Any Good Firearms Publications Left?

[sharps4590]

As with several who have posted 25-30 years ago I subscribed to about all of them. Also as with others by the time I had seen about 50 cover photos of yet another double stack wonder nine or something on the AR platform and all the gadgets and gizmo's I'd had enough. The only two main stream magazines I still receive are Fur, Fish and Game and the American Rifleman. I'd drop the Rifleman but I get it because of my Benefactor membership. Best thing about the Rifleman is the last page, "I Have This Old Gun".

There is good publications available obviously depending on your interests but I don't believe I'd call them "main stream". I thoroughly enjoy the "Double Gun and Single Shot Journal" and as a member of the German Gun Collector's Assn. "Waidmannsheil" and "Der Waffenschmied" are equally enjoyed. My only wish is that the latter two were more frequent but I understand the difficulties of a small organization putting out such a high quality publication. Other organizations publish periodicals that are equally good but none are found on the newsstands.

But....no, it ain't what it used to be when there was Keith, Skelton, O'Conner, Page, Carmichael and others of that ilk. As others have alluded to I expect the growth of the internet has not been good to publishers.

[edward hogan]

Used to really enjoy Gun World, Jack Lewis and Dean Grennell were wild men who had fun with guns. Had subscription to 70s era Shooting Times and Guns & Ammo. As a kid, found the motherload when a neighbor cleaned out their garage and set out about 10yrs of American Rifleman from the early 60s, before had an NRA membership. All those great Klein's ads for $10 Lugers and 1911s... The old man had a Bannerman Catalog...

Used to buy American Handgunner before they went all racegun crazy, and Rifle; only mag I bought in the last 30yr was Precision Shooting and Tactical Shooter which was a great mag for a guy interested in longrange shooting.

Who buys magazines anymore? I always enjoyed Warren Page in Field & Stream, and O'Connor, Skelton, Keith. Bought Sixguns when I was in college and still think it is the best gun book of all time... One other great writer was Charles Askins. Am too young to have read Townsen Whelen or Major Askins in their day. I do enjoy Phil Sharpe and have his The Rifle In America reprint. also like Barnes doing the Cartridges of the world.
r

[Outpost75]

Well this is depressing. I sent a PM to the man in charge at CBA for a sample of Fouling Shot. I sure wish this was not the state of affairs.

PM me with your email address and I would be very pleased to send you, or anyone else requesting it, a free sample electronic copy of The Fouling Shot.

CBA is a volunteer organization and the membership chairman is a busy guy, so for anybody who hangs out here, I can give him a hand because I get the .pdf version in my mailbox.

[TenTea]

I liked the old Guns Magazine.
Here is a link to the 1955-1966 editions:

http://gunsmagazine.com/classic-guns-magazine-editions/

Somehow, they got my name and offered me a 5 year prescription for $35 and I bit.
Got my first installment last month and it was decent.

I've prescribed to many of them over the years, but not so, now.

[square butte]

I still like American Handguuner. It fallen off a bit in the last 3 years - but still not too bad

[dbosman]

Cast Bullet Assoc. Fouling Shot, and forum, this forum and the old "Guns" free PDFs are where I get my pleasure and information.
I was following a number of Facebook forums, but am so very tired of "gimme a load for ...." I try to only correct blatant errors to keep someone from getting maimed. My biggest concern is too many people are ignorant of history.

[toallmy]

Does anyone go to a public library anymore , I probably kept most of the gun books in our little county library more than the library did . And hand me down magazines , but I always promised to send them back and did . I think I will take a trip just to see our library . Thanks for the thread .

[W.R.Buchanan]

In the world of guns there are very few things that are truly new. Thus we see writers going over the same ground every so often.
This can't be avoided simply because of the lack of new topics to discuss.

I get Handloader and Rifle Mags.

I really like Handloader because my Reloading press is in the current issue!

Just got my new copy of Rifle yesterday. Both of these mags are as good as it gets in the gun world and I would say they are the best gun publications out there. However there are other ones which I buy from time to time as well because they deal with new stuff like tactical guns and semi auto pistols that the ones I get don't generally cover.

