I think many gun writers suffer from a lack of experience. Most of their "knowledge" has been gained in front of a computer or by reading what somebody else wrote. Seemingly most of them do very little shooting, and they frequently write something like, "I was finally able to get to the range and fire a three shot group from twenty-five yards, and this new gun is plenty accurate."

By contrast many of the old time writers were active or retired military officers, had been heavily involved in gun and cartridge development, had years of competitive shooting experience, and actually went to the range! Whelen, Hatcher, Askins, Keith, and Page shared many of those traits.