In my experience many gun reviewers (at least those from the big name magazines) never give the unvarnished Trvth regarding the firearms they review. Even when I know that the firearm being reviewed is pretty much a piece of junk…the review reads…”there were some fire-integration issues. The review model model has not had it’s full 500 – 750 round break-in period and the frequent failures can be attributed to this…” or some other misdirecting gibberish, ie. “…the weather was not optimal for this particular firearm…” or “my bunions were acting up” or best of all, just glossing over, not mentioning, the glaring faults that almost every owner has encountered in that model.
Speaking of soft-sell, one of my shooting buddies picked up a Kimber .45 last week and brought it to the range. Granted that this was it’s inaugural voyage, however, it failed to get through a single mag full of factory ammunition in the first 50 rounds…there were numerous failures to feed and failures to lock into battery requiring an additional “tap” on the rear of the slide. On the bright side, the trigger was crisp as only a 1911 can be and the accuracy, when it did chamber and fire, was excellent. He asked if I was bringing more factory ball to the range this week to help him break it in as he is a “bit” short of .45 ACP at this time….not hardly, Pilgrim.
A friend of mine is an editor for one of the remaining dead-tree publications. He said the local distributor of Remington products said ANY negative comment about the products, INCLUDING the trigger issue, would result in immediate and permanent withdrawal of advertising.
OK, then, we won’t review any Remington products.
Happy now?
I had the same issue with my first 1911, a 4″ Kimber Pro Carry II. After about 50 to 75 rounds, it would start failing to go into battery, requiring a tap on the back of the slide. Very frustrating. A return to Kimber yielded no change. Polishing the ramp (which came covered with KimPro finish) yielded no change. Finally, at 1400 rounds or so, I replaced the recoil spring with one directly from Wolff (Kimber supposedly uses Wolff springs), and that finally fixed the problem.
Thanks for the heads-up…I’ll pass it along to my buddy. Do you remember what pound spring you ended up using? His model has a 5″ bbl.
I won’t buy an expensive gun like a Kimber….period. I have numerous low priced guns that work flawlessly.
One of the reasons I don’t own1911, was the poor experience I had with a Colt in the early 80’s. Close to 500 rounds I ran through the gun, and it would always suffer a FTF with every magazine I tried. In some cases, an FTF every 3rd/4th round. Sold that POS at the first opportunity., and I’ve never bothered looking at another 1911.
@BB
I sincerely hope that you have the opportunity to shoot a good, reliable 1911 some day. The trigger and natural pointability are amazing. I’ve shot Ruger’s SR1911’s and a number of Sig Sauer 1911’s and not been disappointed. Would like to try a truly high-end model from Wilson et al…if only some of my wealthier friends would buy one…or two.
Must have been abused or a flaw. My Colt Gold Cup was purchased used for $200 in excellent shape. I won several pistol matches with that gun and my own SWC reloads.
I have numerous other 1911s bought new in various brands, they all work. RIA, American Classic, Taurus….no problemo.
Mildly amusing, but I don’t really see it. If gun reviewers sometimes shoot X number of rounds without cleaning, lubrication, or maintenance, it makes sense because today’s shooters often don’t clean, lubricate, or maintain their guns (or their cars). If anything, some gunwriters seem more likely to shill for mediocre performance than to abuse guns or hold them to unrealistic standards.
Funny meme! Reminds me of a guy I knew in high school. Got his first car, was so excited. Did not know the first thing about maintaining a car. Did not know to check oil levels, especially in the beat-up buggies we could afford. Bad things happened. Had to pick him up at some shop just off the NJ Turnpike, south of what was then, exit 7A. Back then, it was mostly scrub pine and the New Jersey devil out there.
Don’t know what happened to that car. He just left it there on the Turnpike. The State Troopers found him.
Some of the YouTube reviewers are very hard on their test weapons. And take a lot of crap for it.
Those are the ones that can somewhat be trusted.
The ones in magazines? They can be great fiction.
The problem with YouTube is if the reviewer is getting guns from the manufacturer.
I like it when they test the gun to it’s limits w/o a bunch of edits.
I tell all my students, most guns will out shoot the shooter.
From the plate and the car I think it’s Eurotrash.
It might be a BMW. I’m surprised it made it off the lot.
OR
Look, the new Glocks are out!
Yeah but who doesn’t want to see a gun or car burst into flames from time to time? In youtubeland sometimes you got to destroy the gun to pay for it 🙂
So… WhistlinDiesel is a gun reviewer that tests trucks?
I was talking to a guy today about car wrecks we’ve had while intoxicated.
He had ran his truck into a pond. Quite drunk and stumbling the officer asked “Do you even know where your truck is at?”
