I wonder how shooters got to be so cynical and jaded about printed material. What happened to the days when shooters craved new material from Elmer Keith, Skeeter Skelton and Jack `O Connor?
I read all the time. I buy magazines and books regularly. I subscribe to Handloader, Rifle and Successful Hunter. Plus Double Gun Journal and The Backwoodsman. I buy A/H sometimes when there's something interesting but Taffin's material has become filler. I buy every issue of Guns of the Old West every quarter.
I would love to know online where I can find a story teller like Skeeter. Or one with such an adventurous life as Elmer Keith. Or one with such a broad expanse of knowledge of the revolver as John Taffin. Or with the handgun hunting expertise as Mark Hampton. Or one who can provide otherwise unpublished handloading data like Dave Scovill or Brian Pearce. The internet is a wonderful thing but it gets too much credit. Anybody can post anything as fact on the internet with no accountability and it's painfully obvious those who get all their info online. There's more BS that gets passed around online than your average gun shop and that's saying something.
Would you go to a doctor or lawyer that got his knowledge from reading online forums? Or would you rather use one with a formal education. Are you going to learn more about a subject by asking one question at a time online, or reading a book dedicated to the subject?
Pretty much ditto for me, even the selection of magazines overlaps to a fair degree. I especially enjoy Handloader, Rifle, and American Handgunner. These are solid magazines with some pretty good writers.
I am a chronic reader of books, magazines, and sporting relating information from the internet. I definately get a lot of useful information from the internet, but one really needs to be extra careful of the reliability of information presented on almost all shooting forums. If a good soul asks a quality question, often hugely conficting answers are given in response. Some answers are presented by knowledgeable and experienced shooters, others are presented by 12-year olds just being sent to bed by momma or from someone's jail cell after lunchtime. Some of the information presented can be dangerous or, if not, just plain rediculous. If you have been in this game for a while, it is often not too tough to sort out what is what, but if you are a new shooter this can be much tougher and cause severe misinformation to be accepted. The very anonymity of the web forum process adds to its misinformation danger.
This problem is usually greater on smaller web forums dedicated to general shooting. Huge ones like the HighRoad reduce the problem to a degree because so many answers often come in to any particular question that useful information is a little easier to filter through. We also have great and knowledgeable moderators here that do a good job of filtering.
Certainly, misinformation is often presented in printed material. Luckily we know exactly who the writers are and we can call them out when we see it.
Nope, I will never give up printed material like books and magazines. Just like the internet forums, sort through and find what suits your needs the best. And, of course, I found this question and responded to it on an internet forum.