Muzzle loading magazine

Actually, you don't subscribe anymore either

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Actually I do!

I enjoy receiving Muzzleloader Magazine, seems like there's always something for everyone. Like any magazine, there's some articles that I skip, and others I devour. The change to color really helped, in my opinion. As a western fur trade devotee, I really liked the articles by Dick Patton on horse travel, and Gerry Barker's articles on oxen are sublime---truly the way living history should be done. Here's a link to one of them:

http://reach.blackrivertech.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Gerry-Barker-Oxen.pdf

Another magazine, weighted more towards history, rather than just muzzleloading, is Journal of the Early Americas. Good, scholarly, well-researched articles.

Rod

As an aside, when I talked to Rex Norman this summer, he doubted there would be any more articles from him. He noted that "He'd said all he wanted to say". I really hope that his columns are released in book form, like those of Mark Baker and Beth Gilgun. I could think of no better introduction to the fur trade of the far west.

Rod

armedOkie said:

On a related note, last night going through wal-mart, I noticed this on the magazine shelf. Apparently put out by Country Decorating Ideas magazine. I leafed through it. Commercialized manure that isn't suited for fire starting material. Ew.

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It might not appeal to people already immersed in this, but how many other mags on the shelf gave that much coverage to traditional muzzleloaders and crafts? This mag seems to have massive distribution. I can't begin to guess how many people have had an interest sparked in traditional muzzleloaders and primitive skills because of it. None of the articles were as in depth as articles in Muzzleloader magazine, but in that issue alone there are articles on primitive trapping, beaver trapping, making char cloth/wood, "colonial rendezvous", how to make a leather knife sheath, Joe Meek, longhunters, a custom made flintlock, blacksmithing, making a coon skin cap, atlatls, stone tools, Springfield model 1795, traditional blackpowder handguns, medicinal plants, making lye soap and more. With 3 issues out so far there has been very little mention of in-line guns. This is perfect for anyone just starting out. This mag is a little more bushcrafting oriented than straight muzzleloading. If it helps get people involved in traditional muzzleloading and primitive skills I'm all for it. As their interest grows they will seek out more in depth information. I have picked up all three issues and will continue to support it as long as they remain focused on these topics.

:v

Agree with you on this statement completely. All in all I'm a big fan, just a little let down these past two times.

I second your opinion regarding Backwoodsman Magazine , and the lack of proofreading . Sometimes the spelling or the use of an incorrect word that is similar to the one intended is so bad that it changes the entire meaning of the sentence . Most of the time this is nothing more than an annoyance , such as the substitution of " pedestal " for the word " pestle " but once in a while it is potentionally dangerous if it occurs in a technical article of some kind involving gunpowder , propane , reloading , etc . when being used as a reference by someone not familiar with the subject at hand . A few months aso , I had just started reading from front to back a new issue I had just picked up . By the time I got a fourth of the way through the issue . I had come across about 10 or 12 typos , and said to myself " this is rediculous " and placed a call to their office , explaining as nicely as possible how much of a fan I was of their magazine , but they really needed to have someone familiar with the subject at hand review articles before publication . I even offered to do it myself for free if they would e - mail me the manuscripts prior to printing . In the next issue , the editorial contained a lengthy dissertation on how tired he was of nitpickers , and how if they did not like what was printed , that was just too bad ( or something to that effect ) . I realize not a lot of English majors will be found among the ranks of writers that submit the types of articles Backwoodsman prints ( nor am I one , by any means ). I just don't understand why an owner / editor of any kind of published literature would not want to take a little extra time to correct these kinds of easily fixed errors . By the way , I don't expect absolute perfection in anything , or even this rather lengthy post ; and I still buy most issues of Backwoodsman .

pab1 said:

armedOkie said:

On a related note, last night going through wal-mart, I noticed this on the magazine shelf. Apparently put out by Country Decorating Ideas magazine. I leafed through it. Commercialized manure that isn't suited for fire starting material. Ew.

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It might not appeal to people already immersed in this, but how many other mags on the shelf gave that much coverage to traditional muzzleloaders and crafts? This mag seems to have massive distribution. I can't begin to guess how many people have had an interest sparked in traditional muzzleloaders and primitive skills because of it. None of the articles were as in depth as articles in Muzzleloader magazine, but in that issue alone there are articles on primitive trapping, beaver trapping, making char cloth/wood, "colonial rendezvous", how to make a leather knife sheath, Joe Meek, longhunters, a custom made flintlock, blacksmithing, making a coon skin cap, atlatls, stone tools, Springfield model 1795, traditional blackpowder handguns, medicinal plants, making lye soap and more. With 3 issues out so far there has been very little mention of in-line guns. This is perfect for anyone just starting out. This mag is a little more bushcrafting oriented than straight muzzleloading. If it helps get people involved in traditional muzzleloading and primitive skills I'm all for it. As their interest grows they will seek out more in depth information. I have picked up all three issues and will continue to support it as long as they remain focused on these topics.

