Decline of the American Rifleman

I find the younger generational blame hilarious. I've written a letter to the editor twice to AR complaining about inaccuracies, contradictions, and old school hearsay, and both times the author was a greying old man.

I don't believe I've opened any of the nra mags in a couple years. The "new 429 desert eagle was the last one I recall". Before that I looked at some of the pictures. Lol. I pay my dues and donate when I can to the other orgs.....they can't expect me to actually read that too.

My wife killed a fly in the car with one yesterday. Probably the rossi one you guys are mentioning.....so at least it was useful if that makes you all feel better

bassjam said:

I find the younger generational blame hilarious. I've written a letter to the editor twice to AR complaining about inaccuracies, contradictions, and old school hearsay, and both times the author was a greying old man.

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I know right, we need cool guy's like this writing that material again. Oh, my bag they are the gray old guy's now.

There isn’t any gun publication I’d pay for. At least NRA’s is free.

dannyd said:

I know right, we need cool guy's like this writing that material again. Oh, my bag they are the gray old guy's now.

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Or their kids at least.....but those pants ended their entire bloodline.

Never saw Skeeter or Bill or Townsend looking like that

I think the critical threads on this subject are too harsh. It's costs a heck of a lot of money and time to put out a publication such as the Riflemen. The cost comes from staff, editors and production people. Much has been automated but in that respect it makes fact checking that much more difficult. I'll guess that most of that article started out as a press release and then was developed by a staff member. There's a million different facts that need to be spelled correctly, checked and rechecked in every article, advertisement and looked at on every page and then each page needs to be viewed as a piece of the whole magazine. Try it sometime. See how long it takes you. I've been there. The Riflemen has been down sized several times in the last 15 years and yet it continues to be published with very interesting information. You don't like it? Don't tell me or t.h.r. Tell the NRA. Maybe you can make an improvement.

dannyd said:

I know right, we need cool guy's like this writing that material again. Oh, my bag they are the gray old guy's now.

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It could be that there are folk like me who have absolutely no idea who any of those folk might be.

AbE:
A Google Image search turned up who they were but even then and finding a list of some of the songs drew a complete blank. And I was alive then and somewhat into music, at least as an audient.

It's not just gunrags, or aviation "experts".
It is the decline o the American education system.
"Journalism" today is nothing of the sort--not unbiased, not fact-based, and forget about grammar, sentence structure and punctuation...

I am a Patron member of the NRA. I read each issue of the American Rifleman. Its fate depends on its content. There are other options for financial contributions, if one cares to support the Second Amendment. No need to hyperventilate. Write your checks and sleep well!

There is no money in print media any more. This problem is not isolate to American Rifleman.

J-Bar said:

I am a Patron member of the NRA. I read each issue of the American Rifleman. Its fate depends on its content. There are other options for financial contributions, if one cares to support the Second Amendment. No need to hyperventilate. Write your checks and sleep well!

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That ain't gonna cut it by itself. Voting ain't gonna cut it by itself. Pissanting on THR ain't gonna cut it by itself.

It has become an ideological street war. You've got to get involved in the election process itself. You've got to do the lobbying by yourself. (Some States allow for "volunteer lobbyists, meaning little ole you and little ole me.) You've got to write letters by yourself. Buy yourself a bullhorn... either figuratively or actually.

Look up the definition of "Community Organizer." Don't forget that many (I didn't say "all" ) of the activists have no real jobs or families or property and are free to "organize" wherever their gauleiter orders them to go. You yourself may not have that kind of freedom, but you can model some of your behavior that way for the sake of a different kind of freedom.

Terry, 230RN

jar said:

It could be that there are folk like me who have absolutely no idea who any of those folk might be.

AbE:
A Google Image search turned up who they were but even then and finding a list of some of the songs drew a complete blank. And I was alive then and somewhat into music, at least as an audient.

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It's just a picture of some perfect boomer's who would never be like the kids today.

Darned if I know who they are.

All dead-tree magazines are dying these days, people increasingly expect creative content to be given away for nothing (or at any rate no direct cost to them). Even the Small Arms Review ceased its dead-tree print run.

orionengnr said:

"Journalism" today is nothing of the sort--not unbiased, not fact-based, and forget about grammar, sentence structure and punctuation...

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And journalism as a whole may be replaced by AI ChatGPT with fake references.

