Your favorite magazine for upland hunting

wapsijim

wapsijim

New member
What is your favorite magazine for upland bird hunting, (pheasants mainly)? I get F & S and a couple Iowa magazines, but they're not the best if your main focus is upland birds.
 
The only one I get besides the PF/QF magazine is The Upland Almanac. I like it a lot but its a little on the high class side.
 
I like Shooting Sportsman. Its upscale for sure, but is all about shotguns and shotgun shooting. They always have stories about bird hunting plus stories and reviews on guns I'll never be able to afford, but enjoy seeing anyway.
 
magazines

i get a load of them. pointing journal i like and am currently mad at gun dog for about the 5th time is 25 years. they seem to have fallen behind by more than a bunch. i take f & s only cause it is cheap, my favorites are , shooting sportman, gray's if you appreciate better than average writing, recently i joined the ranks of sporting classic and am really impressed with it, just a lot of good stuff in it. i also just acquired a a copy of covey rise, like it too but have not subscribed to it yet. the above is sprinkled with pheasants forever, ducks unlimited and american hunter. so there ya have folks. santa still ain't showed up yet!! my queen got a new car, i get to pay for it. oh well!

cheers
 
Pointing Dog Journal for me. I've subscribed to all of the national ones at one time or another, but PDJ is the only one I never let lapse.
 
Go with everyone else in Pointing Dog Journal, PF. Sometimes Upland Almanac, Covey Rise, Retriever Journal, or Shooting Sportsman.
 
PDJ is hard to beat for strictly upland hunting. PF is decent, the cover photo is always great. I gave up my Retriever Journal subscription a few years ago, but I remember it as being a good read also if you like retrievers better than pointy dogs. I get Gun Dog too, and it is okay.

Honestly, nobody holds a candle to Gray's Sporting Journal. Other than the flyfishing issue, which I barely open, I read them cover to cover and really enjoy the short stories and artwork. Even if you don't ever subscribe to Gray's, the annual upland issue is worth picking up at your local book/magazine store.
 
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Gun Dog is one of the few I still subscribe to. I used to get them all. Nice to look at a few times but the high end mags get repetitive. A guy can only look at 5 star lodges and $10k guns so many times.
 
Magazine

I receive PDJ, Gun Dog, PF and may purchase a magazine from the news stand if there is an interesting topic. Also enjoy following forums such as this and those that discuss reloading.
 
favorite magazines

Thanks for everyone's input! Looks like some favorites for many, I'll check them out.
 
I used to subscribe to Pointing Dog Journal for a number of years but thought it started sucking so let it lapse 2-3 years ago. Havent missed it much. Like my Bloomberg Businessweek much better.
 
I like them all, I hate them all. I still have the original issues of GunDog stored in my basement.

I have picked up a copy of Upland Almanac, Pointing Dog Journal, heck even Grays Sporting Journal. I may have subscribed to PDJ for a year or two.

The only magazine I get via Subscription is PF and that is because I support the organization.


UplandHntr said:
Gun Dog is one of the few I still subscribe to. I used to get them all. Nice to look at a few times but the high end mags get repetitive. A guy can only look at 5 star lodges and $10k guns so many times.
Click to expand...

Part of the problem is "commercialization". I know a person who worked in the outdoor industry. Typically a company will sponsor a hunt at a commercial operation to highlight products or entertain. A sportswriter is invited along too. That article ends up being published. When a magazine ends up with too many of these stories ... good bye. Most readers see the repetitiveness. GunDog is often the worst of the bunch with this issue. Their sister magazines (now out of production) were notorious for this problem.

To be honest I enjoy reading about people's hunts on these forums. High journalistic quality (well often not), but entertaining - yep!
 
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Right now I get PDJ, PF, and The American Field. I used to get QU, but that ship sank. I enjoyed their habitat articles. They always emphasized the science and it was refreshing. I'm not into the high end stuff. To me hunting is about game knowledge and the dogs and I pitting ourselves against the bird and the cover. If I can get through a day and not see a human, I've had a good day birds or no. I read threads that are caught up in the ones they got. I guess I enjoy the ones that get away just a bit more. When a good dog put on his best attempt and the bird succeeds, it gives me hope that he'll be there in another year. Taking a limit in short order could get old. You'd miss so much with less time in the field. Finding those out-of-the-way spots you'd never hunted without tripping into them are pinnacle. There is such a thing as too many birds. I've had years when the pheasants came up in waves ahead of the dogs. Dogs couldn't do much with all the scent. Hard to keep them focused and not bleary eyed trying to take it all in.
 
I pay for GunDog, but don't know that I will when the subscription runs out. It has some good articles, but I don't get much time to read it and haven't been impressed with a few of the articles in the last 6 months. PF and American Hunter just come along with memberships. Honestly don't have much down time to sit and read them considering the cost of a subscription.
 
gun dog is horrible, i like P.F./Q.F. mag alot and try to like shooting sportsman upland juronal and almanac but they are just waaay to classy for me. i just cant relate to someone bird hunting with a sxs that cost 55k. but those overly high class mags. do tend to have some good reads. the article gundog did on the weimeriner was just waaaay out of touch with the breed and they really lost me on that one.
 
I typically flip through covey rise at the Hastings coffee shop every once in a while. I know in general upland hunting numbers are on the decline, I have to assume that ultra high end upland hunting has to be really on the decline. I guess I can't see a magazine like that lasting to long.
 
I get the PF magazine through my membership, and subscribe to Gundog. I actually enjoy reading both of them.
 
Seems like, no matter what the magazine, it ends up getting repetitive at some point. So, I tend to subscribe and let them lapse.

Right now I've got a Gray's subscription going because I like the writing.
 
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