GUNS and American Handgunner move to digital only.

[Cholla]

It’s a sad day. The longest running commercially published gun magazine has stopped the paper version. Watch most of the video before tearing your garments and heaping ash upon your head. 
 

 

[Rye Miles #13621]

American Handgunner is the only magazine I subscribe to. Sad day.🥲

[Trailrider #896]

I wonder how the passing of some of the great gun writers, like Mike :"Duke" Venturino and John Taffin have made any difference?  Maybe it is because many of us are not interested in the latest gun products and the costs thereof. As far as not spending money for magazine subscriptions, I just renewed one to a model railroad magazine for $54 for one year. And my disposable income has decreased now that I am retired.  Oh, well. It is too bad. I doubt I will go to their podcasts. I don't have a $300+ ipad, and if I spent that much, it would pay for six years of paper magazines. 

[Cholla]

According to the podcast, which can be watched in any Internet connected device, this was coming for a decade. I believe Outdoor Life went 100% digital a few years ago. Guns Of The Old West went digital the last I checked. 
 

FMG refused certain advertising such as tobacco and some poor quality products which impacted their bottom line.

 

I had people want me to write their latest AR-style rifle. Great, how is it different that the countless other AR platforms? What about it will make folks want to read the article? Crickets. 

 

I have to laugh at some of the comments with the video. One guy claimed ALL the articles in AH were written by shills to sell guns. Excuse me? All of my articles but one were about guns produced decades ago!

[Pat Riot]

I hate to say this but I get 2 magazines. American Rifleman and Concealed Carry. I rarely look at either one in any detail. 
I got an offer to get the Guns & Ammo magazine delivered for like $15 a year. I didn’t bother. 
I use my iPhone for everything. I rarely read printed materials except for gun, tech and reloading manuals. 
I have decided that I am going to start going to the local library. Mostly because I want to support them. It would be a shame for a public asset like that to go under. 

[Joe Cross, SASS #13848 L]

It's the only mag I subscribe to. No mention of what happens to current paid subscriptions. Mine goes thru 2028.   

[Rye Miles #13621]

3 hours ago, Joe Cross, SASS #13848 L said:

It's the only mag I subscribe to. No mention of what happens to current paid subscriptions. Mine goes thru 2028.   

Maybe it’ll go towards the digital version which I’m sure we’ll have to pay for. I won’t pay for a digital subscription, heck I hardly read the SASS Chronicle for free.  The print version we get I do read. It’s in the bathroom because it’s nice to have a magazine in there!

[H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619]

This is unfortunate, but not a surprise.   Wish it WAS a surprise.

GUNS magazine will always be special to me, it's how I learned about Cowboy Action Shooting.   In the late 80's/early 90's, while on a family vacation, I saw a copy of the latest issue on the magazine rack in the rest stop (Remember those?) and it had a picture of a Winchester 71 on the cover.  So, I bought it.  Inside there was an article about (what I remember as) "End of the Trail" shooting.  I found it intriguing.  

Wish I still had that issue.

[Cholla]

9 minutes ago, H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619 said:

This is unfortunate, but not a surprise.   Wish it WAS a surprise.

GUNS magazine will always be special to me, it's how I learned about Cowboy Action Shooting.   In the late 80's/early 90's, while on a family vacation, I saw a copy of the latest issue on the magazine rack in the rest stop (Remember those?) and it had a picture of a Winchester 71 on the cover.  So, I bought it.  Inside there was an article about (what I remember as) "End of the Trail" shooting.  I found it intriguing.  

Wish I still had that issue.

My guess the article was written by Mike Venturino or John Taffin as both were early SASS members. 

[Trailrider #896]

No offense to today's writers, but we ain't seen the likes of those two, nor Elmer Keith, Bill Jordan, Skeeter Skelton and Jack O'Connor in years. RIP, Pards. Say howdy to Charlie Russell, "cross the Divide!

[Larsen E. Pettifogger, SASS #32933]

The magazine racks are getting thinner and thinner.  Print media is on its way out.  I use to really enjoy the big thick newspaper format Chronicle that came out every month.  Then they tried to get rid of the print version all together.  After a lot of protest SASS is printing two a year but it is probably inevitable that the print versions will go away at some point.  I just can't get use to taking a computer into the bathroom.  When I am relaxing on the throne I like a printed magazine.

[J-BAR #18287]

Print periodicals are dinosaurs.

 

 I hold out some hope for books.

[DeaconKC]

@Cholla I hope you continue to write for them, I truly enjoy your works.

[Rooster Ron Wayne]

I seen this this morning when the podcast was posted.

Im 100% going to miss the paper back magazines.

But I got to say.

I love the podcast.

Rooster 

[Dantankerous]

I watched the video to see what they had to say and it makes sense. This truly has been coming for years. And while it makes me sad that the magazines will no longer appear by themselves in my mailbox and I will be able to sit on the couch,  drink my coffee and read these wonderful productions everything changes. 

 

Now I will sit on the couch and read my iPad. I have found a huge advantage to listening to podcasts recently and that makes traveling by car anywhere so much nicer. 

 

These guys did not want the magazine to go away but today's cultural changes are forcing them into it. 

 

😢

[Old Man Graybeard]

I subscribed to three magazines...plus get the NRA publications. I like the print format and I absolutely hate the digital platform. I too like the holdable print versions. I just dropped one subscription because all they ever seemed to talk about is all the black guns and plastic pistols. While I do like them...I also enjoy yhe older stuff too. I am going to not be renewing another subscription because they have gone the same way. I started with Guns Mag because I have met and talked with Cholla...and it was refreshing...especially having some of the other writers there that I had kind of lost track of. I don't like the digital catalog ...I can't ever find what I am looking for...and I don't like digital magazines. Guess I won't spend as much time drooling on paper

[Trailrider #896]

I still miss Look, Collier's, and the Saturday Evening Post. 

[Dantankerous]

At the local grocery store today I had to look at the newsstand all the magazine titles. Not one gun magazine and not one outdoor magazine. Not even a Backpacker. Everything was fitness and cooking and cookies and doilies... i think I even remember only one automobile magazine!

[Stump Water]

On 9/13/2025 at 2:46 PM, Cholla said:

I had people want me to write their latest AR-style rifle. Great, how is it different that the countless other AR platforms? What about it will make folks want to read the article?

 

 

Or... Great, another "9MM vs. .45ACP" article.  🫤

 

22 hours ago, Cholla said:

My guess the article was written by Mike Venturino or John Taffin as both were early SASS members. 

 

The one I saw was by Venturino.  Probably 2001 or 2002 in American Rifleman.  

[Smokin Gator SASS #29736]

1 hour ago, Dantankerous said:

At the local grocery store today I had to look at the newsstand all the magazine titles. Not one gun magazine and not one outdoor magazine. Not even a Backpacker. Everything was fitness and cooking and cookies and doilies... i think I even remember only one automobile magazine!

 

At some point many of the grocery stores in my area pulled most gun magazines from the shelves.  One Safeway in the biggest liberal nearby town still has the gun magazines though to my surprise. They have far less of the military history magazines too.

[J-BAR #18287]

A friend recently gave me some Double Gun Journals,  about 5 years worth, from the early 2000s.  Treasures!

 

Not worth selling...priceless to peruse.

[Rye Miles #13621]

My local grocery store, in fact two of them, Giant Eagles, has some gun magazines. They have Handguns, Concealed Carry, some hunting magazines etc.