I like Survival Magazine and JP magazine as well but don't subscribe.

If you subscribe to any magazine there are going to be good and bad issues.

Randy.

[MT Chambers]

Fouling Shot and Garbi's black powder mag. only ones worth reading!!

[fourarmed]

OK, so the guys writing today are not Jack, Elmer, Skeeter, and Bill. Most of them never will be. And most of the guys on this board are older and more experienced than most of today's writers. Those magazines are aimed mostly at the millions of people who bought guns in the last ten to twenty years, and for them they will serve. I take Handloader and the NRA magazines because they're still better than reading Harlequin romances. And Jack, Elmer, Skeeter, and Bill are still dead.

[Bent Ramrod]

We also should keep in mind that the vast majority of writers back in the old days were amateurs, who made a (very) few bucks for each article, and had a real job that provided most of their income. They could write about what interested them, and shop the result around to whoever might want to publish it. If nobody was so inclined, they'd go back to ranching, law enforcement or whatever until the next idea for an article struck them.

Writers today are in it to make a living from their writing, and have to make the editor and publisher happy, not necessarily the reader. A certain amount of side hustling, infomercials and yet another 1500 words on the same gun everybody else is writing about is inevitable.

Forums like this are the special preserve of the amateur who writes about what he is interested in, and isn't worried about editorial acceptance or payment. That's why they are more interesting than most magazines any more.

[375supermag]

Hi...

IMHO, the only gun magazine worth reading anymore is Handloader. They seem to do a credible job of balancing articles on reloading for rifle, revolver and semi-autos.
I used to subscribe to all the major magazines but tired of reading the same article about the latest wondernine polymer pistol in every magazine.
I enjoy Brian Pearce's articles in Handloader.

I get my copy at a local bookstore...gives me a chance to see if there is anything interesting in any of the other gun magazines. There generally isn't.

[mtnman31]

I don't subscribe to any magazines anymore. Throughout the year I may purchase a couple magazines off the rack that catch my eye and have an article that I think I may want to refer to later. The only one that I actively seek out is the Firearms News Treasury (formerly Shotgun News) that is an annual compilation of articles from throughout the year. There is usually a good mix of history and gunsmithing, though not much on reloading. I agree with what others have mentioned, most firearms magazines have just become advertising mouthpieces. They tout every new fad as the best and they are shameless when it comes to honesty in their product reviews. I do enjoy older issues of Handloader but the newer ones don't have nearly as much that interests me.

[Dragonheart]

The short of it is gun magazines like just about every publication along with the electronic media has fallen victim to a lack of journalistic integrity. Everything is driven by an agenda, primarily money. Now the viewpoint appears to be there is no point letting the truth get in the way of a good story, especially if the story furthers our agenda.

[beezapilot]

The only one I subscribe to is "The Double Gun Journal", a bit esoteric- being dedicated to Break Action shotguns and Rifles, but spectacular photography and nice history- ...
http://www.doublegunshop.com/doublegunjournal.htm

And although it is not on point with the OP's question, I'll throw this in as well- I've done business with this company for a long time- buy one book or fifty the S&H is $3.50- they have a pretty good stock of reading material- apologies to those who are offended...

https://www.hamiltonbook.com/Fishing-Hunting

[robg]

If I'm not shooting, loading ,casting ,the next best thing is reading about guns etc .get hand loader/rifle for good information gunandammo for latest stuff news but take It with a pinch of salt.

[skeettx]

I have every issue of Handloader and Rifle Magazines
and American Rifleman from 1945
All the Handloader Digests and all the Gun Digests
BUT find the internet much faster than digging through pages
Mike

[Walla2]

http://www.classicarmsjournal.com/

It's $20/year for 4 issues. No ads. Great photography. Online only, no way I can see to download. The quality is there though.

Just announced that they are stopping publication. The site explains all.

[holsterguy]

Used to pick up Shooting Times just to read Skeeters articles. Good stuff! Also, one I used to get all the time was Guns Of The Old West.

[Valley-Shooter]

Please delete