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Since Jack O'Connor left......Gun writing has been a wasteland.

Luckily he wrote enough that his old stuff is enough to keep one going for a lifetime......and still relevant.

I was just at the store and all I saw was black gun rags. Everything tactical and more. I did see a magazine with antique firearms in the title, but was afraid to look inside. Probably had my cherished pre 64 model 70's and Ruger 77's in that one, alongside pictures of Davy Crocket... Not even a good hunting magazine there to be seen. WTF is this world coming to?? No wonder Jade Helm is on it's way. They must think we are all a bunch of ammo flinging black gun tyrannical bitches anymore.

Thanks for the laugh.

Seriously.



Travis

For the sake of everyone, there is no need for you to post on any topic

Jack O'Connor would say, "What the hell is a black gun?"

Which is what we all should be saying.

doubtful given the AR traces back to the 50's and O'Connor discussed autoloading rifles in some of his books, favorably for certain types of hunting IIRC.....

Some of the void left by the dearth of stories has been filled by the better outdoor shows and online videos. Steve Rinella's shows are good as are some of Shockey's. I also enjoy the Fieldsports Channel on Youtube.

Another source of course is books. For the price of a subscription to Shooting & Blasting, you can pick up a couple of good sporting books. Used book stores and flea markets often have sporting books at giveaway prices. Searching on Amazon for a favorite author can turn up a bunch as well.

I'd like to see more articles on upland game bird shooting.



I don't think that's really anything new. Advertising pays the bills in periodical journalism today just as it always has.




I'd a lot rather read about some high-zoot pistol than one more article discussing the merits of the Savage Axis or some other bargain-bin bolt action rifle that is likely to be bought by a very casual end user who doesn't shoot more than a box or two of ammo a year and has no inclination to hunt outside of the county he lives in.

I'm a shooting sports enthusiast. I like stuff that appeals to enthusiasts. I like reading about that stuff.

I like cars, too. I raced SCCA events for years, took a bit of a break, and am getting back in to competitive motorsport via autocross.

When I pick up a car magazine, I don't want to read about some rolling, self-propelled transportation appliance like a Hyundai Sonata. I want to read about stuff I might actually desire to own -Corvettes, Porsches, Mustangs -and even cars that I don't have to own to enjoy reading about, like the latest Ferarri, or new tech in Formula 1, and such-like.



Joe Average thinks a $3,000.00 pistol is expensive because he really doesn't shoot a lot. If he shot with any degree of volume beyond very casual use, he'd know that the real cost of a shooting sports hobby for those who are more than casual shooters isn't the cost of the hardware, but the cost of the metal being sent downrange through it.

I don't want to read about what Joe Average thinks is cool. I want to read about what some other enthusiast thinks is cool -things like the new Ceasar Guerini shotgun designed to go a million rounds; things like IDPA pistols; like what the top Highpower shooters are running at Camp Perry this year, and so on. I'd like to read about experiences, too, and not just things -the kind of experiences Joe Average doesn't see value in or doesn't care about. I'd like to read about what makes the Kim Rhodes and G.David Tubbs of the world tick; about "destination hunting" in places I haven't been to but aspire to visit, someday. I want my imagination stirred, my curiosity piqued, and I want to be entertained by literate storytelling.




That would be like picking up Car and Driver and, instead of finding articles on the Porsche Cayman, or the new Mazda MX-5, and interviews with motorsports luminaries, and so on, one instead finds articles on what it's like to drive a Hyundai Sonata to the supermarket, or schlep the kids to school in one, or do other mundane chores in a car that's as exciting to drive as a toaster oven is to look at. As a car enthusiast, I want to read about "gear head stuff" and I fundamentally don't give a crap whether Joe Average can relate to the Mazda MX-5, or is interested in tips for faster autocross times from the SCCA National Champion.... Joe Average might drive a car, but that doesn't make him an auto enthusiast any more than owning a gun automatically translates in to being a true shooting sports enthusiast.


I'd rather read about how some top-level competition shooter reached that level of excellence than about some pecker-head sitting under a hickory tree with an old single-barrel tree rat whacker.



Maybe you are "just an odd ball."



Steve Walburn is probably agonizing right now over the notion that you'll likely not be subscribing to Gray's Sporting Journal anytime soon.

Well, your memory is not quite pricise.

O'Connor discussed walnut stocked autoloading rifles with four and five shot capacity magazines.

Black rifles? He knew them not and probably would have disdained to write about such crap.

He lived the great and, sadly, ephemeral era of the true American hunter.

Now the sport is infested with ugly plastic guns and mall ninjas and loudmouthed immature slob hunters whose idea of hunting is to make videos of game shot at ridiculously long range to post and brag about on Youtube.

The point....in case it be missed.....is that the problem is not the magazines--it's the culture that spawns the magazines.

"The point" is on top of your little head.

One of the problems in hunting/shooting publishing that hasn't brought up (and I didn't think of until now) is the way those magazines fragmented into what are known as "vertical" (specialized) magazines over the past 30 years.

When a lot of us were growing up (including me) there simply weren't many hunting/shooting magazines. We had what were called the Big Three (FIELD & STREAM, OUTDOOR LIFE and SPORTS AFIELD), which were hunting/shooting/fishing/camping/boating magazines, and a handful of semi-specialized magazines like GUNS & AMMO, GUNS and SHOOTING TIMES.

Today there are hundreds of magazines that might fit into one of those slots. Even gun magazines have fragmented into specialized slots, whether for black rifles, handguns, shotguns, long-range rifles, etc. There are even dozens of specialized hunting magazines, whether for upland birds, waterfowl, elk, whitetails, dangerous game, etc. etc.

