Outdoor magazines were primarily about hunting and fishing? The major ones, Outdoor Life, Field and Stream and Sports Afield. Now they are all about mountain bikes!

Makes me want to throw up!

When McDonnell moved on late in 1997, the magazine entered the most difficult period in its long history. Hearst executives, deciding that traditional outdoor sports were no longer politically correct, initiated a move to shift the magazine’s focus from hunting and fishing to hiking, mountain biking, camping, and other “non-consumptive” outdoor sports. However, the gambit failed, and in the summer of 2000, Hearst sold the magazine to publishing magnate Robert E. Petersen, who subsequently moved the magazine’s offices to the Los Angeles area.

Editor Chris Dorsey returned the magazine’s editorial content to hunting and fishing and the new owners undertook an effort to restore the broad-based readership of a large-circulation sporting magazine. But this proved quite difficult, and in June 2002 Petersen published his last issue. The magazine ceased publishing for several months following the June 2002 issue.

In the summer of 2002, Ludo Wurfbain and Dr. Jacqueline Neufeld, the owners of Safari Press, a successful Huntington Beach, California, publishing company specializing in high-end hunting and firearms books, purchased Sports Afield. The new owners realized that things had changed dramatically in the world of magazine publishing. American sportsmen, with ever-decreasing amounts of time on their hands, tended to focus their efforts on certain aspects of the sporting world rather than being the outdoor generalists their fathers and grandfathers had been. With that shift had come the rise of specialized niche magazines catering to smaller but highly interested and motivated audiences. One niche that was not being served—and that Sports Afield, with its long history of high-quality adventure writing fit nicely—was that of the traveling big-game hunter.

Hiring Diana Rupp, an experienced editor and hunter, to implement their vision for the publication, the new owners re-launched the magazine in April 2003 as a high-quality, high-end magazine focusing solely on big-game hunting adventure. The “new” Sports Afield was an immediate hit with readers and continues to strengthen and grow as it approaches its 120th anniversary. Building on its long history, Sports Afield has once again established itself as a leading hunting magazine for the new century.

—by Jay Cassell and Diana Rupp

well, not all may be lost

I have been subscibing to Sports Afield for a couple of years now, and it is a real good hunting magazine. The only gripe I have about it, is that most of the stories are geared for and around the upper end of the market as far as hunting goes. Not a lot of stuff about just plain old hunting.

Course in the same vane as your original post, does anyone remember what it was like to just get their guns and shells and go hunting. No GPS, 4 Wheelers, pocket aging jaws for deer, B&C field judging kit, rangefinder, and all the 3 or 4 hundred gadgets that folks used to get by without. I am not against technology, especially when used to enhance a persons skills, not make up for the lack of them. JMO.

Yup - remember back when the deer hunt was a rifle, a half box of cartridges, belt knife and someone to help drag. :D

That was always one of the joys of hunting in Texas, very rarely did a deer get shot that couldn't be gutted, and thrown over your back and carried out. :D :D

That was always one of the joys of hunting in Texas, very rarely did a deer get shot that couldn't be gutted, and thrown over your back and carried out. :D :D

Javelinaboy & Kdub,
The closest I've found to the old style hunting and fishing magazine is Fur-Fish-Game Which hasn't changed much in the past 60 years. I don't subscribe anymore, but still buy a copy now and then. Their old books on hunting and trapping are still being sold.
Your mention of carrying out your Texas deer reminds me of the time I had last Fall lifting mine into the pickup and using a come-along to hang it up in the garage to butcher it. It was a big doe and must have went over 180 lbs.,but that was a Minnesota deer.

Popgun

I have a good friend that lives in Fridley, Minn. and he sends me articles every now and then from Fur-Fish-Game. He has hunted Javelina with us the past two years. I love hearing him talk about hunting in Minnesota.

Javelinaboy & Kdub,
The closest I've found to the old style hunting and fishing magazine is Fur-Fish-Game Which hasn't changed much in the past 60 years. I don't subscribe anymore, but still buy a copy now and then. Their old books on hunting and trapping are still being sold.
Your mention of carrying out your Texas deer reminds me of the time I had last Fall lifting mine into the pickup and using a come-along to hang it up in the garage to butcher it. It was a big doe and must have went over 180 lbs.,but that was a Minnesota deer.

Popgun

I concur with Popgun. FFG is the most useful magazine I have found for someone who doesn't necessarily take a 21st century approach to hunting, fishing, and trapping. When I read it, I feel like I'm back in the days of my grandfather, where all you needed to kill a big buck was a pair of overalls, a woolrich jacket, and an old 99 Savage. I think I was born 50 years too late!!!

There is also a section in there about building useful tools from common household items. That's my favorite part.

Fifty years ago, that would make you about eight when I was born, if you were born into a ranch family you would have had the opportunities to hunt the old way, but you would be an old man today. You can still hunt that way if you are willing to put out the effort and fortunate enough to know owners of land. I think this would be a good place to meet a friend who might allow you to hunt the old fashion way.