:v

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Agreed. As someone who very recently has developed an interest in muzzleloading and early woodsmanship, and who picked up that magazine; I found it educational, interesting, and worth the price. Ask me the same question in 5 years and I might feel very different, but we all start somewhere, right?

Oh come on.

I highly doubt that the poem in question is now the new mission statement of Muzzleloader Magazine.

Your first response to the poem in question.

Alden said:

:applause:

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What harm does it do for a magazine to print a reader submitted poem?

Really it's a win win for the publication, any mistakes are the authors and it shows a willingness to connect to the readership by allowing participation.

Marc Adamchek said:

Ever since it came under new management the magazine has gotten a fantastic overhaul.

I ALWAYS enjoyed the magazine and thought Scurlock Publishing did a great job. All the past issues bound in my library all the way back to 1990 are testament to that.

But when the "new guys" took over, the paper stock improved 100%, the addition of color was a much needed improvement and the articles are every bit as good as before.

I do Miss Mark Baker and Rex Norman (who seems to be mia a long time now)but Mark Sage and the others are doing a very entertaining and credible job.

One constant from the early days all through the many years is Tony Hunter. This man NEVER gets the proper admiration and respect he should; he DESERVES it. His research is intensive and scholarly and his writing is very good.

So subscribe to the magazine already!!! You'd have to be a tactical AR 15 Rambo to not completely fall in love with it. It is WORD, brutha! You ain't gonna find a better regularly published magazine on the subjects near and dear to your heart that brought you here. The only bad thing is you have to wait every 2 months but there's always enough to stretch out until the next issue.

And as someone mentioned, join the National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association - it's your duty! - and you'll get their publication "Muzzle Blasts" sent to you every month. It's a good little mag to fill in the time between Muzzleloader.

Get off your arse!

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Agree 100%

Alden said:

The poem I speak of Dave is only a final symptom that itself speaks to the desparation, and lack of professionalism

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I Know you mean about poems after not competing in ML shoots I dropped the NMLRA as the poem letters grew and grew and blew. Pap can be taken just so long.

I do have three subscriptions,

#1 Fur, Fish and game

#2 Muzzle loader magazine, Much improved IMHO

#3 Trapper and Predator caller.

All the rest of my interest I read online free only.

Hello Everyone,
Thank you all for the kind words about MUZZLELOADER. I am glad that most of you are enjoying the magazine as I am publishing it. I must admit though, I don't really feel like I have changed anything aside from the color and paper. My layout is a little different than Bill's was just because we're two different people but the layout has never been static anyway.

I would like to address some of the other comments of this thread below:

Alden said:

Buy any two years of Muzzle Loader and you have them all, mostly. Same with most gunzines.

Now, if they're publishing poems they didn't even read because they clearly don't even rhyme properly it shows you how hard-up an already hard-up magazine with weak editors has become for filler.

If you subscribe might not wanna pay for more than a year at a time...

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I apologize that you were offended by my choice to include a reader submitted poem in our Letters section. I have published 10 issues of MUZZLELOADER so far, with the 11th being at the printers right now and so far only one poem. I won't say that I will never publish another one, but we don't get many poems submitted so I don't think you will see them very often.

I would also like to assure you that we are not hard-up for material. I have the exact opposite problem. I have way more good articles than I can currently print and I am cutting things from each and every issue. I even expanded the January/February 20-15 issue from 100 pages to 112 pages.

armakiller said:

I just plan to buy them at the store, that way My E-mail won't be loaded with offers to renew.

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I can promise you that if you subscribe to MUZZLELOADER directly through us that we won't bombard your email with renewal offers. Currently we send out 4 renewal notices and they are all hard copy - One goes out before the last issue of your subscription, if you don't renew then we send out another notice after your last issue has been mailed, if you still don't renew we send out another one after the next issue has been mailed, and then 6 months later we send a final notice.

To date we haven't yet sent out any marketing emails, nor do I have plans to do so in the immediate future. That's not to say that I won't ever do so, but if I do it will be for new products or specials, etc.

armedOkie said:

The only thing I'd change is making it once per month.