Go into a convenience store and look at the magazine rack and there might be a dozen of these hundreds of magazines, dominated by black guns, with maybe 2-3 specialized hunting magazines, along with FIELD & STREAM and OUTDOOR LIFE. (At least that's what's been on the shelf of most convenience and grocery stores in my part of Montana lately.)

No, you're not going to find an upland bird article in any of those, or a squirrel or rabbit-hunting article, or something on pre-'64 Model 70's or still-hunting for whitetails.

Taken a look at FIELD & STREAM or OUTDOOR LIFE lately? They're even skinnier than most other hunting and shooting magazines, because they're still clinging to the idea that one magazine can be everything to hunters and anglers--and the vertical magazines have stolen many of their readers over the past two decades.

SPORTS AFIELD (in the early 1950's the largest of the Big Three) is now a specialized big game magazine, mostly for trophy and traveling hunters. Each issue is thicker than any month's issues of BOTH F&S and OL, because the owner changed it into a specialty magazine, rather than try to be everything to everybody. And it runs a lot of articles on classic rifles, as well as hunting stories.

The complaint that "gun magazines" no longer run certain stories is true. That's because most magazines are specialized now. Unlike the GUNS & AMMO of the 1960's, they don't run a variety of gun and hunting stories. Instead they run strictly gun stories, and if their readers are into defensive handguns or black rifles, that's what they mostly run.

If you want to read upland bird or rabbit-hunting articles, or articles about classic rifles or side-by-side shotguns, or tales about deer or elk hunting, there are complete magazines specializing in those things. You just won't find them on the rack of a supermarket that is also trying to stock something for everybody.

Instead you have to look in specialized bookstores with hundreds of different magazines on a rack 200 feet long, or on the Internet where you can subscribe to magazines specializing in almost anything you want.

Contrary to what old-reliable Savage 99 states, the magazine business is doing pretty well these days. The Internet has complemented it, not destroyed it, and specialization has brought to life magazines on almost every subject hunting and shooting enthusiasts might want. As a result there are MORE articles on many subjects than ever before, published both on the Internet and paper.

One interesting thing is that while its much cheaper to publish articles on the Internet, rather than print them on paper and ship the magazines to people or stores, Internet "articles" are usually much shorter, even shorter than today's shortened magazine articles. Probably this is because the average Internet reader, like Savage 99, has a much shorter attention span.

It's the superficiality of a lot of articles that disappoints me, whatever the topic.

I dunno what magazines or websites you read, but some do run more in-depth articles.

But I would also suggest that the big problem doesn't lie in the articles, but most readers. People don't read as much as they used to, and when they do, they refuse to read anything longer than a page. Supposedly this is mostly younger people, who walk around with a smart phone in front of their face all day long, but Savage 99 is a perfect example of the phenomenon in the older generation as well. Instead of actually reading a 3000-4000 word article, people tend to read five 600-800 word "articles" which are actually paragraphs. And they somehow prefer that to reading a longer article with more detail.

Or the prefer a pile of 1-3 sentence 24hourcampfire posts, which are usually as in-depth and well-researched as a smart-phone text.

When i go to the magazine rack today the magazine i usually buy and walk away with, is Handloaders.

i usually walk away with an arm load but i buy most my magazines when out of town from teh 200 foot rack MD mentioned in his post.....plenty of in depth stuff on about any subject if you actually take more than 5 minutes looking at a grocery store as MD points out.....its out there if you care to actually look....if you want it thrust into your face your kinda phugged

The discussion of magazines reminds me of the articles JB wrote for, I believe Field and Stream.. One I remember and still have is about how he met his wife.. The articles are in a file somewhere in the loading room.. Every so often I dig though that stuff on a rainy day or winter storm, and reread them.. Good stuff.. One of the other articles that was a special one was an article about Thanksgiving Day.. Folks were spending the holiday at a friends cabin.. Some were loafing, and others out for a last try for deer and elk.. Luckily when I am interested in the good old days, I can dig out my old articles, or dig though stacks of magazines in the storage room.. Some fine work there.

Now I occasionally buy Handloader and Rifle, along with Doublegun Journal, and Gundog.. I only get Bugle, Am. Hunter, and just renewed Fur-Fish-Game..

As others mentioned, Varmint Hunter used to be my favorite I bought the first one I ever saw, the second issue..I took it for several years, then the average Job articles were replaced with staff articles and I dropped it.. I do remember when I first got the mag. I thought this is great!!! I soon realized this would be the end of much of the free varmint hunting I had enjoyed for 30 years.. Unfortunately, I was correct.

I suppose my efforts of late to find more have been superficial.

i keep the vast majority of mine too.....-40 out wind howling.....stack of old magazines is a fun way to kill an afternoon....plus my interests do change somewhat so nice to go back and read articles i glanced over before cause i had minimal interest in the gun at that time....

Handloader is the one I've considered getting a subscription for. My G&A finally ran out. So glad. I used to love it when I was a teen. As John said, I guess my interests and the specialization of the magazine diverged at some point in the last 5 years. I'm not even sure why my subscription kept going so long.

I often prefer reading books and magazines to electronic media. Unless I'm hopping planes all day to get back east. Then my Kindle is the ticket.

It seems to me that from the samples I've seen here and there, the gun and hunting writing has improved on average since I was a kid. There were certainly fewer options then. It has been more of a challenge to find the niche into which I fit, though. G&A, Shooting Times, American Rifleman used to hit the spot. I don't know which would now.