Great Western Revolvers

Past Issues

To look through the pages of GUNS Magazine over the decades is to look at the history of our shooting culture and indeed, of America. If you go to www.gunsmagazine.com and scroll all the way down to the bottom, you’ll see a link for “GUNS Classic Issues.” There, for absolutely free, you’ll find high-quality PDFs of every single issue of GUNS from the iconic issue number one to 1972’s line-up. If you haven’t taken advantage of this, do not pass Go but get right on it. Trust me when I say it’s a huge rabbit hole and you won’t be able to stop. You’ll soon find yourself saying, “Oh gosh, I remember those ads!” and “Hey, I had one of those when I was a kid!”

From the first issue, GUNS grabbed the stars and kept them. Sorry to name-drop, but I have to! This reads like a Who’s Who of the shooting world, from the old days to the now. Keep in mind this is only a partial list. If many of the names sound familiar, it’s because they laid the groundwork for today’s industry. I do wonder though, what they’d have thought of the term “influencer” tossed about these days. These guys lived the life, hunted the hunt, invented the techniques we use today, developed the loads, cartridges and helped drive the industry with their writing.

Repeat after me — Elmer Keith, J.B. Wood, Charles Askins, Skeeter Skelton, Jeff Cooper, Col. Rex Applegate, Maj. George Nonte, Mas Ayoob, Jim Carmichel, Clair Reese, James Triggs (James did those marvelous detailed paintings of guns, often showcased as covers), E.B. Mann and even Grits Gresham! I could go on and on and if you’ve got a bit of grey in your mustache, you’d nod your head at seeing each name. We truly do stand on the shoulders of some greats.

But let’s not forget some of the icons gracing our pages in the past few years. How about John Taffin, Dave Anderson, J.D. Jones, Mark Hampton, Mike “Duke” Venturino, Jeff “Tank” Hoover, Will Dabbs, Holt Bodinson, Frank Jardim, Dave Workman, Payton Miller, Pat Covert, Wayne van Zwoll — shall I go on?