His reply, ” I got tired of fishing from the bank.”
Thats funny ! I was fishing on the boat close to the landing one day a few years ago at blews creek. A guy pulled up with a brand new ford truck with 30 day tags and a brand new bass boat. He told his buddy to get in the truck and back him and the boat in. The truck was manual. The buddy knocks the truck out of gear and completely submerged the truck with the boat still attached and being pulled under in the front. Damnest thing i have seen in a while. That was a awful fight that they had afterward. I still laugh about it.
@jts
I’d pay a Dollar ($1 US) to watch that video complete with sound!
It is funny.
Looking at it seriously, though, I do think there is a reason for the difference between gun reviews and other reviews. As I used to tell my wife about airplanes “If the engine falls out of the car we’re already on the ground, and if the motor falls off the boat we’re still on top of the water, but if the engine falls off the airplane……………..” Some things have to work or you die, and some things can fail and you just call a tow truck.
“you know what’ll happen if that final, fourth engine fails, don’t you?”
“yup- we’ll be 4hrs late!”
brock yates was one to test a vehicles limits. what you see glocks and ak’s endure is impressive. best filed i suppose under “probably durable enough for my needs.”
take it all w/ salt grain.
There used to be a guy on the internet Clark is what he went by. He would blow up gunms with overloads to see what it would take. I liked that guy.
So you’re saying we should all be carrying a Toyota Hilux?
I won’t name names, but there’s a fair number of reviewers that are so obviously Brand biased, I don’t even bother to read them.
Good reviews/reviewers list the Pros and the Cons, and run the product through reasonable places.
Fanboy reviews always raise my suspicions.
I’ve wondered about Springfield, if they’re following in Remington’s footsteps of shutting down any negative reviews for quite some time.
I’ve only been around guns for a few short years but I see that MOST reviewers will find so many good things about every gun that are almost useless while skipping over the faults. I never tested a new model that I didn’t love seems to be a trend. You tubers like to go to extremes to work the hell out of their guns, (probably) a more honest review. I understand the position of having to keep editors and advertisers happy makes for compromise.
I love the conclusion to one magazine gun test I read a while back. It went something like this … “This is a good gun for concealed carry … once they fix the issues with the sights, trigger and magazines it will be a great gun” (???) Pretty funny stuff.
Don’t forget, “…and the factory grips were too small for me to get my giant sasquatch hands around comfortably.”
In my experience many gun reviewers (at least those from the big name magazines) never give the unvarnished Trvth regarding the firearms they review. Even when I know that the firearm being reviewed is pretty much a piece of junk…the review reads…”there were some fire-integration issues. The review model model has not had it’s full 500 – 750 round break-in period and the frequent failures can be attributed to this…” or some other misdirecting gibberish, ie. “…the weather was not optimal for this particular firearm…” or “my bunions were acting up” or best of all, just glossing over, not mentioning, the glaring faults that almost every owner has encountered in that model.
Speaking of soft-sell, one of my shooting buddies picked up a Kimber .45 last week and brought it to the range. Granted that this was it’s inaugural voyage, however, it failed to get through a single mag full of factory ammunition in the first 50 rounds…there were numerous failures to feed and failures to lock into battery requiring an additional “tap” on the rear of the slide. On the bright side, the trigger was crisp as only a 1911 can be and the accuracy, when it did chamber and fire, was excellent. He asked if I was bringing more factory ball to the range this week to help him break it in as he is a “bit” short of .45 ACP at this time….not hardly, Pilgrim.
A friend of mine is an editor for one of the remaining dead-tree publications. He said the local distributor of Remington products said ANY negative comment about the products, INCLUDING the trigger issue, would result in immediate and permanent withdrawal of advertising.
OK, then, we won’t review any Remington products.
Happy now?
I had the same issue with my first 1911, a 4″ Kimber Pro Carry II. After about 50 to 75 rounds, it would start failing to go into battery, requiring a tap on the back of the slide. Very frustrating. A return to Kimber yielded no change. Polishing the ramp (which came covered with KimPro finish) yielded no change. Finally, at 1400 rounds or so, I replaced the recoil spring with one directly from Wolff (Kimber supposedly uses Wolff springs), and that finally fixed the problem.
Thanks for the heads-up…I’ll pass it along to my buddy. Do you remember what pound spring you ended up using? His model has a 5″ bbl.
I won’t buy an expensive gun like a Kimber….period. I have numerous low priced guns that work flawlessly.
One of the reasons I don’t own1911, was the poor experience I had with a Colt in the early 80’s. Close to 500 rounds I ran through the gun, and it would always suffer a FTF with every magazine I tried. In some cases, an FTF every 3rd/4th round. Sold that POS at the first opportunity., and I’ve never bothered looking at another 1911.
