Yes, the economics of booking $10,000 trips to write $1,000 articles pretty much requires it. Unless a writer is independently wealthy or works as a guide, it's pretty much impossible to gain enough experience to keep one's writing interesting month-after-month without accepting sponsored trips. I maintain a real job that pays well so when I started out, I found myself booking expensive hunts year-after-year, only to turn down really great free trips. I've never felt pressure to speak highly of a product that I didn't believe in and I've been on more than one hunt that I never wrote about. To be honest, the bigger ethical battle takes place between the publishers, who are selling advertising, and the editors who are creating the content. Some are better than others: I was once told by an editor that I "could mount any scope that I wanted for the article, so long as it was a XXXXX." That they were taking out full-page ads every month probably had nothing to do with it...
As for serious testing, I had the rifle for several months actually. Since my primary concern was preparing for the safari, I did most of my shooting from sticks rather than on the bench. I probably put 200 rounds through the gun, mostly with the Hornady GMX load.
