Art Tuttle always used to rant about the manual writers for things like Bullet Guide. "It doesn't guide anything and it doesn't touch the bullets," he would rave. He was a real curmedgeon -- I would write a letter to him asking a question, and he would answer... but the whole first page was usually a diatribe on what a dope I was and how I didn't know anything. Then he would answer the question

I have sometimes had some trouble with manual photos -- since they often write the manuals very early in the process, the illustrations are often of pre-production stuff, even commercial examples that were used to evaluate the weapon.