Magazine product reviews "honesty"

paultap

Well-Known Member
Guys , I laughed out loud when I read this "review" of Butler Creek scope covers in the march edition of Shooting Sports ( a freebee copy from the British shooting show I might add! )

"Protecting your scope against the elements and damage is essential, no matter if you are a target shooter or hunter. Most optics come with basic lens covers but individual front and rear types are the best.

Butler Creek's designs are definitely the way to go, offering a neat push fit option,yet made for specific lens sizes. The rear unit is controlled by a red press button, the front by a lug you push up with your thumb. Both are spring-loaded so automatically open once started and snap down firmly when closed!

Butler Creek are without doubt the leading name in this field with many impersonators though none can better their design With the full range of options available from Deben Group, to fit a huge range of scope sizes, the serious shooter can ensure top performance from a quality accessory for a modest outlay. There are 28 different sizes to choose from, to fit 38.5mm up to 65.4mm lens (outer dimensions )"

Top performance from a quality product????? Maybe in years gone by but by my experience and countless others on this forum they are anything but a quality accessory ensuring top performance!!..... The reviewer can't be familiar with the poor quality rubbish that seems to fall apart when exposed to daylight that's now being offered . The plastic that is being used to make this product is a disgrace in my opinion!

Deben group (01394 387762 ) are the importers, perhaps everyone on this forum who has had a problem with this poor quality product should give them a ring and let them know exactly how poor these things actually are.

Deben must be laughing all the way to the bank as people keep buying these scope caps to replace their last ones that have prematurely broken.

Its a shame that a British manufacturer specialising in injection moulding doesn't take up the challenge and produce a quality alternative that doesn't fall apart after minimal use, if they did they would clean up in this market I am sure!
 
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I don't buy any of the mags. but certainly agree on your comments. I purchased a pair a couple of years ago, I think they stayed on for a couple of days and then went in the bin! Went back to the trusty lens cloth in coat pocket, or if in hurry the end of my gloved finger!

ATB

T
 
Prehaps such rubbish is why lots of us do not buy such mags anymore.

Down to earth reviews on SDF are thus worth their weight in gold.

D
 
sadly normal business I fear. I'll not be renewing my subscription to sporting rifle as it's just blancmange.
 
It seems to me that most of the mags and online programmes are heavily sponsored and also supplied with items for "product placement". However honest they are, there will always be the suspicion that they are influenced by their freebies.
 
sadly normal business I fear. I'll not be renewing my subscription to sporting rifle as it's just blancmange.

+1

Can save everyone a fortune, all products Sporting Rifle review are good/great or a pleasure to use. All stuff their advertisers supply funny enough (not best priced mag either to make it worse).
 
sadly normal business I fear. I'll not be renewing my subscription to sporting rifle as it's just blancmange.

I'm very fond of blancmange, particularly when made with dark, dark chocolate and very little sugar, then sprinkled with crunchy brown sugar just before serving. Having said which flavoured with vanilla, coloured pink and made in a rabbit-shaped mould would do also, for a nostalgia-trip.

Do you recommend that I subscribe to Sporting Rifle?
 
Butler Creek fliptops are absolute crap you only have to look at them wrong and they bust.

Jimbo

I just bought two for my binoculars...less than 24 hours later and I'm already down to one!

The one on my scope has lasted eight years (bound to break now) but its a big 56mm job so has a bit more plastic at the hinge.
 
+1

Can save everyone a fortune, all products Sporting Rifle review are good/great or a pleasure to use. All stuff their advertisers supply funny enough (not best priced mag either to make it worse).


Stand by by for another great review in sporting rifle!... I was on the Alan Rhone stand at the British Shooting show when editor Peter Carr was there trying to blag a rifle for a review for the magazine. Now I would bet my house on the review turning out to be extremely favourable! ..... I am assuming Mr Carr then went on to scour the show for a Freebee shooting holiday on which said rifle could be used!
 
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Everything you see, hear and read is made up by a marketing department with one mantra.......no one ever went bankrupt underestimating the stupidity of the British public!!
 
I've had a few caps of butler craap and I like the way they work. The problem is I hate the way they break so easily,
I am an engineer but surely the latest B.C. apprentice could tell the designers to beef them up a little bit it ain't rocket science

craggy
 
I've had a few caps of butler craap and I like the way they work. The problem is I hate the way they break so easily,
I am an engineer but surely the latest B.C. apprentice could tell the designers to beef them up a little bit it ain't rocket science

craggy

Ah yes, but then they'd cost more to make and there wouldn't be so many repeat customers! Short term gain perhaps for them, but not good in the long run you'd have thought.
 
i have a butler cover at least 10 years old still works just fine but i have got through at least 4 others on other scopes in the last 12 months , looking at the old and the new i can't see a difference so i put it down to the type or quality of the plastic or nylon they are now using ? i wouldn't be surprised if butler have these made in china ?
andy
 
So guys what are the best covers?not the most exspensive,but best as regards ,fit for purpose.
I got a neoprene tubular cover from Scope Shields Alaska. Just order for the length to fit your scope and from memory it was about £12 delivered all the way from Alaska.
 
I can understand and have some sympathy for editors who hype up products in British sporting magazines in order to stay in with the advertisers who probably pay most if not all of the publication costs of a magazine. I doubt there are many magazine editors who are making a fortune from plying their trade.

However they should show respect and honesty for the readers, and not try to dupe them into purchasing products that are clearly not up to the mark. Frankly product placement and unthruthful endorsements make some magazines totally unreadable to me. It's a pity there isn't someone with sufficient finances and the balls to set the benchmark and say, we will speak the truth regardless and will only endorse products that genuinely meet or exceed expectations.
 
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