what gun magazines (the paper stuff)

4

4V50 Gary

Staff
Do you guys read? I get The American Rifleman and American Gunsmith Magazine as well as a couple of blackpowder magazines (Muzzle Loader, Muzzle Blasts).

I'm trying to compile a list of magazines my publisher can send a sniping book to for review.
 
I used to read Guns & Ammo and Shooting Times---too many reviews that seemed to embellish featured firearm's with very little criticism. I dare say they would not want to discredit any advertisers. Often there are charts of ballistics an group sizes for new rifles that listed miniscule group sizes for a wide variety of factory and handloaded ammo.......all Aesop's fables in my book. Also they seem to enjoy sharing your name and address to a wide variety of mailing lists. The magazines have few pages with a phenomenal amount of advertisements in them---they should give them away for free.
 
Gun Tests, American Gunsmith, American Rifleman, Guns & Ammo, Ballistic are my rags of choice. Ballistic very entertaining, so as for pros/cons, I see some in their pages, but not a lot. Gun Tests is very objective. American Gunsmith is very informative, so issues that people run into often appear in the pages of that, too. American Rifleman and Guns & Ammo, while great reads and informative in my eyes, aren’t awfully objective. I think, like mentioned above, they don’t dare offend their sponsors too much.
 
Have you given any thought to reaching out to someone of the social media shooting crowd (social media being all encompassing here, YouTube etc). You may be able to reach a much different market than you would through the magazine crowd if you push a few copies of your book out to some of them.
 
I don't read any of the gun rags anymore. Not a one of them really tells you the truth when they test a gun or an outdoor product. The guns and the ammo are supplied by gun manufacturers, who are the same people who contribute stupendously to the distribution budget. The writers risk alienating the person who signs their paycheck if they say something overly critical of a client's products, so they say only nice things and end up alienating their reading public. Same when they write about hunting trips, they don't want to tick off the outfitter that just gave them a couple thousand dollars trip for nothing. So after a while all the stories are the same: great guns that don't work right, and great trips that we can't afford anyway.
 
subscriptions

The American Rifleman, and bamaboy's American Hunter gets here first, so I read it as well. Been getting Rifle for a long time as well.
 
I get a Guns isn't too bad. the Rifleman is a shadow of what it used to be. I base that on the fact I have almost all the copies from 1936 to the present date A few 1936/37 and missing all of 1939. Rifle and Handloader used to be good and I still get those. I dropped Gun and Ammo years ago and Shooting time about a years later. Frankly, they've all become nothing more than printed infomercials. Dropped Gun Tests years ago when two of their reports did not jive with personal experience, plus one article showing little knowledge on how single shot rifles work. I wrote them several time on the issues mentioned and they actually printed one. I'm surprised they're even still around.
Paul B.
 
If I were limited to one gunrag, without question it would be Firearms News (fka Shotgun News).
I also subscribe to American Handgunner, and receive Shooting Illustrated with my NRA membership.
 
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