Customer Reviews

Gun Tests

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I've subscribed several times and allowed my subscription to lapse each time... Why, well to be blunt; several of the testers (no names are given) are strongly biased. Biased and prejudiced to the point where they ignore their magazine's own rules of whether a gun is a "buy now" or "don't buy". These testers poison the valid and fair tests the other authors put firearms through. I have seen reviews where the tester resorted to extreme nit picking just to find a reason to declare a worthy firearm a "not buy", and ignore the substantial faults of a lesser firearm so they can declare it a "buy now". So every few years I resubscribe hoping the firearm bigots have moved on...

Now that this is understood, there is no other organization, publication or otherwise, that I know of, providing any even remotely similar function or service. These authors come across as normal people you'd meet at the range and for that matter reflect a very similar set of attitudes in their broad range of opinions and attitudes. (e.g. John loves anything that shoots, Joe over there loaves anything that shoots so long as it has Savage on the action, Theodore over there is the pickiest shooter I've ever met...). So Gun Tests has no, or almost none, of the platitudes so prevalent in the industry and as can be read in Gun Tests; not every gun is a great functional and accurate firearm. The testers buy their guns at local stores (instead of having them shipped to them or provided otherwise by the manufacturers) Some of the results and "brand new in the box" shopping experiences they uncover can be alarming and should receive national attention.

So subscribe, grit your teeth when you run headlong into an author's prejudices, nod your head when a tester describes accurately something you've discovered yourself, read between the lines if necessary *even the biased reviews are worth reading) and learn the gritty truth behind many of our fine firearms. If I could've I would have given five stars to the magazine, but two stars to individual tester articles.

Its more of a newsletter than a magazine - straight forward, black and white graphics, about 30 pages long and very well written. The only resource I've seen so far that doesn't love every gun it reviews like the more common gun magazines do. Probably something to do with the fact that its not beholden to advertisers. They review handguns, rifles, carbines, and just about anything else including some shooting equipment. Their reviews might seem harsh to some, but the high standards of most gun manufacturers deserves for great guns to be separated from firearms that are merely very good. I don't think they do regular features on the best used guns like Consumer Reports reviews used cars for potential problems and this would be very useful if they did. Gun Tests is essential reading material for anyone who is interested in becoming a more enlightened firearms consumer.

Edit: The pictures are in color now, they did this after I wrote the original review.

No glossy photos. No hype. No quarry. No erectile-dysfunctional advertisements. This magazine is a serious, no nonsense review of the guns (handguns and long guns) new and used on the market. It's the only gun magazine that I keep all the back issues for reference.

Very thin but if you puchase one gun it could save you alot. Probably wont resubscribe.

These guys have some kind of scam going on.

I didn't order this publication but they sent me a review copy, then a bill, then another review copy, then another 2 bills.

I didn't pay the billing cause I never ordered the publication. They did not send any more publications either.

Today I get a collection notice from a collection agency, North Shore Agency, out of Columbus, OH.

This used to be a very good sourse of infomation without being paid

by the companies who make these guns. Now IMO they do not pick the

most owned guns. And they do not follow the owners book on how to

break them in. As per KAHR. You should fire about 200 rnds before

the KAHR's are broken in and ready to go. GT only shoots less than

that and writes who bad they are without shooting them till broken

in as per KAHR's owners book.

I asked for a free issue, liked the first issue. Subscribed for 2-years.

Now I am receiving collection agency notices. These are the serious notices; the ones you have to write a letter disputing the debt within 30-days, or they ding your credit and file for a judgement against you.

No magazine is worth having your credit trashed.

The enjoyment I received from this magazine is totally overcome by now having to deal with debt collectors. Worse that I am more than fully paid.

Great handgun coverage by a varied group of regular writers that covers the whole handgun spectrum, with a good price through Amazon.

The name of the magazine should be changed to the 1911 Handgun Review. A few good test but just too too much about the 1911 and its varieties.