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Kirk, you amaze me!

My comments above are still whats in command in the 'article' topic.

The 'magazines with articles today are dead.

We get to read here free on the internet and even write ourselves. It's more interesting, fun and free!
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I get Handloader and Rifle. They're good, but mostly technical in nature. Most of the other gun magazines are pretty uninteresting to me. I do like to read well written hunting stories but I think the market for them is pretty small. Writing a good story of any type is difficult, and I don't think there are a lot of gun/hunting writers that focus on that kind of writing these days. That's not surprising based on the market.

I go to Barnes & Noble and scan several of the outdoor magazines, if there is an article of interest I will buy that copy no more high priced subscriptions for me. The NRA mags, Rifleman and Hunter are filled with too much political stuff and advertizing, little of interest to me in either. Wouldn't pay for either but being a life member I will get them for the duration of my life.

I used to take most of the gun rags, down to handloader.

Recently I fell for a couple of the $8 subsciption offers from G&A and Shooting Times.

$16 down the crapper, again. Might be one article of interest in a typical issue. The last G&A went in the trash in about five minutes. After scanning an American Hunter in the barbershop, I switched over from the Rifleman. Here's hoping!

The ones I miss the most are Small Caliber News, Varmint Hunter and Precision shooting. I get Recoil but its all fluff. American rifleman never bad mouths any gun they test. The print publications are going the way of the dodo bird. Its a shame.

I fell for the $8.00 a year, for Shooting times, about 1/3 of what it used to be, Ill not renew. Still get Rifleman, and buy a copy of Handloader now and then! back in the day I scrips to 6-8 diffrent Hunting/shooting mags.

I miss Varmint Hunter.................especially the Cartoons.

One of my favorite writes Jon Sundra made a major faux pas in the latest issue of Rifle Shooter. It was a review of the Fierce Edge. He claimed that the Fierce rifles had Pacnor barrels when its pretty much gospel from the company and everybody else that they use McGowen barrels. Rifle Shooter has been moving back from being an all black rifle publication but it has miles to go to get back to where it was.

I strongly believe that the parts of magazines that I like aren't GQ pretty boy and pretty girl writers jetting across the world to hunt some strange unicorn looking beast that was taken by a trip by military helicopter. I also don't like articles that are so keen and specialized that they spend 1300 words talking about the platitudes of some wonderful magic rifle that is fed magic beans that put alls the beans in one magic hole.

The best writers use humor and a regular formula that sets up the scene. They know the literary elements of Freytag's pyramid in which they build up a setting and they have a purpose or goal that isn't extremely clear till the article is done or its is very clean and the writer proves their class like a prosecutor.

I used to love Michael Petrov's articles on old gunsmiths in Precision Shooting. I know that this continues with Steven D. Hughes in Sports Afield. SDH is making ground on the foundation laid by Michael Petrov but I like the stories about guns that give information and like the Red Violin give a perspective to the artistry, mastery and the straight up beauty that came with the old masters.

I also like Muledeer's articles. I from reading his stories over the years appreciate his style and his favorite rifles. I like how he has developed character pictures of his friends and his best friend, Eileen. John Barsness is probably the only guy who I feel can describe and explain modern LR technology for the masses and yet get into the nostalgia of the past. It isn't about the size of the deer or which 3rd world craphole he travels to but its his philosophy and his keen intellect that draws me to put a magazine with his articles into my shopping basket. I think that Successful Hunter when he was editing it might have been the best magazine done.

Sports Afield was very good when Diana Rupp first took over. Its still good today but it was better when it had fewer articles that were longer and more well developed. I think that folks wanting to buy real estate should just go find a hunting lease magazine. SA could do that.

There used to be a magazine that was called Hunting Adventures that was done in Canada that was really good. It was a big sucker that had all kinds of articles. I don't know if the publishers were trying to create a magazine that would allow them to write off there entire trophy room and trust fund at the same time but it was very good. It disappeared about 15 years ago.

I really like Muzzleloader magazine. It has more history and gets really detailed in explaining the connecting between master gunsmiths and artisans and their art. It gives a historical perspective about the connections to the past and how they will go into the future.

