What Print Gun Magazines Do You Read and Why?

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ChanceMcCall

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Bowhunter
Bass Fan
Firearms News
Florida Sportsman
Fly Fisherman
Game & Fish
Guns & Ammo
Gun Dog
Guns & Ammo: Handguns
In-Fisherman
North American Whitetail
Petersen's Bowhunting
Petersen's Hunting
Rifle Shooter
Shallow Water Angler
Shooting Times
Shotgun News
Walleye In-Sider
Wildfowl

all from one company - there are others - for example:

Combat Handguns
American Handgunner
American Rifleman - NRA
American Hunter - NRA
Shooting Illustrated - NRA
Guns
Handloader and Rifle from Wolfe Publishing
Shotgun Sports
Trap and Field - ATA publication
Trap Shooting USA
Clay Shooting USA
Shooting Sportsman
Double Gun Journal
Tactical Life
Guns of the Old West
Women and Guns - 2nd Amendment Foundation
On Target

What are your favorites and why?
 
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Geez.
I still subscribe to American Handgunner and get American Rifleman and Tactical Journal as member publications from NRA and IDPA.
I watched Rifle and Handloader decline and dropped them, but am told they are better now.
 
None, except for the American Rifleman, which comes as part of my NRA life membership. I used to read the gun rags a lot, until I realized that they were basically just shills for the gun industry. They never say an unkind word about a new product, no matter how bad or useless it is. Even the American Rifleman makes me mad with its off-topic political rants.
 
Handloader and Rifle from Wolfe Publishing. They are, I believe, a little more technical in their writing and are generally more interesting. The standard off the rack mags just seem to churn existing already out there info. I don't buy many firearms as many here seem to do, so I'm not looking to stay on top of the newest turbocharged hand cannon or shoulder fired ray gun.
 
None. They offer nothing I can’t find for free elsewhere and often with better writing and less social commentary on non gun related items.

My American Rifleman mags usually go straight to the trash. They’re not usually very enlightening on any topic and always a day late and a dollar short compared to information online. For that matter, I only keep my NRA life membership at this point because I’m hopeful for some change for the better in the future (more pro gun, less commentary on everything else) and don’t want to have to join again.
 
I use to read most of them: American Rifleman, Shooting Times, Guns and Ammo, Combat Handguns, SWAT, Guns, American Handgunner, Guns and Ammo Handguns, and Shotgun News. After awhile I got bored with them as they were all pretty much writing about the same thing every month.

Nowadays if I'm with my wife at the bookstore I will see if they carry Small Arms Review and sit down and read that while I'm waiting.
 
About all I read any more is American Rifleman (free from the NRA), or hook & trigger (Florida hunt/fish magazine, free from wal mart). The only exception is that I will occasionally purchase some of the magazines dedicated to snipers if there is an article that is particularly interesting, or written by a friend. The main reason I don't buy these things is first off, the price. Those little stacks of paper stapled together aren't worth the $ charged for them. Also, most of those magazines tend to showcase brand new products (which I am rarely interested in) and often products that the average person can't afford or just isn't willing to buy- like 1911 pistols that cost several thousand dollars. Or custom rifles in the same price range. These are the type of guns usually on the cover.
 
I don't even flip through magazines at the store anymore.
Too much emphasis on "latest & greatest" rather than long term comprehensive test.
Magazines seem to be written for people new to sport or novice, a generalization but that's how it seems.
One of the last gun magazines I subscribed to had a particular columnist that read as condescending to me.
Pics of gun with a knife, issue after issue; how about include chronograph data rather than knife pics.
Euphemisms.
The term venerable used with 1911 should never be in print again, its been wore out already.
 
I am a Life Member of the NRA, and I get the American Rifleman. They made a mistake taking all the hunting material out of the American Rifleman and putting in American Hunter. Of course it was all in the quest to maximizing profits. Someday they will have one magazine with vowels, and the other, consonants only. I have a collection of American Rifleman magazines, from the 1990's complete to WW2, then I have some years, some issues before that. The magazine became more and more commercial after 1968. The best issues were before 1980. I no longer save American Rifleman issues because the magazine is no different from any other rag promoting product. Every article has a commercial tie in, just recently, a worthless article about Pythons. It was just an infomercial for a hard cover Python book.

Legendary. How many times have you read a description that starts with legendary?