@BB
I sincerely hope that you have the opportunity to shoot a good, reliable 1911 some day. The trigger and natural pointability are amazing. I’ve shot Ruger’s SR1911’s and a number of Sig Sauer 1911’s and not been disappointed. Would like to try a truly high-end model from Wilson et al…if only some of my wealthier friends would buy one…or two.
Must have been abused or a flaw. My Colt Gold Cup was purchased used for $200 in excellent shape. I won several pistol matches with that gun and my own SWC reloads.
I have numerous other 1911s bought new in various brands, they all work. RIA, American Classic, Taurus….no problemo.
Mildly amusing, but I don’t really see it. If gun reviewers sometimes shoot X number of rounds without cleaning, lubrication, or maintenance, it makes sense because today’s shooters often don’t clean, lubricate, or maintain their guns (or their cars). If anything, some gunwriters seem more likely to shill for mediocre performance than to abuse guns or hold them to unrealistic standards.
Funny meme! Reminds me of a guy I knew in high school. Got his first car, was so excited. Did not know the first thing about maintaining a car. Did not know to check oil levels, especially in the beat-up buggies we could afford. Bad things happened. Had to pick him up at some shop just off the NJ Turnpike, south of what was then, exit 7A. Back then, it was mostly scrub pine and the New Jersey devil out there.
Don’t know what happened to that car. He just left it there on the Turnpike. The State Troopers found him.
Some of the YouTube reviewers are very hard on their test weapons. And take a lot of crap for it.
Those are the ones that can somewhat be trusted.
The ones in magazines? They can be great fiction.
The problem with YouTube is if the reviewer is getting guns from the manufacturer.
I like it when they test the gun to it’s limits w/o a bunch of edits.
I tell all my students, most guns will out shoot the shooter.
From the plate and the car I think it’s Eurotrash.
It might be a BMW. I’m surprised it made it off the lot.
OR
Look, the new Glocks are out!
Yeah but who doesn’t want to see a gun or car burst into flames from time to time? In youtubeland sometimes you got to destroy the gun to pay for it 🙂
So… WhistlinDiesel is a gun reviewer that tests trucks?
I was talking to a guy today about car wrecks we’ve had while intoxicated.
He had ran his truck into a pond. Quite drunk and stumbling the officer asked “Do you even know where your truck is at?”
His reply, ” I got tired of fishing from the bank.”
Thats funny ! I was fishing on the boat close to the landing one day a few years ago at blews creek. A guy pulled up with a brand new ford truck with 30 day tags and a brand new bass boat. He told his buddy to get in the truck and back him and the boat in. The truck was manual. The buddy knocks the truck out of gear and completely submerged the truck with the boat still attached and being pulled under in the front. Damnest thing i have seen in a while. That was a awful fight that they had afterward. I still laugh about it.
@jts
I’d pay a Dollar ($1 US) to watch that video complete with sound!
It is funny.
Looking at it seriously, though, I do think there is a reason for the difference between gun reviews and other reviews. As I used to tell my wife about airplanes “If the engine falls out of the car we’re already on the ground, and if the motor falls off the boat we’re still on top of the water, but if the engine falls off the airplane……………..” Some things have to work or you die, and some things can fail and you just call a tow truck.
“you know what’ll happen if that final, fourth engine fails, don’t you?”
“yup- we’ll be 4hrs late!”
brock yates was one to test a vehicles limits. what you see glocks and ak’s endure is impressive. best filed i suppose under “probably durable enough for my needs.”
take it all w/ salt grain.
There used to be a guy on the internet Clark is what he went by. He would blow up gunms with overloads to see what it would take. I liked that guy.
So you’re saying we should all be carrying a Toyota Hilux?
I won’t name names, but there’s a fair number of reviewers that are so obviously Brand biased, I don’t even bother to read them.
Good reviews/reviewers list the Pros and the Cons, and run the product through reasonable places.
Fanboy reviews always raise my suspicions.
I’ve wondered about Springfield, if they’re following in Remington’s footsteps of shutting down any negative reviews for quite some time.
I’ve only been around guns for a few short years but I see that MOST reviewers will find so many good things about every gun that are almost useless while skipping over the faults. I never tested a new model that I didn’t love seems to be a trend. You tubers like to go to extremes to work the hell out of their guns, (probably) a more honest review. I understand the position of having to keep editors and advertisers happy makes for compromise.
I love the conclusion to one magazine gun test I read a while back. It went something like this … “This is a good gun for concealed carry … once they fix the issues with the sights, trigger and magazines it will be a great gun” (???) Pretty funny stuff.
Don’t forget, “…and the factory grips were too small for me to get my giant sasquatch hands around comfortably.”
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