Wednesday, September 02, 2015

Guns: A Gun Rag Gazetteer

I pick up my fair share of dead-tree shooting magazines, mostly for something to read when I'm tired of staring at a screen. They all have their charms (even the poorly-written ones are chock full of glossy pictures and advertisements), so here's a quick overview of some of my bathroom reading rack for this month...

Shooting Illustrated
This NRA publication is basically "American Rifleman" minus all the hunting and historical stuff. Instead, there's a focus on personal defense, competition shooting, and firearms esoterica (let's handload for your Mosin-Nagant!). Tam is a contributor, and it's cheap, too - only $20 a year for NRA members. 
Interesting Article: A feature on "The Mad Minute" by Ed Head
Featured Gun Review: Kimber Micro Carry .380 ACP
Iffy Content: An interview with author Brad Thor about gear used in his novel

Jerry Tsai's infamous anti-gun take on "sporting purposes" temporarily made this publication a pariah, but a quick switch in editors (and a gung-ho pro-2A change in tone) have allowed advertisers and shooters to embrace it for what it is: gussied-up ad-copy for the latest expensive Blastomatic.
Interesting Article: Training and fitness tips from Buck Doyle of Follow Through Consulting.
Featured Gun Review: DPMS Gen II .308 AR
Iffy Content: Agency Arms G34 "review" (note - not a knock on the company or its custom GLOCKs, which I'm sure are fine - I just thought the article was pure fluffery)

This quarterly bills itself as "The Premier Firearms & Survival Magazine" - not sure if that's the case, but it certainly is the premier magazine of Tactical-Life publications, which puts out a bunch of other "tactical" gun rags.
Interesting Article: A survey/Q&A with various firearms celebs (think Chris Cheng, Bill Wilson) about what gun they use for home defense.
Featured Gun Review: Rainier Arms PDW (it's a gun rag - of course they're going to feature a $2,000 NFA firearm)
Iffy Content: An article about surviving a malfunctioning elevator. Really?

American Shooting Journal
A monthly gun magazine that's about as cheap as it can be - $5 on the newsstand, 36 issue subscription for $50. Of course, most of the pages are absolutely stuffed with ads, so it all evens out. There are articles here you won't find anywhere else, and Oleg contributes photos.
Interesting Article: A bio on Gabrielle Pitre, an 18 year-old master-classified high-power shooter
Featured Gun Review: Big Horn Armory Model 1889 .500 S&W
Iffy Content: A lengthy feature on Battle Comp - treads a bit too close to infomercial territory

This is basically Guns & Ammo's take on the glitzy modern gun magazine, designed for a younger demographic than, say, Shotgun News. It's pretty expensive compared to the others ($9), though, and a bit light on content overall.
Interesting Article: Guns of "Terminator Genisys" (I normally hate these types of articles, but it's a cool look at Harry Lu and his movie armory)
Featured Gun Review: Grey Ghost Precision Specter Heavy .308
Iffy Content: A feature on Jeremy Stafford and his Krav Maga AK Operator and Foreign Weapons Course - again, not a hit on the training, but I've read plenty of better training AARs on webforums


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