Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters The 10 Most Overrated Cartridges

https://www.fieldandstream.com/10-most-overrated-cartridges/

According to David Petzal

Petzal is an idiot.

I'm thinking of the phrase "opinions are like azzholes,,,,,,".

This ^

Never liked him. Too opinionated for me. Can’t back up many of his assertions with facts in my eyes.

Apparently none of you guys can comprehend that Petzal's essentially "trolling," in the same way that often occurs on the Campfire. With magazines articles (though evidently F&S is primarily an on-line rather than paper magazine anymore--and only appears 4 times a year) this means more "eyes on the page," a phrase used in advertising that translates into the ability to charge more for ads.

You've all been trolled--and caught. Which again means more eyes on the page....

That would be correct.

Nope. I've known Petzal very well for around 40 years, and he's very smart. He's especially smart enough to troll the average shooter--who often can't tell whether Petzal has his tongue firmly in his cheek. But that's pretty normal.

Yup, clickbait.

Maybe Field & Stream is allowing Chuck Hawks to ghost write for Dave Petzal?

Nope. Chuck Hawks is a boring writer, which means he's unable to troll.

Petzal isn't a boring writer, which is why he trolls so well.

But he doesn't always troll--though apparently not many readers can tell the difference.

Agreed!

I like Dave Petzel's writing and his dry sense of humor, although I do not agree with him always. I do not agree with any Gunwriter always, even "Mule Deer". He did not offend me one bit and I own one of the cartridges on his list.

My god. Anyone who reads that article and doesn't see the sarcasm and dry humor is not comprehending things well.

I like Petzal, for the most part.

One of the interesting things about "gunwriting" is that many (if not most) readers judge gunwriters by how much the writer agrees with the reader's opinions. This is because almost all avid hunters/handloaders are very experienced with at least a few cartridges and rifles--though they may avoid quite a few others that also work well.

This is one reason I've written articles on a BUNCH of different cartridges and rifles over the decades--and aside from providing useable information, have never written that any round or rifle is a POS. The reason I do this is that, despite some gun-magazine readers saying they'd like to read negative reviews of POS's, 98% really don't. This is partly because many consider reading about POS's a waste of time. Instead they want to read about what works--though some will then bitch that gun magaziines never run "realistic" (negative) reviews.

My writing about a bunch of different rifles and cartridges results in a lot of letters, e-mails, etc. praising me for having the same insightfull opinion as the reader--whether I wrote about the .348 WCF, .257 Weatherby, .30-06 or 7mm Obscure But Wonderful Magnum.

On the other hand, articles like Petzal's can suck in far more readers, the reason magazines (and websites) have been running them forever. But too many such articles become obviously repetitive. Which is why magazines and websites just as often run stuff on why the XYZ cartridge is such an improvement over the old ZYX.

He should've added all the 6.5's to the list...missed the most obvious one!

You just proved my point.

Instead of berating a good author, how about your top 20?
Not in any certain order....
Aagard, Keith, O'Conner, Seyfried, Milek, Ayoob, Barsness, Bodington, Milek, Skelton, Jordan, Cooper, Adkins, Taffin, Roosevelt.....Taylor, Olson...Speed....Sharpe...

LOL ! CREEDMOOR ! 🤪

Now you’ve done it ! 😜

You were doing good till you mentioned Ayoob.