I, too have seen a 180 degree shift in quality and mission from the old technical emphasis to the total, complete, Madison Avenue ad-slick product turned out by almost all of the rags.

Even the NRA publication used to have a vast collection of technical articles in every issue. Now, it, too, merely begs the approval of the gun makers.

Guns are treated as mystical mechanical works of science only the Few can understand. "Voodoo" permeates the internal mechanical details and such voodoo can only be exorcised by the limited and Knowing Few, top name gunsmiths.

This is unfortunate, because it seems every new gun I buy has bugs and warts right out of the box, and as a result, I've had to learn a bit of the voodoo secrets myself just to get the things to go bang every time. If I hadn't, the price of every gun I'd buy might double as a result of sending them off to the Wizards.

Unfortunately I do not have a Gun Wizard living in my basement or available on 24/7 call...

Pretty good points, GRT.