White Rabbit Posted August 21, 2017 Report Share Posted August 21, 2017 Has anyone else received this months copy today? It has obviously shrunk in size but surely its also drastically thinner aswell? Its nearer a pamphlet than a magazine! It used to be packed with reading but now looks a complete rip off at £4.70 a pop. Do any existing readers agree or am I imagining it?! This is aimed at those who still like to sit and read something made of paper once in a while! WR. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ips Posted August 21, 2017 Report Share Posted August 21, 2017 I have given up with shooting mags, there all full of the same stuff and same adverts. I have started buying hard back shooting books off amazon they can be bought for same cost as a mag but have better reading 👍 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walker570 Posted August 21, 2017 Report Share Posted August 21, 2017 Yep, agree. I don't buy shooting magazines these days. Full of the same old stuff. I do have a friend who gives me a pile of Gazettes on occasion but have to admit I enjoy the photography more than anything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archi Posted August 21, 2017 Report Share Posted August 21, 2017 Funnily enough I picked one up the other day and said exactly the same and then put it back on the rack I think the Fieldsports magazine is better value Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
White Rabbit Posted August 21, 2017 Author Report Share Posted August 21, 2017 I have well over 200 shooting books which get read on winter nights. I'm a big fan of Noel Sedgewick,BB etc.. They hark back to happier innocent times when our countryside was at its best. I have slowly ditched shooting magazines but still get Shooting Gazette, The Field and Fieldsports bi-monthly. I like the shoot reports and people spotting but I think the Gazette will be getting binned from now on. WR. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ips Posted August 21, 2017 Report Share Posted August 21, 2017 I bought Percy stanbury book from amazon for less than a fiver, used but mint, probably bought half a dozen books this year a fiver being the most expensive 👍 Agree field sports mag is about the best. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
White Rabbit Posted August 21, 2017 Author Report Share Posted August 21, 2017 I bought Percy stanbury book from amazon for less than a fiver, used but mint, probably bought half a dozen books this year a fiver being the most expensive 👍 Agree field sports mag is about the best. The bulk of my books come from Coch Y Bonddu Books down in Wales. Not the cheapest but they have a vast selection. They arrive beautifully wrapped in brown paper. One of lifes little pleasures opening them. Sad I know! WR. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ips Posted August 21, 2017 Report Share Posted August 21, 2017 The bulk of my books come from Coch Y Bonddu Books down in Wales. Not the cheapest but they have a vast selection. They arrive beautifully wrapped in brown paper. One of lifes little pleasures opening them. Sad I know! WR. Not sad at all mate 👍 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
panoma1 Posted August 21, 2017 Report Share Posted August 21, 2017 Used to buy all the shooting magazines I saw, even ordered them from the newsagent and subscribed to some......no more.....nothing of interest in em! chucked some without reading em!.....I haven't bought one for some four years now! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salopian Posted August 21, 2017 Report Share Posted August 21, 2017 Shooting Gazette is a shadow of its former self . Sadly when Ed Watson died they lost a decent contributor . Replaced him with Adam Calvert as their Shooting Instruction 'Expert' . Yet to read anything useful from him that isn't a disguised advert for having instruction off him , but his writings do not inspire me . Gun reviews by a kid who is still wet behind the ears and talks rubbish. Sadly a mag reduced to a rag . No more for me. Along with most of the others. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
White Rabbit Posted August 21, 2017 Author Report Share Posted August 21, 2017 Shooting Gazette is a shadow of its former self . Sadly when Ed Watson died they lost a decent contributor . Replaced him with Adam Calvert as their Shooting Instruction 'Expert' . Yet to read anything useful from him that isn't a disguised advert for having instruction off him , but his writings do not inspire me . Gun reviews by a kid who is still wet behind the ears and talks rubbish. Sadly a mag reduced to a rag . No more for me. Along with most of the others. Its sad to see its demise so rapidly. As a high end publication covering a very expensive niche market it should be able to hold its own. The Field manages and is now double the number of pages compared to the Gazette for a few pence more. I've bought the Gazette since its first issue but this will be my last renewal which is a shame. I'd allready started skipping articles without realising. How many times can you read about Will Garfitt shooting loads of pigeons?! Its like groundhog day. Adam Calvert I've seen operate and don't rate and why does Alex Flint test guns you'd never see near a peg? Commercial pressure I guess. WR. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walker570 Posted August 21, 2017 Report Share Posted August 21, 2017 Picked up a lot of good reading and one or two first editions from charity shops. Always worth a browse and often a couple of quid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scotslad Posted August 21, 2017 Report Share Posted August 21, 2017 It used to occasionally have some good gun dog articles, I'm sure last year it had 2 in the same issue Ian Openshaw and Jihn Halstead snr, actually missed I bought as I just read it in the supermarket. I'm the same with Shooting times, used to look forward to it no just buy it very occasionally and hardly read it anyway I suppose with shooting and fishing (as a boy bought trout and salmon regularly) but it only natural for similar articles to come round every year, 1 of my gripes with ST was the articles were often too late, articles about protecting poults from buzzards in august when most folk have already suffered Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaunda Posted August 21, 2017 Report Share Posted August 21, 2017 If this month's issue of Shooting Gazette is indicative of the future,then I shall give this up.Read the whole thing (and did wordsearch) between clocking on and elevenses;only thing of interest to me was a review of an American made shotgun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperGoose75 Posted August 21, 2017 Report Share Posted August 21, 2017 I used to love the 'Shooting Gazette' and bought 4 monthly mag's and also the Shooting Times most weeks. However I packed them all in years ago mainly due to the repetitiveness and also when I got onlne and joined forums ect which I found to be more interesting. The Magazines for me just do not justify the price anymore. I do like a book in the winter months though. I remember getting My letter chosen for page 77 in the Gazette and actually got paid £77 for it. Do they still do that i wonder..? Was a Fine publicaton back in the day but i just grew out of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan73 Posted August 22, 2017 Report Share Posted August 22, 2017 Stopped buying Magazines a few months ago, and I spent a lot on them - not just shooting ones, but fitness/running ones/model train/country life ones etc...Now I use an App called Readily - about £15 per month and I get hundreds to scroll through. I can also put it on up to 5 devices so the wife has it on her tablet and reads all the women/design/cosmo types ones. The only magazine I still have to buy is FieldSports (which is very good) - but all the other usual shooting magazines are available on Readily - with back issues. no...I don't work for them, its just the most useful App I use (other than Google Keep) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grahamch Posted August 22, 2017 Report Share Posted August 22, 2017 Gave up with it and shooting times has also downsized, both have the same publisher. Subscribe to an American fowling mag at 20 dollars for two years. Bought this month's Field for the Orkney goose shooting article but found most of it written for the upper middle class and a load if nonsense. Gave up on sporting gun etc. ages ago. Agree books better value. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salopian Posted August 22, 2017 Report Share Posted August 22, 2017 Perhaps we should let the publishers know? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDog Posted August 22, 2017 Report Share Posted August 22, 2017 Perhaps we should let the publishers know? They will already know from the circulation figures. For many years I was an avid reader of The Shooting Times then The Shooting Gazette, never missing an edition. Now I read neither but do occasionally indulge in the Fieldsports magazine. It must be difficult for the Editors to come up with something new and interesting every week/month. Some of the contributors have been regurgitating the same stuff for decades and need to be put out to pasture. I have written to one Editor about this but never received a reply. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dougall Posted August 22, 2017 Report Share Posted August 22, 2017 as above..stopped subscribing @ 10 years ago.......basically the same articles came around once a year....an industry in decline..even gun reviews never felt 'independent'.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
White Rabbit Posted August 22, 2017 Author Report Share Posted August 22, 2017 I'll certainly be making my feelings known to the Editor. They havent even attempted to cut the content down on the sly. Its blatantly been halved overnight. There's no need for it to be repetitive as I don't see it as a "how to" type magazine. Just fill it with quality photography,shoot reports,interviews and relative independant game gun reviews. Its not rocket science! Did anyone read the head to head gun tests in last months Fieldsports? Warts and all. That's how it should be done. WR. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Boggy Posted August 22, 2017 Report Share Posted August 22, 2017 I understand that there are great changes afoot at Timeinc. They have sold their premises in London for several millions and moved to Farnborough in Hampshire where they have minimal office space, by comparison. One or two of the regular writers were given an ultimatum of take a huge cut in their payment per item or leave. Some left. Since Timeinc took over from IPC,I think that the American parent company is looking closely at either selling off or further asset stripping. It was the USA contingent that pulled the plug on the proposed game fair at Cornbury Park this year with very little notice given. Their main income comes not from magazine sales but from advertising. However, without the former, the latter will eventually diminish. It will be interesting to see what the future holds. Just my take on it of course. Others may see a different perspective. OB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grahamch Posted August 22, 2017 Report Share Posted August 22, 2017 I used it get Ishoot occasionally and quite liked it but not seen it for a while, assume it's gone out of publication? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
button Posted August 22, 2017 Report Share Posted August 22, 2017 Shooting Gazette is poor, The Field and Fieldsports are the only ones I read now. Have to say really enjoy Fieldsports Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geo Posted August 22, 2017 Report Share Posted August 22, 2017 I like the Field , lots of other interesting stuff in it other than just shooting, given up buying all the others, shooting times always has a good front cover then lacks content. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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