Media jobs across the board, including those in advertising, technical writing, journalism, and any role that involves content creation, may be affected by ChatGPT and similar forms of AI - https://www.businessinsider.com/cha...ial-intelligence-ai-labor-trends-2023-02?op=1

It is 'generational'...but it is NOT generational relating to AGE. It is generational relating to ALL of us fortunate to be alive at this time.

*sigh*...

*cut*...*snip*...(no point in going deeper...lol)

We are living in some crazy times...

I had a great uncle who was a NRA life member and would give me the Rifleman after he was through with them, starting about 1965. I've held about 99.9% of every issue in my hands since then.

I agree that its a shadow of its former self, at least things that I am interested in. I think that changes in our society in general are partially responsible. The litigious environment today makes writers and editors careful about what they can say lest some idiot blows himself up and sues the magazine even though what he did was pure stupidity. "From the Loading Bench" was one of my favorite columns in the past and it usually gave some interesting data, techniques, and other information that was not available in the pre-internet days. Now, the "Handloading" column is a couple of paragraphs regurgitating a load from a published manual.

The general public doesn't have the time, inclination, or attention span to sit down and read something longer than a couple of paragraphs. Thus, the content today is largely puff piece reviews of commercial guns. I've noticed that all gun rags have moved in that direction.

But there are some gems from time to time. The July issue has an excellent article on the evolution of the en-bloc clip in the M1 Garand. The "Tips and Tactics" told about using drywall anchors for dry-firing rimfire guns, something I've wanted to try but never had the courage to put one in a chamber. I found the obituary for John Linebaugh interesting. "Questions and Answers" and "I Have This Old Gun" are usually pretty informative, as well.

If you're a shooter, you should be a NRA member, and like someone said, the magazine is free.

Growing up, there was a box full of Rifleman’s, dating from the ‘70’s back to the 1950’s. They were scholarly, and some of it was tough reading for a kid. Dad had an encyclopedic knowledge of firearms, so he could help me out.
They really were the Bible of shooting, in all its minutiae.
In college for journalism, I worked two years in a row for NRA at the Camp Perry National Matches. My job was to write stories about competitor, photograph them, and send a press package to the competitor’s hometown paper.
When I went the second year, I brought along an M1 Carbine I had picked up, figuring I would get a chance to shoot it on one of the practice ranges.
When I mentioned it to my NRA, American Rifleman boss, he and the rest of the National NRA employees freaked out that a lowly student employee might bring his own longarm to Camp Perry.
Boss asked “is it even legal for you to own an M1 Carbine? Did you transport it here legally?”
Eventually, it was arranged for me to fire a few rounds. I had to fire from prone… no targets, just aiming high over the berm, loading one round in the mag at a time…
Gee, what fun, thanks a lot.
In general, I found the National NRA/ American Rifleman employees I worked with to be tools to the worst degree, people who really knew nothing about firearms or rifle matches or the 2nd Amendment. Any journalism school fantasy of working at American Rifleman were quickly disposed of.

I found it humorous that when we went through the great renaissance of military surplus rifle imports, with the gun show tables filled with k31’s, Swedish Mausers, etc, etc…and the ammo to shoot them… You would have never known, reading the Rifleman.

Laphroaig said:

The general public doesn't have the time, inclination, or attention span to sit down and read something longer than a couple of paragraphs.

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I don't know about that. If something were worth reading they might. Look at kindle. People spend hours reading things they want to read. I read a book a week on there. If you start one that sucks you just jump to the next one. Usually about backpacking or motorcycles or cars or guns/militaria.

The magazines (guns and cars and motorcycles ALL) are just so damn bad that we would rather look up 40 year old skeeter articles. And I'm barely 40 myself. And then the NRA books are all just "I know you give us money.... but if you just give us more money....." and then the fact that you're an NRA member.... you have guns... you gave them some of your hard earned (or not no matter) money but they waste 20 pages bashing Pelosi and everytown. Why do we as gun owners want to read 20 pages about the politics we didn't vote for? Know your audience. If I buy a magazine for quadriplegics I don't get a bunch of ads for running shoes or weight lifting equipment.... do they not think that we as members are smart enough to already know what is on those 20 pages. People who aren't in the nra aren't getting the magazine....who's mind do they think they are changing? I give my old rifleman mags to my bil and my dad. Both said To just burn them......thats the entertainment value of them. Its neat to read the good guy with a gun section, but after about two episode of reading what we already know "a good guy with a gun can counter a bad guy with a gun" even that is not entertaining.

