Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters The latest issue of Rifle Loony News is available...

...to Campfire members who subscribe on www.riflesandrecipes.com.

Thanks,
John

Cool! Needed something new and interesting to read tonight.

Guy

Got the email when out for lunch. As soon as I got home I went online and printed it. Now to enjoy it.

I really enjoyed the Cartridges for Big Bucks, Eileen's Friends With Benefits, and the article on ULA/NULA rifles. Good stuff!

Enjoyed the O’Connor article, recall reading an article a couple years ago (maybe in sporting classics) about a gun maker that engraved Jack’s name on the barrel spelling it with an e.

Just got my latest issue of Rifle magazine in the mail.
Find it interesting to see how Rifle Loonie News is rapidly getting closer in size and content

Phil, this is sad but true.

Another factor, John and Eileen are not beholding to someone supplying them with merch for a favorable review.

WVGuy,

That's one reason we decided not to accept advertising when we started RLN 15 years ago: We could publish what we wanted to write about, not what advertisers wanted us to write about.

Have mentioned elsewhere that as I keep "semi-retiring" by resigning from paper magazines, I'm enjoy writing for RLN far more, not just because of that factor, but because so many paper magazines keep shrinking. This often means "shrinking" article length, in order to save on printing and mailing costs.

When I started writing for various magazines around 50 years ago, the typical article word-length for feature articles was 2500-3000 words, and sometimes longer. The longest I've written was 5000 words, for an article I was assigned by National Geographic on Montana's Missouri Breaks in the late 1990s, but many hunting and gun magazines would run 3500-word articles if the subject needed it.

Nowadays around 2000 words is about the longest any of the gun/hunting magazines will print, and many are running "feature" articles of 1500--which was a typical column length 50 years ago. That's hardly enough room to provide meaningful technical info, or build a hunting story.

But in RLN I can write to whatever length seems right for the subject. In this issue my two longer articles are around 3000 and 3500 words.

We're also always open to ideas from subscribers!

John, you've previously mentioned that as writers age, they tend to write more about themselves and less about the topic at hand. However, I want to encourage you that this is what your readers like most about your work--the stories, and often the stories behind the stories. I had previously read about most of the rifles you mention in the ULA/NULA article, how you acquired them, the loads they liked, animals taken with them, and how they shot. That did not diminish my reading enjoyment whatsoever in reading about them again.

I'll never get to hunt on horseback above timberline at 10,000 feet with the late Richard Jackson and a custom .280 by the late Dave Gentry, so I have to experience it vicariously. I'll read it and enjoy it as many times and as many ways as you want to tell it. Even more so given the state of things with Rifle and Handloader as 458Win (Phil Shoemaker) noted. I like hearing how and where the buck lived, what he eat, where he slept, and how he tasted, and articles don't cover that experience anymore.

Anyway, good stuff and keep us supplied!

Thanks!

Actually the comment on older writers tending to write mostly about themselves was made by Dave Petzal, one of my editors at Field & Stream when I was staff writer for around 20 years.

He didn't mention any specifics in public, but I knew Dave very well and he privately admitted to me one of his primary examples was Jim Bashline--who was a staff writer for F&S for many years. I also knew Jim (and his wife Sylvia) very well--but probably 90%+ of Jim's experience consisted of hunting and fishing in Pennsylvania, where he'd always lived. For some reason he (and F&S) believed that was plenty. And it was , back in the 1960s when he was hired, because the primary audience for F&S was the northeastern U.S.

But he hardly ever fished or hunted anywhere else, except for Atlantic salmon in eastern Canada. One of the columns Jim wrote in the 1990s was about how he'd finally decided he had to hunt pronghorns. It was mostly about how he want through his considerable rifle collection and finally decided his pre-'64 Model 70 Winchester "Westerner" in .264 Winchester Magnum was the ideal rifle. Then he went on a guided hunt in Wyoming and, amazingly enough, his .264 worked.

