This topic hits home hard.
My hobby, principal pastime, is reading about guns. Not shooting them, or reloading for them but reading about them. Yeah I have many dozens of guns of all descriptions, have hunted and shot in competition and I love those things, but my number one pastime by any measurement is reading about guns.
It's a changing world for me. Favorite periodical titles are no more, other favorites are diminished.
I like to read articles that teach me something. Although I am an incredibly competent generalist from all my reading, there is a lot that I could still learn about the metallurgy of firearms, the chemistry of powders and primers, manufacturing technology, marketing (Yes, even understanding the marketing of manufacturers large and small would be entertaining to me.), shooting at upward and downward angles, reading the wind, leading moving game, historical instances of firearms use. But introduction 101 does not garner my interest any longer.
I like to know my authors. It is not requisite, but I read an article by an unknown author differently than one by a familiar author. If Mule Deer writes something that does not seem to agree with my own impressions, I will immediately re-examine my prior conclusions. If an author is new to me I take every assertion with a grain of salt until either the assertion is later verified or I have come to accept the bona fides of that author.
I have pursued this hobby for decades and have reached the point that very little is very interesting, but still I wait on every issue of Muzzle Blasts, Rifle, Handloader and American Rifleman and read every article. It's what I do.
If I learn one new, solid, interesting fact in a magazine it is a successful issue. If I have read any particular author for a long time and have come to hold them in high regard I pay attention to family details because it gives me insight to aspects of the gun culture that I was not raised with..
I look at every ad and if I don't recognize it I read it. I note the location of the advertiser and the man behind the ad if at all possible. I read every obituary, every name and town of every contributor listed in the NRA magazines and who was honored by in memoriam contributions and who made them.
But the decline in print media is affecting me. My pastime is being Future Shocked. I'll cope, luckily there are also books to be read. I peruse e-bay looking for lots of old gun books and search Amazon and Abe Books for classics mentioned by my favorite magazine writers. (Keep the suggestions coming!) That will hold me for a long time. I've read more Elmer Keith than I have Jack O'Connor, and more Ackley than Kunhasen, so there are more books to be found. But I like the technical stuff more than the hunting stuff.
In hunting I like to read the likes of Landis and other old-time small-bore, small game hunters. Technically I'd rather wade through hundreds of pages of Phil Sharpe than one more DBI book. Crossman, Whelen, Hatcher can fill many an evening. I don't think I'm going to live long enough to read all the books I would like to. That will be my saving grace as print periodicals keep falling by the wayside.
I hope someone values my library when I'm gone. It's a good one. But will anyone want to read that stuff anymore?
Last edited by GunReader; 05/02/16.