There is just no entertainment. Some specs...some pandering to their base....some chastising their base...some begging...and a crap ton of Ads. "They shot a gun. It went boom several times. If it jammed its just because it was new. Fired offhand we hit a massive target at 20 feet. Go buy one".

Every review is like a far less entertaining "mama Mia incident" nowdays. Where the author seems to not like the gun or their experience at all. Just a check.

Same for the shows. You watch boddington, bane, knapp. Etc etc....I love guns and shooting and I know those guys have forgotten more about guns than ill ever hear..... but there is NO entertainment value in the way they stand or sit and talk. To me at least. When they are taking about a gun or something specific you want to hear, then its entertaining. But when it's a show and the topic changes....its just monotonous

Idk. Maybe its like sports to me. I played basketball for years. In school and in tournaments after. Played football. Softball etc etc. Loved sports. But it doesn't translate to much entertainment when I'm watching it. I don't know that ever watched an entire game of anything.

EDIT. And with guns its even worse. With cars and bikes you get new tech they tell you about. New performance features. New record's set. The sorriest bike today is unrecognizable from even a good bike in the 80s (sorry KLR owners...) and the slowest cars today are faster than anything from the 80s and 90s. Lol.

Yet in guns we are still using 60 and 70 year old rifles in the military. We are still hunting with old bolt guns and revolvers using 100 year old cartridges. The new ones come along and fizzle because they bring nothing to the table. How many .243 or .22 cartridges do we need and does changing the shoulder by .0002 IN and calling it a super fireballhornetcracker ( an Eargesplitten Loudenboomer necked down to 17 btw. ) make it that much better.

So I guess in their defense....how much new and engaging info can a modern writer write about a 1911, Remington 700, 870, 500, a hi-power or a newfangled (yet 40 year old and near a senior discount) Glock.


And don't lie.... you Googled it

I used to write articles for fishing magazines over the years.. Not a lot of them, just one or two a year. Mostly “how to” pieces that didn’t generate much money but kept me busy when my charter and other fishing related activities weren’t very busy… For a few years now, the publications I dealt with can’t even afford to buy a single article…All of their content is either generated in-house or submitted for free…

If there’s a magazine you still enjoy, cherish it since magazines are disappearing left and right. Attempts to establish on-line magazines have hardly been successful either… Wish it weren’t so…

lemaymiami said:

I used to write articles for fishing magazines over the years.. Not a lot of them, just one or two a year. Mostly “how to” pieces that didn’t generate much money but kept me busy when my charter and other fishing related activities weren’t very busy… For a few years now, the publications I dealt with can’t even afford to buy a single article…All of their content is either generated in-house or submitted for free…

If there’s a magazine you still enjoy, cherish it since magazines are disappearing left and right. Attempts to establish on-line magazines have hardly been successful either… Wish it weren’t so…

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Naturally. With YouTube around mags will die. Why read a half page on a car that didn't answer some of your questions when you can watch Jay leno talk to the engineer who built the car and take it for a spin.

Same for guns. Why read an article I wrote about rifle accuracy when you can watch Larry potterfield show you the correct way to do it. Why read some unknown guys article on setting up your defensive shotgun when you can watch 4 navy seals, 2 sfod guys and an HRT operator show you theirs? Lol

Same thing happened to playboy with all the free videos online......
.or so I'm told.

lemaymiami said:

If there’s a magazine you still enjoy, cherish it since magazines are disappearing left and right. Attempts to establish on-line magazines have hardly been successful either… Wish it weren’t so…

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Lots of truth in this statement unfortunately. I subscribed to Backpacker magazine for years and watched as it kept getting thinner and thinner. Finally this year I noticed it had stopped coming but they had billed me for a renewal. Turns out I missed the blurb where they said the print edition was being discontinued and it was only going to be available online. No thanks. I want the dead tree version if I‘m paying for it.

A knowledgeable outfit and timeless articles are hard to come by. And not without paying for such quality. I often fear that quality work is too expensive for most companies nowadays and we as a society are slowly falling back into the days of private aristocrats funding masterworks for their own interests and low quality (cost effective) products for everyone else. Steel and hand checkered walnut should not be a luxury.