Proper reviews

[Spewy]

I recently bought a hm1000 .20 lefty but what annoyed me as a newbie was the lack of reviews as I think I've bought every airgun mag in the last 8 months and to me it's amazing
Anyone seen a magazine review on this gun?

[Spewy]

As I thought
Strange how a top quality gun imo doesn't get the mags or video makers in the uk

[SuffolkRifle]

Trouble is with 'professional' reviews, is that you never get an honest review, all the guns are 'the best thing since sliced bread', it isn't until the guns get into the public domain that you get the honest reviews

[Arthur John Smithsplease]

This gun has been reviewed by at least one of the mags. Think it may have been Mark Camoccio in Gunmart. Last year, I believe.

Camoccio's reviews are pretty good. As I recall, he was impressed with the gun.

[buttloaves]

Don't think i've evar read a bad review in a mag,for anything, guns, clothes, optics. I've never read,don't buy this.

[Terry D]

Trouble is with 'professional' reviews, is that you never get an honest review, all the guns are 'the best thing since sliced bread', it isn't until the guns get into the public domain that you get the honest reviews

Do me a favour, SR, and point me toward any review I've done that was dishonest. I've done hundreds of reviews, so if your claim is true, you'll have no problem finding some that prove your point.

Thanks.

[Terry D]

I recently bought a hm1000 .20 lefty but what annoyed me as a newbie was the lack of reviews as I think I've bought every airgun mag in the last 8 months and to me it's amazing
Anyone seen a magazine review on this gun?

I did a review on an HM 1000 a few years back, although I have to say I've never seen a .20 lefty version, let alone tested one. That's a decidedly niche air rifle, so I'm not surprised you've struggled to find a review on it, but if you fancy doing 500 words and 5 good photos on your rifle, explaining why you think it's so good, I promise I'll consider it for our 'Readers' Airguns' feature, OK?

[davymole]

Do me a favour, SR, and point me toward any review I've done that was dishonest. I've done hundreds of reviews, so if your claim is true, you'll have no problem finding some that prove your point.

Thanks.

then there was silenceI read the mags ,read the reviews THEN as an adult usually make my own mind up,plus I do write reviews on my purchases on most things and write as I find

[neil180]

Reviews.....

They are generally a good thing but they are not the be all and end all. I used to do reviews of darts (I know....) and I always said to the manufacturers that sent them to me that I would be honest about them. Any poor manufacturing would be mentioned and pointed out etc. However - I used to get asked why I never said whether I 'liked' the darts or not. Well - some of them I positively hated but I am not going to say that in a review because they might not suit me but they will be perfect for someone else.

Guns are the same. I know that the TX200 is a superb gun but I simply can't get on with it. If yoiu see poor engineering then fair do's you can talk about it but how it fits, etc etc (unless of course there is something blindingly obvious that affects everyone - first stage on an LGU for example) then it is simply not worth mentioning as its very much a 'horses for courses situation'.

I don't read reviews - but I do watch videos as long as they are not overly long. At the end of the day I find out most things by asking people who know, trying a gun out or cruising a few videos.

[Spewy]

I did a review on an HM 1000 a few years back, although I have to say I've never seen a .20 lefty version, let alone tested one. That's a decidedly niche air rifle, so I'm not surprised you've struggled to find a review on it, but if you fancy doing 500 words and 5 good photos on your rifle, explaining why you think it's so good, I promise I'll consider it for our 'Readers' Airguns' feature, OK?

If I knew how to puts a picture on that would help🙈
Well im home again on the 8th so maybe a mini review could be unprofessionally done only thing I can compare with is my hw100 and my sons regal.20
I'd read so much about Rapids that I had to have one obviously its raw now.
I buy mags and do read reviews and do find them very helpful but that's just me

[SuffolkRifle]

Do me a favour, SR, and point me toward any review I've done that was dishonest. I've done hundreds of reviews, so if your claim is true, you'll have no problem finding some that prove your point.

Thanks.

Terry, I wont say that any reviews are 'dishonest', just that often the bad points aren't mentioned or are glossed over - in how many reviews have you actually said (rather than hinting at) that the rifle is "over-priced for what it is/is pellet fussy/under-powered (in a 'full' powered rifle - i.e. 10.25 fpe as opposed to 11.5 fpe)/suitable for a back garden plinker"? I do know that often reviewers get sent/given 'sorted' items to review, rather than having one pulled from stock at random, so perhaps not always the reviewers 'bias'. In fact, the 'best' reviews I ever read were in a motorcycle magazine several years ago, where they were long term reviews & were written as a diary over (if I recall correctly) a years use.
I also know that in the past a magazine (not airgun related) did actually publish a review that absolutely rubbished a product and as a consequence had the advertising from the manufacturer of that product removed for two years - the manufacturer would regularly take out 6-10 full page adverts per month - meaning a significant loss of revenue to the publisher, funnily enough, after that episode you never read a poor review of that manufacturers product in that magazine.

[archie]

A fellow club member has approached an airgun mag as to getting an article in print but was told that they like to keep within their own little pool of writers.
I do not know what the article was about, but he is a very articulate bloke. So, perhaps not too easy to get something in print.

[angrybear]

I recently bought a hm1000 .20 lefty but what annoyed me as a newbie was the lack of reviews as I think I've bought every airgun mag in the last 8 months and to me it's amazing
Anyone seen a magazine review on this gun?

Yes actually I have.

It was reviewed by Mark Camoccio in the Feb 2014 edition of Shooting sports in .20 cal though fairly obviously as a right hand model as lefties are few & far between.
quote
"In short, the HM1000 is a fabulously impressive hunting machine, deservedly joining an elite club at RAW"

He also reviewed the TM1000 for the same mag in Sep 2013.

[villaman]

Just look at the mags to day ,full of adverts for Daystate guns , never read a bad thing about Daystate guns , I wonder why !!

[Terry D]

I do know that often reviewers get sent/given 'sorted' items to review, rather than having one pulled from stock at random, so perhaps not always the reviewers 'bias'.

Do you actually know this for a fact? You see, in the real world, if a review rifle has a particularly nice piece of timber fitted to it, for instance, customers expect that and it causes all sorts of grief if the test sample isn't representative. Another fact is, the rifles we get for test are often those that have been on the test ranges at shows and fairs. To the best of my knowledge,never, in all the years I've been testing airguns, has anyone ever sent me a specially sorted example. As I say, if the test rifle doesn't represent what the customer gets, there will, quite rightly, be all sorts of trouble.

Final fact. If I get an airgun that isn't in my opinion fit for sale, I won't test it until the required changes are made to bring it up to spec.

Hope that helps.