I got to know Jim pretty well during several years when I was on the board of directors of the Outdoor Writers Association of America (OWAA). He was kind of fun to hang with, but it was always about Jim--and his actual knowledge was pretty much limited to Pennsylvania--and guided Atlantic salmon fishing in Canada.

In the early 1990s I ended up editing a new magazine for a few years. One of the columnists I inherited was Jim Bashline. He always submitted his columns at the last possible minute, and many (if not most) were about his triumphs in Pennsylvania trout fishing and shooting forkhorn Pennsylvania whitetails. I managed to get him to quit, rather having to fire him, when one of his columns arrived so late it couldn't be included in the issue it was assigned for.

I learned a lot from Dave's comment, including how to write gun/hunting articles that demonstrate a somewhat wider experience range--and sometimes put the reader in the moment alongside me.

Hmmm....what's this all about?

Mule Deer;
Top of the morning to you sir, I trust you and Eileen are well and having a decent summer.

After a bit of a cool start and then a heat wave which complicated gardening - again - this year, it's sort of settled into "normal" temperatures and some of the plants which made thus far are starting to look like they might produce.

As happens from time to time, sometimes the issues just "hit home" or "strike a chord" more than others and this was one of those.

The story on big mule deer was absolutely great and I never tire of seeing that monster you shot with the late Richard Jackson. Every time I look at it I just shake my head John, what a beast of a body!

I mean the rack is amazing too, but my goodness he'd be like a 300lb 6'10" size of human for lack of a better comparison.

That Alberta buck was a smoker too. The photo doesn't show it quite as well, but my goodness the neck and chest on that thing are big!

I know in more than 40 years of looking at mule deer from Saskatchewan to the Yukon but mostly in BC that those are not something one sees every year or at least I haven't - so its grand to see they're still out there.

Eileen's hunting story was really cool as well and if she's inclined, I'd read as many of her hunting stories as she wants to share.

You both have a unique way of conveying the experience which allow me to see it through your eyes. Kudos for that as it's not easily done.

All the best to you both and good luck in the upcoming season.

Dwayne

Thanks, Dwayne!

One thing I've noticed over the years with big-bodied mule deer is they tend to taste really good--and if properly aged are also tender. There have been occasional exceptions--Eileen killed a pretty big 5x6 on November 18 around 30 years ago, and while the roasts, steaks and backstraps ate great, after about 6 months in the freezer the burger meat acquired a noticeable musky flavor. So it got turned into sausage, which worked fine.

That date is about the peak of the rut here (maybe in your country too?) but have killed other mature bucks around then that were fine eating.

Our gardening has been kind screwy here too, due to heat, smoke, etc. But we're starting to eat tomatoes!

John

Jim,

It's about the latest issue of the quarterly on-line "magazine" Eileen and I have been publishing for 15 years, Rifle Loony News. It includes all sorts of stuff, from Eileen's recipes (everything from cookies to game) to hunting stories and technical "gun gack."

John

Mule Deer;
Thanks for the reply John, much appreciated.

Our mule deer haven't been in great shape for far too long so while the season used to end Nov. 15 and there was an archery season until the end of the month, everything is over on Nov. 10th here now.

Back in the day however, our unofficial quest was to shoot one before Remembrance Day which is Nov. 11th if we wanted to make sure it wasn't a bit off.

I know you've mentioned this before a couple times too, but I've shot whitetail at the end of November who were so rutted up that when I approached the carcass from downwind I could smell them before I saw them - but they always tasted fine.

One of the oldest ones was so skinny that what was left of the fat between the ribs was pink and he had no internal organ fat left to speak of, yet he tasted fine.

Lastly, I'm a wee bit jealous you're eating tomatoes as we're at least a week off of that I'd say, though it does appear our pepper plants are going to produce wonderfully so there is that.

Thanks again and all the best to you both this fall.

Dwayne

OK. I'm signed up.

I'm in, John. Looking forward to receiving the 'News'.
Gib

Cool!


I can subscribe on your website?

From a boomer...

https://www.riflesandrecipes.com/product/rifle-loony-news-membership/

Best money that you will ever spend on outdoor reading material!

A single magazine off the news stand cost more.