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I wish we could make MUZZLELOADER a monthly magazine, but it isn't feasible. I don't think our advertisers would go for it and I don't think I could make it work, it just takes too much time to get an issue together.

Rod L said:

As an aside, when I talked to Rex Norman this summer, he doubted there would be any more articles from him. He noted that "He'd said all he wanted to say". I really hope that his columns are released in book form, like those of Mark Baker and Beth Gilgun. I could think of no better introduction to the fur trade of the far west.
Rod

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Rod,
This is news to me and I hate to hear that! I will give some consideration to publishing all of his articles in book form and see if it is something that Rex might be interested in. But it will have to be a project for much later, I'm currently working on a few book projects that should be out fairly soon.

Again, thank you all for the kind words, if you ever have any questions, please feel free to contact me!
Jason W. Gatliff

Pete G said:

The paper quality and the full color printing was all added when Jason took over and moved the offices to TN. It also raised the price, but you get what you pay for.

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I need to chime in here. I have not raised the price on anything since I have taken over. The subscription price is still the same as it was when it was published by Scurlock Publishing, as is the cover price, and our advertising rates are still the same.

I just looked through some back issues and it looks like the last price increase was March/April 2011.
Jason

I'm new to reading your magazine and I must say I am a fan. It's great to read articles like you publish.

One suggestion is to do reviews of some of the production guns or maybe some of the builders guns. I can never get enough of the beautiful guns.

Jason,
I am glad that you responded.
Please do not be swayed by those with Metrophobia, an occasional poem is quite acceptable. For those that don't know what metrophobia is, I have included a short description.


Metrophobia, or the fear of poetry, is surprisingly common. Many people first develop this phobia in school, when overzealous teachers encourage them to rank poems according to artificial scales, break them down and search for esoteric meanings. Others simply feel that poetry is somehow “beyond” them, belonging only to the realm of the pretentious and highly educated.
The Phobia
Metrophobia can take several forms. Some sufferers fear all poetry, while others fear poems that deal with specific subject matter or are written in a specific style. If you have metrophobia, you may become extremely anxious in English classes. You may refuse to participate in reading out loud, or even start to skip classes. You may become uncomfortable when friends forward emails that contain poems. You may be reluctant to read unfamiliar books for fear of coming across an illustrative poem.
The Treatment
Who could forget the early scenes of the film Dead Poets Society, in which teacher John Keating leads his class in ripping out the pages of their poetry textbook that deal with the numerical grading of the written works? The liberation of removing the focus on “expert opinion” and narrow definitions of greatness, allowing creative work to be enjoyed for its own sake, becomes a hallmark of the film. Many of the students then go on to re-found the title society, learning to love and become inspired by poetry of all types.
For many metrophobia sufferers, this is all that is needed. Therapy may be largely focused on stripping away the negative thoughts and beliefs that sufferers experience by helping them to realize that poetry transcends meter and verse. Helping the sufferer to recognize the creative freedom that poetry provides to both the creator and the reader is a major goal of metrophobia therapy.

You may not become a poetry lover, but you can learn not to fear it. A good therapist will work with you to develop the treatment plan that is best for you.

Source:
American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th Ed.). Washington, DC: Author.

I'm afraid of clowns, please don't post any articles in Muzzleloader about clowns.

:rotf:

:rotf: Isn't everyone afraid of clowns?

fear killer clowns from outer space

Henry Morrison said:

fear killer clowns from outer space

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Thanks Henry!
Now I'm going to have to sleep with the light on. :shocked2:

IowaShooter said:

I'm new to reading your magazine and I must say I am a fan. It's great to read articles like you publish.

One suggestion is to do reviews of some of the production guns or maybe some of the builders guns. I can never get enough of the beautiful guns.

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Thank you very much!

I have plans to do some more gun reviews in the future. I am waiting for some of the production companies to come out with new guns as I don't want to write a review of a gun that has already been on the market for several years.

Pedersoli has a new flintlock rifle in the works that if they decide to bring it to market will be pretty neat and I will definitely publish a review of it.

There is a gun review in the January/February 2015 issue. It is of a really cool and unique gun I ran across at Friendship in September.
Jason

IowaShooter said:

I'm afraid of clowns, please don't post any articles in Muzzleloader about clowns.

:rotf:

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LOL! Don't worry, I hate clowns so you won't see anything about them in MUZZLELOADER!