Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters How much do gunwriters make?

I have written freelance for the hunting/shooting/fishing magazines occationally sine the 1980's. Most of this time I recieved from $75 on the low side to as much as $500 at best. The fact that I could used a camera quite well made this level of pay possible.....without it, few magazines would have paid more than $100-150 at best.

That's the main reason I have always been an occational freelance writer. Early on, I added it up and realized I would have to produce 12-15 articles a month....and would STILL make less money than I could at my "regular" jobs (and that's BEFORE I took out expenses). Even if I could find the time to produce that much writen work.....there simply weren't enough publications to buy them anyway.

In the late 1990's I thought I'd finally found my "dream" writing job. A local newspaper hired me as Sports and Outdoors Editor. These people were willing to pay me a weekly salary to hunt, fish and go to ball games.......as well as continue my occational freelance work for magazines!!!! The best part was "I" was my own editor and had total control over what I wrote and what pictures I used.

Sounded like heaven. So for 5 years I had the most fun doing what I loved.....but at a cost. The pay, while enough to survive, was hardly excessive.

From my edtitor's salary, outside writing and freelance photography work, I made between $28,000 and $35,000 a year. To make that much I had to work 12-15 hour days, 6 days a week. I had to research, photograph and "hunt/fish" enough to produce 8-15 articles...every week.

If you think it's not hard to find enough subjects and keep everything sounding "fresh" week, after week, after week at that level of production......try it sometime just for fun.

All this time I was also covering 4-10 ballgames (with photos) and writing 6-15 articles about those each week too.....as well as supervising and coordinating (Editor remember) 3 other sports writers. Needless to say my "freelance" writing dropped off to near nothing as I didn't have the time......but I was a "real" Outdoors Writer!!!!

Sure there were some nice "perks" such as free tickets to any ballgame in the state I wanted to attend, fishing guides calling every week wanting to take me on free trips and local hunting outfitters offering free trips......as well as being a local "Star". However, I wasn't exactly spending all my time in the woods and on the water while nubile young groupies answered my every need.....and then leasurly knocking out an occational piece of writing.......it was damn hard work.

I'm not really complaining and I still say it was my favorite job of all time. However, when management changed and decided someone else should choose my subjects, edit my writing, and decided all "free" hunting and fishing trips were a "conflict of interest" and had to cease .....I'd had enough. I was tired of working from "can-to-can't" for wages that made paying the light bill every month a challenge.

I left the "business" and took a "real" job that paid me 3 times the money for 1/3 the "work"......and wish every day I was still there being the Sports and Outdoors Editor (for more money of course).

What I'm trying to say is that to write in this business full time will be very rewarding and fun.....but it will also be a LOT of hard work just to make a "survival" wage if your lucky. You'd better be able to use a camera too....or any chance of making even a survivable wage is almost impossible.

While there "may" be a few outdoors writers making $100,000 a year....they are as rare as antlered does. The "top" writers probably make closer to $50,000 and then likely only if they are also paid editors....and probably photographers. For "writer" alone to make even $20,000 a year would likely put him in the upper 10% of all in this field.

I still occationally write a little freelance stuff, but my "main" income comes from a "real" job.....as does the income of most writers. I do it because I love it.....the "extra" income is just icing on the cake and in truth hardly coveres the expense. This buisiness is truely a labor of love......but a damn poor way to make a living.

Nice post. Thanks.

I know several full-time gun writers who make better than $50,000 a year, and often up to $75,000--and who are not full-time staff writers for one company, or editors.

A lot depends on the how much specific magazines pay. I simply don't find it worth my while to write a print-magazine feature article for less than $800, unless something else is thrown into the deal, such as extra pay for published photos or a column in the same magazine. There are a number of magazines that will pay $1000 or more for a feature.

Writing for the Internet is somewhat easier, because length and photo requirements aren't as severe. It's often actually much easier to write a 2000-3000 word article for the Internet than a 1200-1500 word article for a magazine.

Interesting view point JB. In addition to being a good writer an imaginative enough to develop new topics and stories, luck (I am sure) plays a role. Getting a good story to an editor needed a story at the right time must figure in somewhere.

