and Mike Venturino and the editor. The sole exception is John Taffin. Mas Ayoob mainly recycles his stuff.

Handguns is mainly amateurish. The exception is Dave Spaulding, who is a great source of innovative info.

Gun magazines are three months behind the latest news because of publication lags, beholden to advertisers, recycle their articles every few years, and try to create controversy where there is none. Bah humbug.

What he said. Handguns is really just "editorial advertising" for the companies that buy their ads. AH needs a copy editor; they are nearly illiterate. After all this time, they still haven't figured out the difference between "discreet" and "discrete."

None. Gun mags have too many ads, not enough articles, and the limited amount of articles are pretty much useless. IMHO of course.

Originally Posted by Todd

None. Gun mags have too many ads, not enough articles, and the limited amount of articles are pretty much useless. IMHO of course.

+1
plus how many articles do we need on the 1911?

James

I guess I'll disagree with the consensus here.

I can see that after a few years the mags may become redundant. However, for someone that is new to handguns, doesn't know a clip from a magazine, didn't know that 1911's are made by anybody other than Colt, then they can be educational.

As pointed out by others, they certainly do little more than provide a showcase for the gun manufacturers. They are NOT a Consumers Report for handguns.

Still, once you accept that, they can be educational, and begin to give the newbie the lay of land.

Someone new to handguns doesn't know that articles or topics are being recycled. So what if they are? It lets us newbies begin to see what the issues are around handgun ownership.

So, if you go to SHOT show, if you work in the industry, if you've read the mags for years, then yeah, they are probably worthless.

If you are fresh to handguns, they are a decent beginning.

WM

+1 WM

I attempted to answer the question rather than trash the Magazine Industry and I wholeheartedly agree with you WM.

I am not new to guns but also don't have all the answers about them. The older I get the more I realize I don't have all the answers. Now my Grandson does have all the answers and won't realize otherwise for a few years. Most of us can flip past the adds and glean what we consider usefull. Should we find a magazine to not meet our expectations we simply don't need to buy it. Those of us not setting in the board room of S&W, Ruger, Colt etc just might find 3 month old info as rather fresh info.

IMHO

Of course, the question wasn't "Which gun magazine is best for beginners?" or "Are gun magazines good for beginners?" I'd have answered those questions differently.

I have this neat little thing called the... internet.

I do most of reading online. I've learned more from reading information online than any other source. Although I will sit down and read the "Rifleman" that the NRA sends me "free" every month.

I don't have an internet connection next to the "throne" yet...

Therefore, it's full of any magazine with a pistol on the cover...

Grated, most are info-tisements, but you get to look at all the pretty pictures and dream of new toys... And like most objects of subjective opinion... read 4 articles on the same gun, from four authors, and you'll find the common ground most resembling the truth.

Jeff

Originally Posted by JeffWard

read 4 articles on the same gun, from four authors, and you'll find the common ground most resembling the truth.

I guess that depends on how many back cover ads the gun in question appeared on.

I get them all. Because of all the great forums, the mags seem to present "old" news and many of the writers are simply recycling old material. There is one exception...GUN TESTS, which I have been getting for years. They have no advertising as they rely solely on subscriptions. They honestly evaluate everything that shoots, make comparisons and give grades.

Combat H. for me.

Combat Handguns and SoF for me... I disagree about mags having too many adds, the cheesy adds are half the reason I enjoy SoF as much as I do.

Hanguns by Guns & Ammo for me thank you very much.
Scott

Originally Posted by Alaskan_Viking

the cheesy adds are half the reason I enjoy SoF as much as I do.

How do you tell the cheesy ads from the cheesy articles in Soldier of Fiction?

the problem i have with G&A and G&A TV on the outdoor channel is that they sure seem to push S&W guns all the time

they just come across too biased too often IMHO

Originally Posted by hideit

the problem i have with G&A and G&A TV on the outdoor channel is that they sure seem to push S&W guns all the time

they just come across too biased too often IMHO

Take note of how many pages of ads S&W pays for each month.

I agree with WM. I am still relatively new to the Gun world, so I find everything very interesting. They never seem to answer anything specific though. I guess this is why I have you people.

I've pretty much stopped buying gun rags. I'll get an Annual (wish book) for the info on features and prices, but that's about it. I do check the offerings to see whether there's a write-up on a model that interests me, but I haven't bought any in quite a while.
I voted "Other".

Being a newbie, I find Combat H/G interesting. While I do get more info fm the internet and a couple of newsletters I belong to, I find the columns helpful. The articles on the guns themselves seem to be all the same; although there is an article on the Cobra derringer in the latest issue. Is Soldier of Fortune still around? Wow, that's a long running mag.

Hmmmm. It's not exclusively a "handgun" mag, so it doesn't fit the question perfectly. But it does address most of the gun mag criticisms in this thread. Gun Tests. Articles on the high end stuff interests me least, since the most expensive gun I've ever purchased (ignoring the influence of inflation) was my recently acquired $525 Glock 20. And that price was mostly covered by trade, not cash. Of course, I almost always buy used too. But the mag has picked many of the lower-priced guns as best buys or even best of the bunch. And they don't do ads.

Gun Tests is best.

American Handgunner and G & A Handguns are both very good handgun magazines but I voted for American Handgunner because I like the personal, non P.C, no B.S. way they answer thier letters to the editor section. They don't pull any punches. Both have good articles.
Nobody asked, and I really love the NRA, but American Rifleman seldom has articles in it that I really can relate to.