Back in the 1980s and 1990s I amassed a huge pile of gun rags that I read daily. When I married I threw them all out, and eventually regretted it. I managed to find copies of a few of my favorite issues on eBay, but that was it. Three Xerox boxes full of gun rags, all gone...

I amassed a lot of my gun knowledge in those days from the likes of Mas Ayoob, Jan Libourel, Mike Venturino, Chuck Taylor and Chuck Karwan. I even learned a thing or two about oddball guns from Robert T. Shimek. And those gorgeous centerfold pics in AH from Ichiro Nagata compelled me to sin at the gun store many times.

Sadly it is indeed the end of an era. I stopped buying gun rags a long time ago because they got thinner and were more full of advertisements than actual articles. I guess I'm part of the problem, but to be honest I lost interest in them when all the great gunwriters of old retired or passed away.

 

I still get Guns & Ammo and Shooting Times, the subscriptions are incredibly inexpensive, and gives me some idea about what ZBX454 firearm internet posters are writing about, since it's evidently not cool to mention the manufacturer or even what type of gun is being discussed. Thankfully not usually a problem on the Colt Forum, although many here are fond of just using product codes.

I'll probably renew Shooting Times, but I'm not the target audience for Guns & Ammo, except for Garry James excellent column and articles. I can skip the first few pages of each issue about a holster that's part Lego and part Transformer, and a scope that I would have to attatch to a single-shot .22 to have a chance of lifting. But not too many seem to practice shooting anywhere but from a bench, so not a problem I guess.