Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Are forums and magazines dying?

What he said^^^^

Well I am very pleased to read the info Mule Deer put out on page one of this post. I was given a Kindle 6 or 7 years ago and I tried it, gave it a good try to be honest. But, it's not a book. My wife and I travel outside to the lower 48 every winter to visit the kids and grandkids. We take books with us, the current book and the next one or two inline to be read. Funny thing is when we come back we always end up mailing one or two boxes of new books back.
Tried the Facebook thing 8 or 10 years ago, had 3 friends, one is my sister-in-law, one was a fellow charter Captain, and someone else. I figured out Facebook real quick, not for me. You can call, text, e-mail me, but that's about it.
Well I also don't like black rifles and semi-autos unless their 22 LR's. It's lumber and nice bluing for me. Love levers, and bolts, pump guns aren't far behind. So I like books kind of falls in with my guns.
Not bashing AK's or AR's, but I like machined steel and the printed word.

I am only a regular on four forums although I visit more than that when searching for information on something. Three of them sure don't seem to be shrinking and the one that is was small to begin with.

I use the internet for four things. Communication with my son, researching how to do something, buying something I cannot get locally, and going to about four forums on a regular basis for entertainment, information, and news. The forums I am on are generally hunting, firearms, knives, or general outdoors stuff.

My subscriptions are down to Rifle Looney and a magazine named Muzzleloader.

I read a lot of books and most are purchased used unless it is Craig Johnson's latest book. I can find John Grisham and Tony or Anne Hillerman along with a few others at a local thrift store for a couple of bucks.

Magazine sales vs decades ago are in decline no doubt but internet forums such as this one are on life support and dying.

Facebook has thousands of closed groups that hone in on one topic and kick jackasses off almost to fast at times.

The creators of these FB pages took what they liked about some forums and created their own spot and implemented some things within their own government to keep those groups running the way they see fit

I'm on several closed FB pages and I see those growing year to year.

Not to mention picture and video uploading without requiring a second party server

Forums are indeed dying

Ted,

Actually, as I pointed out in one of my previous posts in this thread, over magazine sales have actually gone up in the past decade. But the circulation of SOME magazines is down--for the same reason you just stated about Internet forums: Both magazine publishing and "social media" have become more specialized, narrowing in on a certain audience.

But overall reading "material," whether printed on paper or cyberspace, keeps increasing.

I still get several magazines.

Like justahunter said....I like to read from paper better then a screen.

Oh and one other thing: the Gen Z’ers and most of the millennials don’t do Facebook. All Instagram and Snapchat, with Insta being the primary social media option.

I prefer some of the better magazines ,in these I find the advertising useful. I suppose it depends on your age but I far prefer magazines and books( 61 years old) This digital stuff is not healthy to look at all the time. I just don't care to see tactical stuff in our more traditional publications.

I certainly like the forums better for more in-depth answers and being able to bookmark some threads for future reference. They were really helpful when I was searching data for my 30R and 450-400NE. Also very good at pointing a person in the direction of stores I'd never heard of before to get various items, ideas and ways of doing stuff. I like that they usually have a cross section of opinions from across N. America and even some input from Europe and Australia and other places. Ya, you have to sort thru the krap to get the good stuff, but, it is there. FB and the like are for the folk who are on their phones all day and you seldom see a full answer to a question. Lots of hints at stuff, but, not fleshed out. But, it is a source of info in its own way. I do prefer the forums overall. One nice thing is you can look at some once a month and read back thru the threads and pick out what is interesting reasonably quickly, better than FB by a long shot.
I haven't had a magazine subscription in a few years, I got tired of a lot of the same old that covered the stuff I was interested in, and the amount of stuff I was not interested in. But, I do enjoy reading some of the stuff people refer to occasionally on FB.

Depends on how far back you go. In the 1960s and before when the NRA had c 100,000 members, the main reason for joining were to get an 03 Springfield from the DCM. Most of the Rifleman print was about some dude who won a shooting contest in Woodchuck Springs VA. The Second Amendment material was concentrated in the Column " What The Law Makers Are Doing" and had pieces about Senator Thomas Dodd and Rep. Victor L. ANFUSO, D NY ( Was he a Communist? His spokesmen said no. Then why did he hate America so much?) The Armed Citizen feature was there but by far the main draw of the magazine was the mail order advertisements, form Klein's, Ye Olde Hunter and the like.

I was a magazine junkie for years, long before there were forums. Then I followed many forums, many of which are now defunct. I don't see a lot of young people posting (say under 30) because of their addiction to social media (different than this one). I have been in the gun game for 49 years. I started reloading when I was fourteen and no my father did not reload so I learned some things the hard way. I can't believe I used a Herters shellholder box lid for a powder funnel! When I think of the trips I have taken in my life that were gun related, rifle teams,deer hunts, elk hunts, dove hunts,hog hunts, varmint hunts I can easily say that my life has been very good to me. Don't forget the hotrod era, my 67 GTO, 70 Roadrunner, 71 and 73 Cuda's, were just some I owned and built motors for. I raced flat track for a couple of years, did the road race around the capital parking lots in Austin, rode my Harley back and forth to the east coast many times, hanging with certain MC clubs. This all is un reachable to most young people today. They are not taught how to build motors or just about anything else. Many are afraid of guns. A lot of things I did back in the 70's a kid doing the same today would go to jail for. I see it as America is in decline, if we cannot stimulate the new generations to do things then we are lost.

