This is just sad. One of the best sources of technical information and experimentation is unable to stay afloat, as with so many other print publications these days.

Link to notice.

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Nick

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Orange Hat Family Member
CMP Certified GSM Master Instructor
NRA Certified Instructor
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"First contemplation of the problems of Interior Ballistics gives the impression that they should yield rather easily to relatively simple methods of analysis. Further study shows the subject to be of almost unbelievable complexity." Homer Powley

Sad. Seemed to have been the last, best magazine in the industry.

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MikeG

That stinks.

I saw a few weeks ago where Newsweek is ending their physical print publication and going to an on-line only format. A lot of publications that once were successful in print are finding out that it's difficult to sell enough advertising to make an e-zine profitable. The other major problem is that the Internet has become ubiquitous with "free" information, so very few companies are making money from subscribers paying to view online material. It's also very difficult to protect that intellectual property from being copied and redistributed. It may be less expensive and a whole lot faster to "publish" online, but that has led to articles being posted that are not as well sourced, or as well written. Even articles from the AP, online, are full of spelling and grammatical errors that my 10th grade AP English teacher would have lost her old German mind over!

There was a time when folks were happy to pay for a newspaper or a quality magazine, and books were revered for the tomes of information they are. That was when things didn't change all that much, whereas these days it seems like what you thought you knew is all different 6 months later. The "information highway" has led to information OVERLOAD, and the simple pleasure of reading the morning paper or settling in with a good book has been replaced with snippets of (poorly-written) news blurbs that more often sensationalize than inform.

The death of print media is clear and unavoidable. The DEARTH of quality online media is just as obvious but, there doesn't seem to be any indication that it will ever be as informative or substantive as the better channels of print media we have heretofore enjoyed. (Well, I've enjoyed it, anyway.)

I recently bought two new books; one was a physical print book and the other, an e-book version of something that is currently out of print. One is tangible. It has mass and substance. I can "feel" it. The other is informative and actually is well-written, but it's an electronic file...not a book. I can't develop a feeling for a file. I can't cherish a file. It's not real, in the same sense that a book, is real.

Maybe I'm just getting old.

Expressed very well.

Few of us today read for pleasure., magazines today are picture books with short captions. Our attention spans are very short.
The internet will never replace a book to those with inquiring minds. Various Boards and their Threads do not last or cannot be found. Those with knowledge do not have time to post their thoughts and cannot take the time to answer a question with the same interest, the third time.

Many of us will not search a forum for topics before asking our question. Some of us refuse to search and many boards have poor search engines.
Gun Writer G. O. Ashley once wrote that we “enthusiasts” read an article to verify our beliefs and refuse to accept a result which does not fit our preconceived idea.

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slim

"Gun Writer G. O. Ashley once wrote that we “enthusiasts” read an article to verify our beliefs and refuse to accept a result which does not fit our preconceived idea."

One of my favorite quotes, Mr. Iorg, and unfortunately it's not limited to "enthusiasts"

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DOK

It is exactly that kind of wisdom that is dying, right along with the print media we all grew up on. Before you know it, I'll be yelling at those d*** kids to get off my lawn!

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Ask me about QDMA.

On another forum someone pointed out the PS "Left the Range" obituaries always ended with a phrase applicable to the demise of the publication itself: "We are diminished".

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Nick

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Orange Hat Family Member
CMP Certified GSM Master Instructor
NRA Certified Instructor
NRA Patron Member

"First contemplation of the problems of Interior Ballistics gives the impression that they should yield rather easily to relatively simple methods of analysis. Further study shows the subject to be of almost unbelievable complexity." Homer Powley

I agree with the thought. Some of Mic McPherson’s writing is exceptional - the “why didn’t I try that” type of writing which causes the little wheels to turn.
Handloader in the 1970’s was close, I was younger then and most things were new.
I wonder if PS could make an E-magazine work?

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slim

One thing that probably led to it's demise was it's insistence on being true to it's vision. By including much technical reference and "science" in it's articles, it probably left most of todays readers in the "under 40" crowd in a fog of incomprehension. This parallels the military reducing it's technical manuals to 6th grade reading level because of the education levels of it's recruits. Must stop here or get into the forbidden fruit of politics................

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"A gun is like a parachute.



If you need one, and don't have one,



you'll probably never need one again!"

Never read the magazine, but free-market capitalism has a way of choosing which enterprises survive and which don't. Some may see FMC as cruel, but I certainly prefer it to any command-and-control economic model. They fail. Always do. Ask the Russians about those years 1917-1991...

Certainly what happened is the dumbing down of America.
Dave Scovill receives a lot of bad press over lowering standards at Handloader and Rifle but it is the only thing that saved the two magazines. Today’s reader has a short attention span; glossy pictures and short captions are an article today.

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slim

Boy you hit the nail on the head with that one !