martinbns said:
I started a thread on the 24hourcampfire called "Handloader changes it's name to Revolvers are us". It generated about 150 responses most of which decided that Mike Venterino was not a suitable replacement for Ross Seyfreid. It was after an issue where there were three articles about black powder cartidges and about 5 about various revolvers. Mule Deer (John Barsness) suggested I email Dave Scovill and give him my concerns, so I did. About a week later I got a response back from Dave(maybe) that was polite basically saying that these articles were what the readers wanted but that he hoped future issues would appeal to me.
A week after that I got another response (from Dave) calling me rude and basically ripping me for being critical of his article choices. I'm not sure which of the responses were from Dave, but I think the second one, I think a staffer responded to the first. I responded back suggested that being rude to paying clients wasn't the best way to win friends and influence people to which I got no response.
I am pretty sure that Dave Scovill is a first class ####### who thinks he invented the gun amongst other things. I still buy the magazines mostly to read John Barsness and Phil Shoemaker, if they ever left i would immediately cancel my subsriptions.
I've nver met Scovill, of course, but he does like to claim that he invented everyhting, sounds a bit like Layne Simpson in that respect.
I've seen Handloader become "COwboy shooting Loading" as well. Every magazine needs a balance. Gotta balance the BP loads with the high tech stuff. Actually, Seyfried was very good at that. He could write about ancient black powder English guns, and turn around and right about super velocity barrel burners. Venturino is a,most exclusively black powder/cast bullets etc. He's a good writer in his own way, but he is not as versatile.
I like many of Brian Pearces articles, too. I'm like you - I read it mostly for Barsnes, so muchof the rest of the magazine is crap these days, compared to even 3-4 years ago.
A recent issue of Handloader has Clair Rees reviewing a 22 rimfire pistol. HANDLOADER???? :roll:
I swear Rees has pics of Scovill violaiting a goat somewhere.
Anyways, I used to enjoy Scovills sort of rough and tumble articles, but nowdays he sounds egotisical, elitist, and a little vindictive. I know he reads the internet forums, because he mentons them, but he also mentions his disdain for internet users, and refers to them as "churners."
Seems like he has zero foresight, if he cant' see that if someone is interested enough to participate in Shooting forums on the internet, these "churners" are probably his target audience, too. I suppose he'd rather just alienate them.
I dropped my subscription ot all 3 mags last year, and only buy the ones that interest me, or if I need something to read on a hunting trip.. :wink:
