Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns YouTube gun reviews?

Why do folks on YouTube that are reviewing a gun always want to show their "audience" (the viewer) that the gun is unloaded when they begin handling it? Are they afraid they're gonna shoot someone over a fiber-optic data line or something? I mean, I don't give a foshizzle if they blow their own brains out while reviewing a gun - no need to show me that it's unloaded.

I think it's because they would get a million negative comments from basement dwellers saying that you should check first before handling the gun. Folks have to say something just to say something and look knowledgeable.

Yeah, I guess you're right.
What is it about guns that brings out the know-it-all in 90% of the male population anyway?

And 90% of the gun guys don't know a thing about most things guns.

The reason is that in the early days of YouTube, the posters wasted a lot of time and energy fighting off all the critics who would excoriate them for poor gun handling, and setting bad examples. So most developed the habit of doing this just to avoid having to waste the energy and time of dealing with this.

Gotcha. The internet, while so useful, is a fawked up place sometimes.

They want to show that they are safe gun handlers, and that guns are not inherently evil.

I sure hope Pelosi knows that.

this . most of the U tube reviewers are dipshits . to me best one out there is hickcock 45

It is also a matter of expectations. While one may learn some things watching a youtube video, I have yet to see one that I consider a real review that would shape my decision on a gun purchase. Many are entertaining and some are funny to watch and that is sometimes enough to promote popularity.

My thoughts as well. I watch some of them hoping for some insight into a firearm's performance or quality of build or its good and bad points along with some objective information - weight, group sizes with various ammo, etc., but most of them are "hey, watch me shoot my new gun in my back yard" videos. Some are decent and have useful tidbits here and there but you have to watch 10 or 12 of them to even start to get a complete picture of the firearm. I like Hitchcock45 and Jeff Quinn as friendly and personable presenters but even Hitchcock does little more than plinking without providing much insight into the firearms and I suspect Jeff never met a free loaner he didn't like. I will say that Gunblast's written reviews on line do provide the more detailed information I'm looking for.

LOL. Yeah, I don't think I've ever heard him really bad-mouth much of anything. I do often find his reviews enlightening, however.
Interesting to note that neither Hickock or Jeff never spend time showing you the gun they are talking about is unloaded.

I agree, for most of US, it is pointless. But, you have to consider how many novice gun owners/handlers/wannabes watch those videos. I think it's still a good practice. I know I would teach my daughters to ALWAYS check that first. No difference in them teaching novice watchers the same.

It's important to remember a lot of younger folks don't have a mentor that can show them a lot of the things we take for granted now days.

They're a lot like magazine articles.

If it's specific i.e. trigger work on a Ruger Blackhawk, Glock 17, etc. then they are worthwhile.

If it's a "watch my new M&P go bang" it's about as boring as a Stan Trzoniec piece.




Clark

If you don't like it don't watch. There some entertaining guys on YouTube and there are more than our fair share of boobs. I don't watch the latter but I do want to know why the idiots feel so compelled to telegraph their mental deficiencies to the entire world. Whats the old saying, "its better to keep your mouth closed and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt."

How do you know if you don't like it if you don't watch?

Are you kidding me? Hickock is constantly jacking his slide all the time. Oh yeah, it's unloaded alright.

I agree with your OP. Why would anyone need to purposely show the gun is unloaded in a gun test video - unless they are actually handing it to someone or about to do some work on it? Hickock often has several guns on the table. Some nit-pickers apparently want to watch him show each gun is unloaded - how often? Every time he picks one up? Every time he goes near the table? Is that how we train now? What happened to "every gun is always loaded"?

All I watch these guys for is to see if the gun functions, and maybe glean a little detail about the gun itself. I do not need or want the "beginner's guide" in every gun related video. There are gun safety videos on the 'net. Easy for any noob to find. Seeing that in every video would get old for them too. Guess if I was doing gun videos, I would be obligated to start each one with "this is not a gun safety video".

I see the same thing all the time regarding videos and photos of canoeing. Invariably, someone just has to scream - "No PFD!" "OMG", someone will want to do the same!" God save us from the safety Nazis.

i find some of them quite interesting.
Like the guy showing how to load a 71/84 mauser, and then showing it while shooting it.
or the guy that burnt up a ak74 full auto.
Or the guy from julia's auction house firing a lot of rather rare old weapons.
off topic, but what i really like on youtube are those battlefield pickup clips, where people are recovering weapons, personal stuff, and dead people from the old battlefields. There is one on there recovering mummies from the italian alps and finland. The bodies were frozen so the didn't decompose. It's quite something to see the effort made to recover and place in proper cemetaries.
As to the weapons, some of the spent shell casings found indicate even in WWII in some areas people were using black powder metallic guns, surprised at how well spread lewis guns were, and seeing a number of those little baby brownings in .25auto being dug out of the mud.

That's an easy one to figure out.

I do the same with books. The cover tells you all you need to know about what's inside.