Mike Yardley bemoans magazines for not hiring professionals.

[Maggot]

Whats his problem.....they still hire tossers as well!!!

To be honest I am very wary of any magazine article these days.

I would not trust the opinion of someone who may have been on the payroll of the company and in all honesty may well be a jack of all trades.

The other issue is once people get published, it can lead to a whol load of assumptions on "Their" part that they are now experts...oh dear.

That is not to say that they are no good, but I would want to know the person (or at least know they really have some credibility to be expounding on that particular piece of kit).

I remember reading an article in a trade mag by a well known expert a while back, to say he was wearing a s*** eating grin based on how much could be screwed out of us, the shooting public (400% margin on chinese imports) caused me to stop reading that mag and anything involving that individual ever. Double standards at its best.

Anyhow.....who needs mags when we have real shooters telling it like it really is (and open to scrutiny as well) on here or other forums, for nothing......?

I remember years ago reading an article in a model heli magazine and it was total BS. I tackled them on this and was told I was being unfair and the man was an expert as he was a commercial pilot....WTF???

I worked on the kit day in day out and knew full well the truth but never let the truth get in the way of a good bit of self promotion

[Chuck]

Fair dues to him Chuck he does know his stuff. I just don't agree with the rubbish he's been spouting lately. He says that military type looking rifles shows the sport in a poor light while he has videos on YouTube with him bragging about how he's shot 1000 birds in a morning, what kind of image does he imagine that gives to people who don't shoot.

Don't get me wrong I fully support his right to hunt, I just think that the guy needs to take a step back and have a good long hard think about what he does, and what he says about other sportsmen, especially some of the name he's called folks who own AR's.

Personally I no longer have any time for the man and ignore anything he says, writes or films.

The fact he knows his stuff yet spouts the stuff he does seems to justify my opinion Rab. His massacring birds or nice animals that the tree huggers go to visit on Sundays shows us in a lot less light I would think - just my take.

[Rab]

Fair dues to him Chuck he does know his stuff. I just don't agree with the rubbish he's been spouting lately. He says that military type looking rifles shows the sport in a poor light while he has videos on YouTube with him bragging about how he's shot 1000 birds in a morning, what kind of image does he imagine that gives to people who don't shoot.

Don't get me wrong I fully support his right to hunt, I just think that the guy needs to take a step back and have a good long hard think about what he does, and what he says about other sportsmen, especially some of the name he's called folks who own AR's.

Personally I no longer have any time for the man and ignore anything he says, writes or films.

The fact he knows his stuff yet spouts the stuff he does seems to justify my opinion Rab. His massacring birds or nice animals that the tree huggers go to visit on Sundays shows us in a lot less light I would think - just my take.

Chuck, I'm not disagreeing with you mate

[Chuck]

Sorry, just the way I read it... As if you ever would Rab.

[The Gun Pimp]

I used to write for a gun mag once. I was intent on producing articles mainly concerned with accurate rifles and shooting them in competition.

Then the mag. changed ownership.

The new owner wanted a magazine of general interest - that a punter with a passing interest in shooting might buy to pass the time on a long journey - with nothing too technical or challenging.

Most shooting magazines seem to fall into this bracket but, it's what we deserve - as 25Pdr says - who's going to pay when it's all free on the net.

My own mag., Target Shooter, is now free to all and fortunately we have a few good knowledgeable writers who are prepared to do it for the love of the sport.

[Blackstuff]

I must admit its not until you have a decent knowledge of a particular type of gun/shooting then read a 'review' of it that you realise how clueless the person writing about it can be. My own bug bear is Gun Mart and its reviews of shotguns for PSG (usually Mr Moore - who invented practical shooting don't you know )

I've emailed (politely I might add) that the double-thumbs-up recommendations for shotguns for PSG that were given would lead to newbies buying guns that, for example, had 7+1 capacity fixed mags being dumped in Modified and even Open divisions because of the other features and therefore pitted against guns with 14+1 capacity/detachable mags etc isn't exactly the best start in the sport. In fairness I got a polite reply back saying he'd "brush up on his knowledge of gun restrictions/divisions", however that was a good 4 years ago and the articles still keep coming "THE BEST PRACTICAL SHOTGUN EVER MADE!!!" etc.