Monday I worked for 2.5 hours moving 300 boxes of books donated to Friends Of The Library.

I never use a Library. My wife is the treasurer of a volunteer organization and she volunteers me.

In 1980 I was subscribed to 40 magazines and read every word. The best part was letters to the editor. The internet replaced letters to the editor.

I no longer subscribe to any magazines in the mail. I get a few on line.

TV is fading out. The future seems to be youtube, where conservatives and gun owners are treated like dirt. They made Alex Jones infowars disappear on youtube, facebook, and patrion.

Today I get only one magazine.....Great Lakes Angler......it's a gift from a fishing buddy.....to which I gave him Fur Fish and feathers as a thank you.....his kids love it.

Magazines killed themselves off with the unteenth printing of comparing the .243 with the 6mm Rem.....and also comparing the .308 with the .30-06....all I ever got was articles of hunts well beyond my affordability and things I could have written myself.....skrooem!!!

Then I found forums.....wow what a difference......I had well past 20,000 posts on AR until I was banned from the political forum. It irritated me to be banned FOR SPEAKING THE TRUTH and then I found the campfire.....a breath of fresh air!!!

However, this too is getting old.....Mule Deer adds a good touch to the fire as he points out things of relevance and has lots of experience to add and is articulate enough that even I can relate. I now find U-Tube to offer a wide variety of subjects of value and am spending more and more time there.....

Yes.....magazines in my eyes are dead and forums are not keeping up with my interest level.....I find myself spending less and less time here but I doubt that this will disappear.....it still has value if one knows how to separate fact from fiction......and many times I don't!

No way, magazines are not dying. Not personally with myself. As a juvenile, I looked forward to my subscriptions and still do. As for online articles just the same, I need communications in my world I have subscriptions that go back to the 80"s and thumb through these still. Rereading old articles and stories.
Without gun writers and authors, the world will be boring. I could live without FB, "which is, frankly, turning into a gossip rag". No offense to anyone.

My 2 cents.

I only have one magazine subscription anymore, Firearms News. And even most of that is product promotion advertising articles, but most issues have articulates on historical firearms.

I like reading forums but only visit a few where people are mostly civil and i rarely write much.

I get sporting classics...sports afield, and Rifle. I used to get FS and OL but their gun guys don't ever get feature articles anymore. Its a shame because DEP of FS is really a damn fine writer...if they would just let him write. Instead he gets to put basically blog snips into print...so i canceled. I used to get rifle shooter too...but it went tactical..which i have zero interest in so i candled that too. If i wanted to read that crap id get soldier of fortune

Odd thing is that the last OL magazine i got which was marked as the last one coming had a fantastic article about realistic expectations when hunting. Best article they have put into print in YEARS. I may re-up. Im undecided.

This is a good forum...not too heavily moderated which is nice. The only other one i post on is accurate reloading. I still actively read and buy books too. I got off FB over a year ago and have been a much happier person.

About the only magazines I get now are Rifle, Handloader, Rifleshooter, Guns and the Rifleman. There are some shooters groups on facebook. a couple of which are coupled with online forums. Some are product specific like the .35 Whelen group, .280 Rem. group and I think there is one dedicated to the 30-06. A nice one is strictly for Ruger #1 rifles with allowance for the #3. The Whelen and #1 groups seem to be having the most action but are rather slow.
On magazines I have kept just about every gun rag I've ever owned in nice big piles. Most will end up at a recyclers. Just running through the last ten years of shooting times proves to be they along with Guns and Ammo were a total waste of money. One the American Rifleman, I have a few from 1936/7, all of 1938, 1939 is missing, and every one from 1940 to date. Just MHO but probably from 1949 to maybe 1966 is when they were the most interesting. The ads on the the early ones until 1968, give or take were also interesting. As far as reading a magazine article on my computer, not if I can help it.
Paul B.

One thing is dying on forums are hunt reports. It used to be enjoyable to read somebody's adventure. African Hunting Forum does this but many people get full on hate if they post about their hunts. Technology is changing. I went sheep hunting with an older feller this fall and he had good old stuff and I had new space age light stuff. 15 miles in I was still full steam ahead and his stuff was pretty well beaten up. I think it would be useful for gun guys to talk about lemons. WE ALL GET THEM FROM TIME to TIME. But not a lot of people want to be honest about taking the cross-eyed sister to the dance and instead say they have the prom queen.

Sincerely,
Thomas

I probably have over 300 books on my phone. Mule Deer's are the last real books that I can remember purchasing. Ebooks work well for me because I am on the move constantly.

24 hr campfire made it all obsolete..every thing you need to know is here just ask...