Product Description
Focuses on sport hunting, and marksmanship techniques for the firearms enthusiast.
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Handguns
- Magazine: 0 pages (2001-11-23)
- Publisher: Intermedia Outdoors
- Label: Intermedia Outdoors
- Format: Magazine Subscription
- Studio: Intermedia Outdoors
- Average Customer Review:
 based on 4 reviews
- Sales Rank in Magazines: #514
Avg. Customer Review:
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Lots of Color Pictures But Little Substance 2006-07-03
Comment: Let's start with the positive aspects of this magazine, but I'll quickly follow with negative criticism.
A subscription is dirt-cheap.
There are a lot of pictures, most color and many decent but not what I would call professionally done. Several photos look like they were taken on the range with a point-n-shoot camera, which is disappointing for a professional publication, as the point is to make it look like something the average reader could not do on his own. The best photos are in the numerous advertisements.
_Handguns_ is a great magazine on the subject if the reader is pressed for time. The magazine spans about 75 pages an issue, which is pretty thin compared to other gun magazines, especially since this is a bimonthly publication. Articles are short and rarely have much depth to the specific subjects, so individual handgun reviews tell a potential buyer little about the gun and not anything more than every other major handgun/firearm publication available at newsstands. As I look through the October/November 2005 issue, an article on the Glock 38 (in .45 GAP) has two of the four pages (these are pages mostly filled with ads and Glock photos) on a poor history of the .40 (off the subject, of course) and the basic Glock design, which, after over twenty years of immense popularity, is fairly well-known to gun enthusiasts and novices alike and unnecessary here. It wastes a further two paragraphs on the .45 GAP cartridge itself ("Why .45 GAP?"). The conclusion begins with, "The best way to evaluate whether the Glock 38 fits your particular needs is to first examine the Glock system of operation" (20). Ugh. We don't need this verbiage in an article on a gun whose design is the most popular in law enforcement today. Readers need to be told about reliability ("...performed as expected..." [19], a testament to the Glock's renown), shootability (i.e., the "snap" of the .45 GAP round), and usability (e.g., concealability and "reloadability"). This one article is the typical _Handguns_ fare, falling far short of the mark of completeness.
The quality of the writing, grammar-wise, is decent. I'm a composition professor, so I'd rate this aspect as B-, although there are plenty of fragmented sentences and, yes, even the occasional misspelling. Hey, it's not _Harper's_, okay?
There are many, many ads in this magazine, to be expected, of course, but there are some that are not appropriate for this subject, such as ones for "male enhancement" products (steroid alternatives and sexual boosters) and "fine timepieces" and other worthless kitsch. Again, UGH.
Lastly, Rick Hacker, who writes "Final Round" opinion pieces, is not only one to fly the extremely-conservative flag (to be expected in a gun magazine) but also a bit, how can I say this...childish. The Oct./Nov. 2005 issues final thoughts are on his "Snail-Safari Adventures," in which his gloats about how he used to shoot snails with a pellet gun. So, it's a mollusk that "serve[s] no purpose" (72); I'm not going to defend animal rights here. So what if it's fun to shoot a pellet gun? I think that's a hoot. Hacker writes joyfully about killing for killing's sake, complete disrespect for life, and shooting a firearm in his Los Angeles backyard, which itself is dangerous, irresponsible, and, now, illegal. It's just plain dumb to voice an opinion that paints gun owners as bloodthirsty killers with such elation, as it gives the anti-gun lobby just another reason to outlaw tools that responsible gun owners enjoy.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating:
Summary: Perfect your Aim and get Involved Politically 2004-11-29
Comment: Want to read a magazine that can help you shop for a new rifle, improve your aim, and keep up with the constitutional challenges to the right to keep and bear arms? If so, then you might enjoy Handguns magazine. This publication includes product reviews of new guns, educational material about the use of guns, and political facts about what is being done to protect the rights of gun owners as well as what is being done by those who oppose gun ownership.
Handguns has been published for a long time, and I have noticed some changes over the years. First of all, this magazine is no longer published monthly like it once was. It is now published every two months. One would assume that this reduction in the number of issues would mean that the magazine is now twice as long, but it isn't. It is the same length as before which makes me wonder if the editors and writers are having a harder time coming up with new material to write about, or if political pressures have forced them to cut down on what they print, thereby reducing the need for twelve monthly issues.
Politics has always been an important part of this magazine in the past, but this is even more true today. Handguns makes constant reference to constitutional rights and the attempts by anti- gun zealots to take those rights away. Besides the monthly articles about these political concerns, Handguns often integrates politics into other articles as well, often in places where it really isn't needed. I like the educational information presented in this magazine and I enjoy reading about politics, but I would prefer if the two were kept separate.
This magazine isn't quite as good as it once was, but it is still enjoyable enough and informative enough to earn a recommendation from me. It gets a little carried away with politics, but I suppose the editors feel this is more necessary than ever, given the constant assault on second amendment rights. It ranks as an average publication overall, and depending on your individual stand on guns and gun rights, you will likely either love it or hate it.
3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Best overall magazine 2003-01-18
Comment: No hype, this magazine serves the average person who likes to stay abreast of new guns, techniques, legal issues and general information and trends about guns.
30 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating:
Summary: a good magazine with editorial flaws 2001-10-26
Comment: I'm an ocasional reader of "Handguns." I like the magazine for its
information. It's got great reviews, as do many of the gun/sport
magazines. Reviews of guns tend to include all the detail any casual
or professional shootist would need: loads, shell types, ranges,
force, and tested accuracy over all of them.
It's a great magazine to pick up if you see a review of a gun you're
interested in but it does have the same flaw many, if not most, of the
magazines in this category have. Some of the writers cater to a
general mindset/stereotype:
white-male-lower-middle-class-trophy-hunter, demi-educated,
right-wing, religious, etc... The editors of the magazine reinforce
this by allowing a bit much personal opinion of writers to be put up
along with good information. This sometimes lack of objectivity makes
the magazine less palatable despite its obvious merits.
It's unfortunate that gun ownership has become synonymous with thi!s
stereotype. It alienates many gun owners, or those merely interested in guns, who fall outside the narrow
view. ...
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