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Forums10
Topics38,612
Posts546,983
Members14,427
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Most Online1,344 Apr 29th, 2024
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Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 2,398 Likes: 16
Sidelock
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OP
Sidelock
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 2,398 Likes: 16 |
It has taken a while but a lot of folks have noticed my absence from Shooting Sportsman and are asking about it. My last story was in the Jan/Feb. 2017 issue.
Although I greatly enjoyed researching, writing and photographing the Fine Gunmaking column the management decided making more money was their first priority. When they forced into retirement the very capable Art Director I had been working with for 20 years it signaled a clue to their intentions.
When they demanded I sign a very lopsided contract and threatened to lower my pay, I left. Clearly the trend in current corporate America of raising the CEOs personal income at the expense of the folks that provide the creativity and do the work is not acceptable to this self-employed freelancer's notion of fairness.
I continue to write the Custom Shop column for Sports Afield about custom hunting rifles. And I am open to another double gun venue or online outlet to write for. I have more time for my custom gun projects which pleases my clients and my in-shop Seminar program has really taken off. Ill be offering three sections of Fine Gunmaking classes this summer.
The Fine Gunmaking column is no more, a decision I obviously thought was very foolish as it was the most popular in the magazine. A friend suggested the magazine subtitle might be changed to, The magazine of wingshooting and gay apparel. Another told me it looks like a highbrow Cabalas catalog. The advertising vs. editorial has now exceeded 50%.
Id suggest dropping a note to editor Ralph Start letting him know your thoughts. I doubt if you will see your letter published in the magazine, though.
Steven Dodd Hughes
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Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 597 Likes: 34
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 597 Likes: 34 |
You make some very good points, especially those about how corporate America is being run these days. I've noticed the lopsided advertising to article content in SSM for awhile now. My response was to not renew my subscription after twenty years.
I will miss your writings immensely though! Please tell us more about the classes you're offering this summer.
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 282
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 282 |
TMI. I am far more interested when SDH writes about guns.
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 7,705 Likes: 103
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 7,705 Likes: 103 |
All respect to SDH, I have always enjoyed his articles and his knowledge. However, burning bridges is poor business. JMHO...Geo
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 332 Likes: 1
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 332 Likes: 1 |
I left SSM during the "Special Ed" debacle years ago.
Last edited by steve voss; 12/30/17 02:54 PM.
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Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 2,936 Likes: 16
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 2,936 Likes: 16 |
Steven I enjoyed your articles and miss them! I may not renew after my subscription expires. Bobby
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 7,747 Likes: 500
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 7,747 Likes: 500 |
SSM has become one of those magazines which seems to feature guns which buy multiple pages of advertisement. The resulting fluff articles about them are about as worthless as they get. I had noticed the loss of one of the few feature articles, which had real content to them. Did not know the reason for the change but must say it does not surprise me in the least. Sorry for the loss of real content. I wont bother renewing. Why pay for adds and fluff?
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Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 2,278 Likes: 531
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 2,278 Likes: 531 |
SSM has been hot garbage for a good long while. The ads have gotten ridiculous and the articles are boring. The only decent stuff in the rag has been the gunsmithing articles....thats been about it. When I get a hankering for a decent read, Ill go into my archives and pull a SSM or DGJ from the early years. The guys writing the articles lately seem like posers to me. Trying their very best to imitate McIntosh, Mathewson, etc. and they just seem to come up short every time. Oh well, still have the old stuff to rummage through when I feel the need.
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Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 999
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 999 |
Now I gotta figger out how to get Sports Afield in Atlanta!
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 9,794 Likes: 772
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 9,794 Likes: 772 |
Magazines change. Staff comes and goes, subscribers come and go. I had subscribed for years when one day it dawned on me that M. McIntosh had died, Galen WInter had retired, one of the posters here did a fluff piece on a canned hunt in the southern US, and there was a fashion piece with the editorial staff suited up in outfits that cost more than most people's guns. It also dawned on me that if those in the pictures ever encountered me, a guy with shoulder length hair, torn jeans, rusty pickup, with a mean ass Gordon Setter riding shotgun, and a 70s vintage Darne, while hunting, they would likely flee in terror. They probably spent all that money thinking they were going to be getting away from people like me.
I've met guys with gunrooms, that are more interested in what bourbon and cigars are in them, than what game was last pursued, or when. I'm not them. That is OK.
I dropped my subscription. It wasn't me, and I wasn't them. And that is OK.
Best, Ted
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