Sports Afield is back.

Many of us "old timers" are familiar with this magazine. A few years back the magazine changed abruptly. In one issue the format changed to mountain biking, snowboarding, and other YUPPIE activities. They totally dropped guns, hunting and fishing as if these sports were no longer politically correct. I immediately cancelled my subscription. Apparently the revised magazine didn't last long either.

At the airport last week-end I purchased the new Sports Afield volume #2. Guns, shooting and hunting adventures are back in full force. Give this magazine a try.

They are back indeed. I think the fellow that owns Safari Press bought Sports Afield sometime last year or the year before. Right now, I think it may be the best hunting magazine on the market.

I've recommended Sports Afield -- the new version -- here in the past. I was very disappointed when the old magazine tried to go yuppy on its readers. This new version is a good magazine, but my only complaint is that it's too thin. Granted, the quality is high, but it could still use another 12 pages. For anyone who cares, here are the magazines I subscribe to in order of preference:

1. Sporting Classics -- great writing even if general tone is high-brow
2. Sports Afield -- new emphasis on big game hunting
3. SCI -- the writing is often pedestrian, but the locales are great
4. American Hunter - readable, but redundant
5. GunHunter - I better include them somewhere as I write their back-page
column. Good magazine for new shooters.
6- Varmint Hunter -- Lots of technical knowledge.
7 - Big Game Adventures -- Will not renew. I like the emphasis on big game and interesting locales but the quality of journalism is abysmal. You can't tell the ads from the stories and the publisher seems bent on self-promotion.
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others:

8 - Outdoor Life -- buy it occassionally on the rack
9 - Field and Stream -- too much bass fishing
10 - Gray's Sporting Journal -- More high-brow than Sporting Classics for my taste