Oh, yeah, luck plays a role. I've been lucky in several ways, first by growing up where I could do a lot of shooting and huntng (and fishing, which I used to write about as well). When I started out it was also easier for a freelancer to break in than it is today, because far more magazines accepted freelance material.

Getting a story to the right place at the right time wasn't so important then, because most magazines worked well ahead. They would often be buying articles for publication a year or more in the future.

The big thing is getting a useable article in on time, with decent photo support. That often counts as much as content. I've worked on both sides of the business, as writer and editor, and believe some very recognizable names haven't been all that hot at getting decently written copy in on time.

They make a friggen LOT, Randy. Don't let these fellers BS ya!

And...look at alla the free crap they get!!!

I have made my entire living since 1967 as an outdoor writer, editor, publisher and more recently as an author. (Notice that I did not say "gun writer.") My "real" job for 33 years was as the outdoor editor for a daily newspaper.

My duties at the newspaper included working at a desk 4-10 am four days a week, writing headlines and editing stories written by other reporters, as well as writing my own "outdoor stuff." The fifth day was spent away from the office, obtaining material and photos for my two 900-word columns and weekly outdoors features page.

As an editor, I was paid $15,000-$20,000 more than any teacher made locally, and the benefits included health and life insurance and a tax-deferred plan that was based loosely on the newspaper's annual profits.

Leaving the newspaper office at 10 am daily allowed me to pursue other things, such as self-publishing regional recreation maps and hunting and fishing guides, and this usually netted another $20,000 to $25,000 annually. I never did much freelance magazine writing, simply because the few articles I sold didn't pay enough to make it worth my time.

In 1983, in addition to my newspaper post, I became an independent contractor with a contract to produce SCI's magazines, record books and other publications. Even after renting space and equipment at the club's headquarters, I netted about 60% more than the newspaper paid, pushing my combined income well into six figures. For the next 17 years, I worked 70-80 hours a week at my two jobs.

It took some juggling and priority setting to find the time to go, but my SCI post also brought invitations to hunt in Africa, Europe and Asia at greatly reduced rates.

With my wife's salary as the secretary to a school superintendent added to mine, we were able to acquire land and houses that appreciated into seven figures, even after the 2007 crash here in Arizona.

We both worked hard during our working careers, but time was on our side. Counting rental income, her state pension and benefits, our Social Security and IRAs and 401Ks, plus the fees I've charged for co-authoring and ghost writing books for international big game hunters, we have a comfortable income in our retirement.

We have no mortgages, and own only one vehicle, an eight-year-old pickup truck. Property taxes are our greatest expense, but that will change when we start selling our real estate when the market eventually recovers.

Since my retiring in 1999 at age 63, we have paid to send both of our grandchildren through universities and done some traveling in Europe. I've also completed my goal of hunting on six continents, and am adding a room to our cabin. We spend winters at our home in Tucson and our summers at 9,000 feet elevation in Arizona's White Mountains.

Writing and hard work have been good to us.

Bill Quimby

Do we get to factor-in those goodies that we bought and paid-for, then gave away or sold at a loss?

You got enough red ink to write all that stuff down Ken...?

Ken - in order to help you get rid of those "goodies that we bought and paid-for, then gave away or sold at a loss", I'll give you $20 for a new Winchester Model 70 (just send me the Super Grade model - oh yes, be sure it has a new Leopold VX-III on it with Talley mounts). Also, can I have my choice of caliber?

Is that why there is so many extremely wealthy gun witers?

By the way, how much "free crap" do they get?

I guess I should have used one of these....

T'was tongue-in-cheek.

I bet there are easier ways to starve.

Free Crap - definition - a packet of bullets, or a scope now and then because it perhaps cannot be sold as new, if it has a ring mark.

Whoopee, we're rich! Why didn't I see it before.

Why didn't you see it before?

Hummm � Maybe you were blinded by the glint off those shiny new bullets.

Probably was given the red ink pen as a freebie - for being a writer.