In those days long past, there were, no computers, cell phones, no TV until the 1950s and then little on the tube, no portable radios, transistors came of age in the 1960s. Divorce would be seen as a scandal and remaining single would cause people to think you odd. You had to support your wife and kids, go to church and be a good guy in your community to have friends to hunt with. If all this fills your heart with wishes, then you might have liked growing up during the old times, or should I say the old part of the modern era, but the depression would be difficult unless you lived on a nice big western ranch. I know men that are just that much older than me who think I missed out of understanding what real struggle meant. However, I would rather wait a few years before truing seventy.

Charshooter, my Marlin model 80 was born about the same year as you. My uncle gave it to me in 1945 when we moved to a small farm in Michigan. I was a teenager and spent as much time as I could in the woods hunting squirrels and rabbits. One time I was sitting under a tree when the old farmer who owned the woods appeared from behind me. He looked at my squirrels and said "You shot them in the head, you can keep on hunting". I would pass that rifle down to a nephew, but they are all in the big cities living the modern life not knowing what they are missing.

If your uncle gave it to you in 1945 when you were a teenager, you are older than me, I was just 6 in 45. You must have seen some good old days!

If your uncle gave it to you in 1945 when you were a teenager, you are older than me, I was just 6 in 45. You must have seen some good old days!

Yeah, I was a depression baby, but my dad had work, so we got along OK. I remember reading my uncle's copies of Outdoorsman magazine which is long gone. The Winchester gun catalog was about the size of a checkbook and I had that memorized. My first gun book was A Basic Manual of Military Small Arms which came out during WW2 and I still have that. My high school hunting buddy had a subscription to Fur-Fish-Game. That magazine hasn't changed very much through the years like so many of the others.

yes Popgun, we have been around awhile

I just got a offer to subscribe to Outdoor Life and Field & Stream for one year for only $15.00. Couldn't pass it up. I remember the days when I read all the out door and hunting magazines from front to back, over and over. Those were the days when a kid could carry his gun, in my case a 410/22 over & under, down the street and into the woods to hunt all day. Never did know who the land belonged to.
I don't remember the time I didn't have some kind of gun from cap guns to BB guns to single shot 22's to my famous (to me) 410/22 over & under.
Now I have a small arsenal but mostly just shoot holes in paper at the local indoor range. :(

I like those magazines and Sports Afield but today, all but the later has gone to the “politically correct” non-consumptive sports, such as mountain biking. For some reason only an old man can fathom, I hate mountain biking and trail running. They just ooze of New Age imagery in my mind.

How many remember and enjoyed Boys Life while in the Cub/Boy Scouts?

How many remember and enjoyed Boys Life while in the Cub/Boy Scouts?

Yes, back when it was large format and had Cushman Eagle ads! I'm not an old guy - at least only on the outside ;)

I read all the outdoor magazines, boy's life, any kind of catalog and most everything "adventury" the local library had.

The Librarian ran me out of the adult side of the library when I was nine or ten. My mom went up there and told her I was allowed to read anything they had.

I know you over 40 guys did like me when you were kids; "send off for stuff". You could get all manner of free catalogs and pamplets for the cost of a stamp, wait on it to come in the mail. Different times for sure.

Yes indeed, Boy's Life when I was a Cub Scout, then later on Argosy and True, Guns, Guns & Ammo, Field & Stream, and American Rifleman bought off the magazine rack. But then there were those peculiar establishments such as Herb and Jim's in Redwood City, California where they had an old fashion saloon, sold firearms, magazines and news papers, all manner of tobacco products, fishing tackle and even bait, frozen and live. Used to stop in after work and pick up the Daily Racing News for my boss, a horse trainer that owned a few thoroughbred nags apart from the show horse stable he managed for the Matson Navigation Co. heiress.

Those were the day's when a kid like me could, and did, buy rifles mail order. Picked up a SMLE Mark IV and a 1917 Enfield for about $25.00 apiece. Ordered them from some place that went by the name of "Ye Old Hunter" a mail order mill back east. They finally arrived by Railway Express Agency, in a green truck that looked better than Santa's sleigh. Took the Enfield to high school machine shop class an milled the ears off to sporterize it. Try that today! I even remember saving up S&H Green Stamps and trading them in for a Winchester single shot .22 RF rifle, had to bring a note from my mother that it was okay though. .22 Longs sold for $0.35 a box, while the Long Rifles set you back a half-buck.

Wrote a letter to P.O. Ackley when he was writing a monthly magazine article, even got an answer. It was too cool to be believed for a fifteen year old.

Hunting involved picking up a $4.00 license and heading afield. Not much remains of those heady days when we were freer and had more choices, except that Hoppie's #9 smells the same. Feed and tack stores also have that familiar aroma, oh lord - give me the sound of high stepping hooves on pavement, the aroma of fine leather harness and a loft freshly stocked with oat and timothy hay. Then there is the aroma of 3 in 1 Oil, linseed oil stock finish, and that acrid smell of British surplus .303 ammo. Truly, the world was somehow richer then, and young people healthier in mind and spirit. I was innocent as were we all, and so much the better for it.

