Guns & Ammo

I have two issues of Guns & Ammo left on my subscription, and after some thought, I’m not going to renew.  It’s a combination of several reasons, which because I’m a blogger, I’m going to share with you.

  1. Decline in quality: I fee like I’ve been reading the same article about the latest UltraBeltedMagnum/Custom 1911/tacticool accessory for the last two years.
  2. Lack of timeliness: I have gotten tired of reading things in G&A that I read two months ago on the blogs; that includes gun reviews.
  3. Boredom: Honestly, since Jeff Cooper passed, I don’t have nearly as much incentive to read G&A any longer.  The magazine (to me) has lost a piece of whatever so endeared it to me.

I guess what frustrates me is that I used to read G&A for technical information, and they’ve really cut that portion of the magazine down.  I still read my American Rifleman from the NRA, but I just sort of flip through G&A.  I do confess that I will sometimes read American Handgunner, but that’s because it makes me laugh due to a lack of quality.

6 Comments

  1. Had the same experience a few years ago. Got so I could hardly read G&A and finally gave it up. I get my gun info on The High Road these days. More fun, and I can ask questions.

  2. Why can’t there be a magazine called “Average Shooter”? A regular gun owners magazine. One month an article on shooting single shot .22s, a 30 year old revolver and some obscure mil-surp rifles and the joys of its ownership (setting up, cleaning, buying ammo, etc). Next month an introduction on DIY basic gunsmithing on the AR-15, the history of the Chaut Chaut machine gun, hunting with Dad’s old deer rifle and what that $50 BSA scope is really like.

    I’d read that. Regular folks and their experiences with their guns. And sometimes a special editorial: “Your first gun show and what to expect when you get there.”.

    Hell, maybe an article on real, basic marksmanship without having own a unlimited open match rifle worth more than your car with handloaded ammo. How about shooting that basic A2 AR-15 using off the shelf factory ammo.

    Alas, magazines are about product placement, not product usage. I can dream.

  3. I’m feeling very similarly. I’ve learned most of what I know about guns from reading G&A over the years and the past three years or so of it have been really bleh. Like you mentioned, over the past couple of years, they’ve been pimping the latest super-duper ultra magnum cartridges. 99% of the time those won’t fill the need any better than a .308. Thankfully that’s fallen off. Even Cooper’s Corner I had often already read online at http://dvc.org.uk/~johnny/jeff/ or http://www.thesconce.com/ — and that’s the full version, not the trimmed down one that G&A ran. I do think it’s been looking up a bit in the past month or two. I think I have another year on my subscription, so I’ll see. One thing I definitely want to see gone are the sex-enhancement adds in the back. I want my sons to be able to read it when they’re still boys.

  4. Looking back to the sixties issues I can only wonder what happened. Those I enjoy reading. A few of them wrote about Browning’s machine guns, Dr. Gatling, and a few others. I can tell they will never write any more of that nature. Since it proves that machine guns are not very complicated and easy to build if you know what you’re doing. Not to mention 1963-1969 had some article on the GCA’68. Constantly going back to Elmer Keith’s article on long distance shooting with six guns. Something I really want to learn about. One of the 1977 issues I really enjoyed. Whole section on shotguns.

    Not to mention letters from readers back then. Just by reading those I find myself asking “What the hell happened?”

    Maybe G&A needs to take a trip back down memory lane……

  5. I like G&A’s periodic articles on shooting .22s – but not enough to renew my subscription.

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