I subscribe to Rifle, Handloader, American Handgunner. With the other magazines, I can get a subscription for less than ten bucks a year, yes , it is paid for advertising, but sometimes I buy in. I am currently reading Guns for $9.95 for twelve issues.
 
AlexanderA said:
None, except for the American Rifleman, which comes as part of my NRA life membership. I used to read the gun rags a lot, until I realized that they were basically just shills for the gun industry. They never say an unkind word about a new product, no matter how bad or useless it is. Even the American Rifleman makes me mad with its off-topic political rants.
Click to expand...
Well said ... and Ditto.
 
:what: If I can find it ....... I BUY IT!!

Without getting specific .... I do enjoy especially anything reporting on old American guns, from the winning of the west, Civil War, etc.
But I'm not a gun mag gourmet, I'm a gun mag gourmand. :evil:
 
AlexanderA said:
None, except for the American Rifleman, which comes as part of my NRA life membership. I used to read the gun rags a lot, until I realized that they were basically just shills for the gun industry. They never say an unkind word about a new product, no matter how bad or useless it is. Even the American Rifleman makes me mad with its off-topic political rants.
Click to expand...

GBExpat said:
Well said ... and Ditto.
Click to expand...

I'll third this. Well Said.
 
I get American Rifleman, my wife American Hunter. Usually they just get skimmed over. I also get Guns and Ammo, mostly for the "Identification and Values" column. At my office I get North American Whitetail, Missouri Conservationist and Missouri Game and Fish for the waiting area. I also get a quarterly magazine called Traditions, from the NRA Foundation. It's very informative about the Friends of NRA program and where the grant money goes.
 
Have subscriptions to most of them as I share them with my retired FIL who likes to read them. Gun Tests and Handloader stand out as consistently providing useful information. Shooting Times, I read for Allan Jones and the occasional coverage of a firearm that I find interesting. Guns and American Handgunner have long time contributors but sometimes you can kinda predict what some of them before you read their column will say for better or worse. The gadget reviews in these last two magazines are pretty useful.
 
I wish it wasn't, but what is - is. While even many years ago the gun writers were genuflecting to the gun manufacturers out of necessity, the writers were knowledgeable people with considerable real world experience about what they wrote and while they had to be careful about panning a gun, they certainly could and normally did tell you a lot about the gun and/or ammo they were reviewing. If you read between the lines you could even figure out their disguised criticisms: e.g. Ruger builds a very strong gun that is well worth the money and the money you save over the more premium brands will more and pay for some gunsmithing to improve the trigger pull.

Many of the writers had a LEO background and a few were still so engaged at the time of writing. Others, like then Editor of Shooting Times, (George Nonte) had contracts with federal agencies and none of them were inclined to publicly stand out against gun control. (At the time, neither was the NRA who was heavily invested in the passage of the Gun Control Act of 1968.) That did not mean that privately they didn't have different thoughts.

Despite laws regarding the illegality of concealed carry in most places, most of those writers knew that other than NYC those laws didn't apply to them, because of who they were. Any existing laws would just be overlooked for them and many others. Long before LEOSA many ex LEOs or retired LEOs carried without fear because of professional courtesy. In many areas, business owners carried because the local police told them they could and once in a while shot some nimrod crook without being arrested. Times were different.

In full disclosure, I do subscribe to a couple of these magazines and get others with memberships. None of them are really of much value. In fact, I only subscribe in the hope they will get better and survive. I actually take them somewhere and put them out for others to read.

I was hoping someone was going to point out a magazine, other than reloading magazines, that I was missing and should be reading.
 
AlexanderA said:
None, except for the American Rifleman, which comes as part of my NRA life membership. I used to read the gun rags a lot, until I realized that they were basically just shills for the gun industry. They never say an unkind word about a new product, no matter how bad or useless it is. Even the American Rifleman makes me mad with its off-topic political rants.
Click to expand...
 
There used to be several gun / shop / wood working magazines that I enjoyed reading. About 10 years ago they started printing them all in small print to save paper / printing / shipping costs. I stopped reading all of them and let the subscriptions run out. It was just too much work trying to make out the small text and I get better information from the internet.
 
I like handloader, it's cheap and it gives me unique load data for unusual bullets or calibers and it's always a lot of fun to hear about the wacky hijinks they get up to testing stuff.
 
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