In Maine in the early 60's was about the same. Smell of cow manure early in the morning. Up at day break out in the woods in November. My old .32 Special model 94. Run across bobcats and moose while hunting the elusive white tails. No posted land and people to bother you. When you ran across another hunter in the distance you waved to each other and went on your own way. Hunters would even help each other when you heard a close shot and came upon them field dressing the deer and even helped lug it out for some old timers. There were sad times to, like the time my older neighbor took me out rabbit hunting with his young beagle and the dog jumped a rabbit and we never saw the dog again. He told me that happened with beagles sometimes. They would start chasing and wouldn't stop until they dropped. Now I satisfy my shooting urges by bench shooting my milsurp rifles/pistols.

The biggest change I see in the magazines from when I was a kid, is that that the adds in the back of the magazines used to be NRA adds for Garands, Enfields, Webleys and Colts for $25 each. Now all the adds are for Viagra and Cialis (as in "see Alice" it really works).

The biggest change I see in the magazines from when I was a kid, is that that the adds in the back of the magazines used to be NRA adds for Garands, Enfields, Webleys and Colts for $25 each. Now all the adds are for Viagra and Cialis (as in "see Alice" it really works).

I see in your Profile you are about the same age range as me. The big "V" works for me. heh, heh.

Jean48

I found that if I mix Viagra with fertilizer, I don't have to stake my pole beans or tomatoes.:)

Let's try to remain on subject, guys.

I think a lot of the luster of the hunting and fishing magazines is gone because of my age. When I was a kid, all I could do was read the magazines and dream of someday owning a gun like that or going hunting in different places. I was thrilled by the stories and bright pictures. But now that I am well past the half century mark, and have owned and shot hundreds of firearms and hunted in all kinds of places, the stories and articles don't mean as much to me. Sure, I still enjoy reading the magazines but it is still not the same as when I had stars in my eyes and big dreams in my head. But the memories are still wonderful.

Well, I hope you're happy! You've started this trip down memory lane and now I'm going to miss all those old mags something fierce! Seriously, I was born in 1960 and we had Outdoor Life and Field and Stream around the house until a couple of years after Daddy passed away in 1970. He had subscribed for several years. I was also a Cub Scout and loved Boys Life. I would give at least all the toes off of one foot and maybe a few seldom used fingers to be able to go back to the pre-1968 days with a pocket full of money and be able to order some of the guns that were advertised in the back. Shipped straight to your door, too, via the U.S. Mail. And I remember seeing the Vietnam -era Gerber mark knives with sheath for $9.95. I said something to my wife about how I would like to have one so she got me a new one for Christmas about 5 years ago. Pretty close but differant. And about 80 bucks. The old ones are on Ebay noy for a few hundred dollars. Military bolt rifles were around $20. And those wonderful go anywhere two wheel drive trail bikes! Then there was the 12 caliber cap and ball pistol for something like $3.95. If I could only get a trip in a time machine.

Well, I hope you're happy! You've started this trip down memory lane and now I'm going to miss all those old mags something fierce! Seriously, I was born in 1960 and we had Outdoor Life and Field and Stream around the house until a couple of years after Daddy passed away in 1970. He had subscribed for several years. I was also a Cub Scout and loved Boys Life. I would give at least all the toes off of one foot and maybe a few seldom used fingers to be able to go back to the pre-1968 days with a pocket full of money and be able to order some of the guns that were advertised in the back. Shipped straight to your door, too, via the U.S. Mail. And I remember seeing the Vietnam -era Gerber mark knives with sheath for $9.95. I said something to my wife about how I would like to have one so she got me a new one for Christmas about 5 years ago. Pretty close but differant. And about 80 bucks. The old ones are on Ebay noy for a few hundred dollars. Military bolt rifles were around $20. And those wonderful go anywhere two wheel drive trail bikes! Then there was the 12 caliber cap and ball pistol for something like $3.95. If I could only get a trip in a time machine.


I coulda' bought an M1 carbine with all accesories for $35. Even then I could not aford it.

I coulda' bought a 30-40 Krag from one of my Dad's customers for $20!

You guys take me back to another time and place. I started hunting back in 1958 when a combined small game, deer and bear resident license cost $3.15. I read the Game News that cost .15 cents.

I used a signle barrel shoutgun for small game and a surplus military rifle for deer. The funny thing is that we did not know that we were undergunned. No magnums, or rangefinders or scopes that cost a fortune. Somehow, we just go it done. Take care...
Oberndorf

You guys take me back to another time and place. I started hunting back in 1958 when a combined small game, deer and bear resident license cost $3.15. I read the Game News that cost .15 cents.

I used a single barrel shotgun for small game and a surplus military rifle for deer. The funny thing is that we did not know that we were undermined. No magnums, or rangefinders or scopes that cost a fortune. Somehow, we just go it done. Take care...
Oberndorf

You are right. Imagine hunting deer with an M1 carbine today! I didn't know any better. I never got one with the carbine. Use it two years and the last year I had a shot while coming out of the woods. I should have known as It was getting dark and I was walking through an apple orchard. When I saw the deer I had to fumble with the safety which I had just put on. I fired 3 three times and every time I had a bead he jumped, bounding away from me. I had better luck with an old Model 94 in .30-.30.