Got a subscription for Guns of The Old West

This Christmas I got from my wife's grandparents a subscription of "Guns of the Old West" magazine put out by "Combat Handguns".

It's a very cool magazine, I think it comes out 4 times a year. I have the fall 2010 release so far.

 

I LOVE it. Sometimes I get impatient and buy it off the news stand, then I'll donate it to the barber or dentist when my copy finally comes.

 

Hope you have better luck than I did. I took out a subscription a few years back ("Guns of the Old West"). I like the publication and thought it would be nice to have it sent to the house. Nine months and several phone calls later, I still hadn't received an issue so I canceled the subscription. A month later I received two back issues???

 

SUbscriptions were called freebees when I worked for a gun rag. That is the subscriber was getting a freebee in that we did not make the cut of the cover price money from the distributor we did from an over the counter sale.

Interestingly last week I got a call from a subscription service wanting me to renew my subscription to a gun rag. I asked how long they had been handling my subscription and she said two years. I then commented that I had yet to recieve a single issue by mail and did buy that title over the counter at a local grocery store and was now looking forward to my two years she owed me. For some reason she hung up before I could find out when delievery would start.

Subscriptions are VERY important to the publisher though as those numbers show a potentual advertiser the size of the audience they will be reaching and the higher the audience the more one can charge the advertisors.

What with the internet and sites and boards like this I would not want to stake my savings on starting a new paper magazine these days. Got no idea what ad rates are like on websites nor the audience levels. Seems like a gun writer could easily starve to death these days......just like thirty years ago. The publisher and distributor made the moneyand others were in it because they loved seeing their names in print or they loved what they were doing and put up with a pitance for pay.

How could an electronic gun mag compete with free sites like this?

-kBob

 

Are you kidding, with the knowledge, and good comeraderie and good humor/sarcasam here, why would anyone buy a magazine again? Seriously though, I still love the paper versions. gotta have something to do in the "LIBRARY" at home.

 

Gun magazines in general, and the groupies that follow their resident "type-writer" jockies do make interesting reading on the forums. I love it when a good dialog is going and someone tries to trump in with "so and so" wrote this and anything else is wrong. Well, excuse me, that says the rest of the world is too dumb to think or have an opinion. Their is some legitimate research that occasionally comes out of the fog, but, most of what has been posted or quoted from publications is a regurgitation of a previous work or opinion. And, when it comes to opinions, we know how much weight they carry. Want, proof ~ look at the threads that argue what the best caliber is or ballistic tables.

I've got to where I research a writer as much as the article or book. Most have their own agenda ($$$), and in the end we all have to form our own "opinions" about what we read.

My rag rant... I still buy, "Guns of the Old West" at the news stand.

 

Speaking of apparent agendas I recently read in a Magazine, an article where the author RECOMMENDED the use of Pyrodex PELLETS as the best charge for a BP revolver. I almost fell off the throne!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes I agree, everyone has the right to their opinion.

 

On the subject of magazines, last week I received an order from TOW and in the paper work was a flier for subscription to MUZZLELOADER. I know that the advertisements is the real Bread and Butter for most publications but sometime there are really decent articles in them. Has anyone had any experience with this publication pros or cons.

 

Muzzle Loader Magazine

About MuzzleLoader Magazine, Scurlock Publishing.

Back in the 80s, I was into the whole "Buckskinning" hobby. MuzzleLoader was and is a great publication that has a lot of good articles about the whole Long Hunter ~ Fur Trade ~ Early Frontier Era. They even published "The Book of Buckskinning," which started a whole series of books.

Great publication and definitely worth reading if you are into that era on firearms and woods skills.

Got a pretty neat web site: http://www.muzzleloadermag.com/

 

I'll be honest, I don't think there'll be that much info in the magazine that I can't find on THR or the rest of the web, but I'm a sucket for pretty gun pictures on pretty paper.

 

You won't be sorry...except when you're waiting on the next issue...

 

I love the magazine. great pictures and one of my faviorite typ of guns. Too bad it only comes out 4 times a year. Part of my bathroom library.

 

One of the best magazines around.

 

My favorite gun magazine. It's not perfect but GOTOW is very entertaining and informative.

 

So Race,

How is Jade these days?

Just had to ask, the kids were watching her drive around getting info in her sports car last night, while evil doers were plannig their missle launch in the swamps.

-kBob