Owl,
In my experience, "freebies" in non-expendable stuff like firearms and optics were far more common before Barack Obama became the greatest-ever salesman for the shooting industry. Nowadays manufacturers don't have to be that generous, because shooters are still buying LOTS of stuff, and that will continue if a Democrat is elected president this fall.
Instead, some (but not all) magazines run very favorable reviews of equipment because it's harder to sell advertising these days, thanks to the impetus Obama has provided to the entire industry. So some magazines run favorable reviews to entice manufacturers to continue advertising.
As far as expendable items like ammo, bullets and powder, manufacturers will provide free samples IF they have any. For a while it's been a crapshoot whether even they will have any on hand, the reason some gun writers (especially those who do it for most or all of their living) have been buying ammo, powder, bullets, etc. over the past few years, "hoarding" it to be sure they can have some on hand when they need it for an assignment.