I am old enough to remember reading JOC and Elmer Keith as a young boy. Both writers were great at developing the story. It is amazing that the majority of young people and even people my own age are connected to Recoil magazine and Snipershide but don't know either or the difference between a model 700 and model 70.

I really like how Phil Shoemaker writes. I think that I have heard that he is becoming a Hunting Guide Emeritus where he still will guide a hunt or two but that Tia is taking over the day to day hassle of going to the shows, arranging travel and doing all the ground work that outfitters do. That gives me hope that he will write more. I would like him to tell about how he search for his J.o. Conner rifle. Or talk about how the functionality of a rifle is more important than the accuracy. Maybe stories about how the Indian is more important than the arrow. There are a lot of different things that he could write about. I remember an Ibex hunt that he took a couple of years ago that was great. He did the entire build up and built up the story nicely. He puts humor in his writing like ornaments on a christmas tree. He hasn't written much lately but the fact that he wrote an elk hunting story where he and his buddy just went out hunting was interesting to me.

I really don't like the BRO hunting stories done by the alpha crossfit folks with 7 digit bank accounts and 6 digit hunting auction tags. I know a guy who spent 5 grand on having professional photographers to take pictures of his Desert Sheep hunt. I like adventure but I like more of the saved up for two years to go on a sheep hunt and explore and develop all of the ups and downs of a hunt. They may not be the best writers but the stories are good. One of my close friends does some good stories and he will be better and make his way into magazine more in the future. Blake Rothschild is on a good path and is developing the photography skills necessary to do well.

RE: Ed Harris - does anyone know of his whereabouts? We were both member of the Fairfax Road and Gun Club 35 years ago ans shot together several times. His writing was good and enjoyable.

When I was 10 years old in 1961 I was a cub scout and got BOY'S LIFE for free that had gun ads.
I liked those, so my mother got me subscription to FIELD AND STREAM.
My father took me along to go dove hunting in Topenish. As a 10 year old, I only had a BB gun, but I was well read.

I think Ed Harris is long retired and probably doesn't write for any of the paper gun magazines now, but when he was on the AMERICAN RIFLEMAN staff, his articles were among the best; lots of practical, technical information and data. Same for his GUN DIGEST articles. His expertise and main interest was in the area of cast bullets. He was certainly among the top in his field.

I still have the IMR powder identification chart from Harris in the 1990s.
That is a lot of different computers for me to keep the info.

If Jack O'Connor had known the accuracy potential of modern AR's he probably would have been more interested. He might not have bought one, but he would have been interested.

Hand Loader is the only thing on the rack that gets a second look. I will pick it up if there's a feature addressing something I have in the safe.

Sports Afield, Grays and Sporting Classic has become my favorite. The rest seem to push the guns that pay the bills which I can understand so by this all get a great rating which wavers their credibility.

I have taken to collecting collections of American Rifleman, dating back to the 40's. Great depth on technical articles and hunting tales. For instance, one of Elmer Keith's partners in the 333OKH, Charlie O'Neill, took 3 successive issues to tell the tale of wringing out the round in Africa.
Editors apparently don't allow authors the room to develop a good story in todays magazines.
So much of what is written today seems to be a repeated, but abbreviated version of earlier stuff, one way or the other. There is no substitute for getting out there and hunting/ shooting. It's pretty clear who's writing from honest experience.
Barsness, Boddington, Heavey, Petzel and Shoemaker are on my short list of reliably solid reading, worth the time, and the money, every time.

In the summer of 1984 I was building my house way out in the sticks.
Two guys would come over to help. The nearest neighbor, an unemployed architect that had worked at CCI, came over with 30 pounds of old American Rifleman magazines.
My wife was expecting construction to get done every day, but sometimes we mostly read those magazines, or shot at any crow that flew near the house.

Back then the articles were fairly technical.
Gun rags on the rack at the grocery store today are nowhere near as good as those old American Rifleman were.

I’m sure being able to find information online has hurt magazine sales. Google any rifle review, most anything written about it will come up.