Gun reviews and articles

[timmy]

As many here know, if you've been around for some time, I often rant about youtube gun reviews and articles reviewing guns, because all too often they don't present anything worthwhile to learn.

Recently, on these forums, this youtube video has been posted:

viewtopic.php?f=12&t=29608&p=279403#p279395

or

viewtopic.php?f=12&t=29596&p=279398#p279398

I was somewhat pleasantly surprised to see useful information presented. However, not enough information was presented in one case and wrong information was presented in another. Let me discuss this for a moment.

A Llama 32 and what I understood to be a copy of a Llama 32 were presented -- two instances. These were termed to be a smaller copy of the 1911, which they are. But the important thing for someone looking to buy a gun and wanting to compare features of different guns is that these Llama 32s operate by the recoil action principle, not the blow by principle that most other 32 auto pistols use. Why is this important? It is important to know, because with the same cartridge in pistols of the same weight, the blow by operated pistol has more felt recoil than one that operates on the recoil principle.

This was not explained, nor was it mentioned what difference it made. Too much discussion of all of these guns concerned how they looked, and too little on how they operated. It should be clear that a recoil operated pistol with less recoil would more easily allow recovery of the sight picture and allow quicker effective follow up shots. Most 32 autos use the blow back principle, which allows the maker to save money. Here was a chance to take some of the time discussing the appearance and use it to present useful information.

It is not always in one's best interest to ignore technical issues!

Secondly, when discussing the 32 auto, it was described as a "low pressure" cartridge. So what? The 45 auto, 32 auto, 32 S&W Long, 25 Auto, 22 LR, 380 auto, and a whole bunch of others operate at low pressures, too: around 20,000 pounds/square inch. The only cartridges that were discussed in this video that operate at high pressures were the 357 Magnum and the 30 Tokarev, or 7.62x25. It would be correct to say that the 32 auto is a "low power" cartridge, but singling it out as a low pressure cartridge when so many other handgun cartridges are also low pressure is not a good thing.

Language is important!

Otherwise, it was nice to see so many guns that are present to some degree in the Indian market.

Here's a good article on the Ruger LCR 38 revolver that explains interesting and useful information to a gun person and to a buyer. It is said in some places that these revolvers use a "cam operated action" -- what does this mean? It's not like the camshaft in your car or anything much like a cam to my thinking.

Check it out for yourself:

https://revolverguy.com/the-38-special-ruger-lcr/

From this, you can SEE how the action operates and, if you know something about how double action revolvers work, you can understand the advantages that the Ruger LCR offers over other double action revolvers.

This is the sort of work I expect when I look to a video or an article to educate me or interest me.

The sorts of videos that say, "see me open the box" and "see the gun go bang" and "see how pretty it is" are a waste of time for anyone looking for real information on a gun that will do a certain job.