+1 on the over-tacticalizing of things these days. It was a cliche years ago. Personally, I won't own a weapon intended for self defense if it has a tactical or menacing sounding name. Just one more reason for a jury to come to the wrong conclusion.

On the subject of the reviews and mini-reviews, I think you need a more realistic perspective of what the gun mags are in business to do. Theirs is a business like any other, and they need to make money. That money comes from advertisers, not subscriptions (you don't really think the $18.95 for 12 issues covers the cost of printing and postage, do you?) They must review new products to generate advertising dollars and, not incidentially, reader interest. If they had nothing new to write about, what the heck would you read about? Who took first place in the second annual coon holler bowling pin shoot?

Finally, you might try American Handgunner. They do have some of the same faults as the others, but will generally call a turkey a turkey. If the rear sights comes flying off a $2500 1911, they'll say so. They'll do it kindly and say how good the customer service was when they returned it, but they will acknowledge problems.

Gotta admit, all the tactical BS gets pretty tiring...