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Which firearms periodicals are worthwhile?

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  • benenglish

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    In the threads about the debacle at Guns and Ammo, some folks have expressed an opinion that all gun magazines are worthless. I don't agree.

    In the world of NFA firearms, Small Arms Review often has good, meaty articles.

    For collectors of truly old or historic arms, Man at Arms for the Gun and Sword Collector is pretty great.

    For competitive shooting, Shooting Sports USA is good. Target Shooting Magazine from the U.K. is better than good; it's excellent.

    What firearms periodicals do you think are worth reading? On the flip side, which ones are a waste of time?

    (In that last category, I'd like to nominate Recoil magazine. It's slick and pretty. It's also shallow, unfocused, and I found several serious errors in the first issue I bought. It was my last.)
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    ArmyZach

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    I don't just look at the pictures, there are actually some interesting articles.

    Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk
     

    BigBoss0311

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    I browse as well but do not buy. The internet is so much easier to find good info on certain items. I am tired of seeing items in a magazine that are retarded and yet still get glowing reviews and must buys from the author.
     

    Heinz Bar

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    The editor who penned that screed about regulation has been fired from Guns and Ammo. See this. I subscribe to G&A and it's a good value. I'll also pick up Recoil (expensive) or Combat Handguns at the store or anything else that catches my eye.
     

    Bozz10mm

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    I just recently subscribed to Guns and Ammo and Shooting Times. Also, I receive The American Rifleman. So far they seem like fairly decent reads. I was considering dropping Guns and Ammo because of the recent article by Dick Metcalf, but in light of their retraction and firing of Mr. Metcalf, I am going to keep it.

    A lot of hand gun enthusiasts tout American Handgunner as a good magazine, and I am considering subscribing to that one.
     
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    Dawico

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    Guns magazine and American Handgunner are both excellent magazines. One is monthly and the other is every other month but I can't remember which. John Connor alone is worth the subscription price.
    I have seen them give negative reviews when needed and I like that about them.

    There isn't usually enough new stuff to fill a magazine every month but they seem to find a way to keep it interesting.
     

    grumper

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    Only one I get is American Rifleman from the NRA.

    I used to get Small Arms Review but they stopped printing monthly issues and went quarterly. That irked me somewhat, but here's the big turn-off: the head guy at SAR is one of the bigwigs in NFATCA, the group that complained to holder/obama about painless trust/LLC/corp transfers despite the fact it's been like that for 79 years and hasn't caused a crime wave yet. Dan Shea helped kill the only NFA ownership route for those of us stuck in 'no signature land'.

    I do not plan on resubbing ever, and even if I didn't hold a grudge why would I? They put me out of the NFA game for good. Their magazine serves no purpose for me now.
     
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    majormadmax

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    I got a subscription to Guns and Ammo as a Christmas present a couple years back from my mother-in-law and we've been renewing it ever since. I recently stopped the hardcopy delivery and now read it on my Kindle. I like the mag, especially Patrick Sweeney's articles; plus they do a lot of historical military firearm comparisons.

    My biggest gripe is that the digital version is about $1.50 an issue, whereas the hardcopy one delivered to the house is $1.08. Why is that?!?

    Otherwise, I pick up the G&A Book of the AK-47 and a similar annual put out by a different publisher this year; that's about it. I skim through American Rifleman but to be honest I find it less interesting than G&A.
     

    London

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    American Rifleman and America's First Freedom by the NRA are both pretty good. Shooting Times has excellent articles on reloading, and pretty good ones on obscure guns, politics, ammo debates, etc. Shotgun News has all that AND a ton of deals in the ads. I used to have a subscription for the advertisements alone; the hot buys saved me a lot more than the subscription price. It also has The Knox Report which is always worth reading.

    G&A was always crap as much as I know, although their older issues were supposedly much better.
     

    pistolpadre

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    which firearms periodicals are worthwhile..

    ha ha.. Thanks Ben you gave me a chance to talk about one of my favorite things.. didn't see this listed yet, and it's the number one periodical if your job is buying weapons for a Nation... from "hey Jorge" get us a few thousand bla bla bla's for a banana republic, to that 5 sided building in DC buying 200K of something..

    Janes all the world firearms 2013.. Jane's All The World's Small Arms 2013 (Ragnarok 2014) i didn't get a chance to look at it, so the info i'm giving is from past experiances..


    Don't know if you guys know about Janes or not.. brit company that publish wold wide military stuff.. and top of the line at it..

    their titles are always Janes all the world what ever .. aircraft, ships, all military stuff.. and again somehow publish a LOT of stuff that's listed as confidential.. while flying in an ASW squadron back in the cold war.. (i packed the lunches and washed the windows, but got to fly sometimes) i was hooked on two pieces of equipment.. julie, and jesibel .. both of these were top secret and cutting edge .. couldn't even say the name.. Found a copy of Janes all the world aircraft in the wardroom.. they had an article on both of these systems that was more detailed than i'd been given info on from our own troops..
     

    benenglish

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    ... one of my favorite things ... Janes ...
    Jane's periodicals and books are a very special case. Everything they publish (and I mean everything!) is of the highest quality. However, I think of them as sort of the house organ for the world's defense industries; they're playing ball in a whole different league than anything normally associated with "gun magazines".

    Thanks for mentioning them, though. Everybody should at least know about them. Anybody who hasn't lost a few hours paging through, say, Jane's Fighting Ships has missed a wonderful experience. Back in the day, I used to feel about Jane's the same way I now feel about Youtube; I go just to browse for a few minutes...then look up and realize I've lost 4 hours! ;)

    For folks who want a jumping-off point to find out more, start here: Jane's Information Group - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
     

    benenglish

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    My reaction thus far -

    Everything from Jane's Information Group is worthwhile. It's all also expensive and pretty far beyond what most people would characterize as a "gun magazine".

    I should have mentioned Gun Tests in my first post. I no longer subscribe to Gun Tests only because it has so few articles in each issue and it's pure luck if the stuff they test is something that actually interests me. I've gotten too many issues that have literally nothing in them that I cared about. When they do test something that I need to know about, though, they're absolutely invaluable. Subscribers get access to back issues via the 'net and that's an excellent resource, too.

    When it comes to the slick consumer monthlies, Shooting Times is better than Guns and Ammo, to be sure, but it's rarely good enough for me to buy.

    I don't understand why people keep mentioning American Rifleman other than the fact that we all get a copy as NRA members. That magazine has gone so far downhill over the years that I can generally read everything in it that's worth reading (usually one or two things in the Dope Bag) by the time I walk from my mailbox to my back door. Their annual awards, for example, seem to be a function of whoever gives them toys to play with and advertising revenue and rarely goes to the gear I think is significant. At my house, the magazine usually goes in the trashcan before I have a chance to get it into the house. The occasional issue that actually makes it into the house is normally most valued for the advertisements; there are a number of interesting and useful vendors who seem to buy small ads in American Rifleman and nowhere else.
     

    TX0303

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    American Handgunner post their digital versions for free on their web site. I like reading thru them there, but rarely buy the print version.
     
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