Screwing up on an article because you're "poorly informed" is a pretty poor excuse, unless there's also a very short deadline involved. If a writer doesn't know how to do research, then he should stick to topics on which he is something of a subject matter expert (SME). If you're not an SME, find out who is and ask them. I've found this BB EXTREMELY useful when I've done articles on this or that shotgun, usually no longer in production. Yes, I have owned and shot most of the guns I write about, but I recognize that while I might have owned two or three Parkers (or whatever), there are people here who have owned two or three dozen (or more), and shot them far more than I have.

Without knowing for sure, my guess is that MM isn't assigned too many column subjects by the editors at SSM. People that make their entire living off outdoor writing--and I'll admit that I've never been in that category--do sometimes stray into areas in which they have little experience and knowledge. But at least in SSM, Mac's pretty much stuck to what he knows about, or should know about. And while I don't know how much his stuff gets edited, I do know that in my own experience with SSM, the editors have never hesitated to contact me if there's something I've written about which they have a question, or feel is not sufficiently clear.