Gray's Sporting Journal

Dwight Harley

Dwight Harley

Well-known member
I quit buying or subscribing to most outdoor type mags years ago because, well, because most of them suck. One exception is Traditional Bowhunter, which I still look forward to seeing in my mailbox. However, I recently saw a promo for Gray's Sporting Journal for some crazy low price (I think it was $12 for seven issues) and decided, what the hell. All I can say is, wow, what a cut above the mainstream cast and blast rags like Field and Stream and Outdoor Life. Gray's has such exceptional writing and photography without the non-stop product pimping you typically have to wade through in what passes for outdoor journalism. It is a pleasure to sit down and read every story. Yeah, I know that next year they will hit me up for the full price for the subscription but I am hooked.
 
Dwight

Nice to hear there is at least one decent outdoor mag still published. I let my Wildfowl subscription lapse years ago. I happened to see a new issue at an outdoor store a few years ago and it was nothing like what it once was. Is there an award for magazine advertisement density? Surely they would win. I felt like buying it just so I could pull out an issue from the mid 90s and do a page by page comparison but in the end decided I'd rather use my time elsewhere than compile data on something all former subscribers know, especially before the 2000s, that there is little more to read than ads and product marketing.

Enjoy your Gray's.

Eric
 
Dwight: Agree. I have re-subscribed after letting it go many, many years ago. The only problem is that there are so many articles I want to read that I cannot possibly keep up. I am four issues behind. Always try Terry Wieland (sp?) on guns and recently there were two great articles about artists Roland Clark and Lynn Bogue Hunt, both of whom illustrated my favorite books from my youth.

Eric: I, too, let Wildfowl go. After Mr. Mathewson sold it, it lost its grace and aesthetic qualities and became another "me and Joe," "kill them" publication.
 
When I was about 14, my parents went away for a couple of weeks and my grandmother came up to take care of my sister and I. It was mid-winter, and I got a serious case of the flu that kept me out of school for a week.

Gram went to the book store and came back with Mad Magazine, Gray's, and Field and Stream. I was done with Mad Magazine and F+S in an afternoon, and Grays kept me entertained the rest of the week.

I still remember a Ted Williams (not the baseball player) essay on "The Obscenity of Opening Day" that is one of the best pieces of fishing writing I've read, even now. I still have that copy of Grays in storage somewhere.
 
For that price I would jump back on the Gray's wagon but for a standard price of $40/7 it is just too pricey.

Where did you find that promotion ?
 
Gray's had an online article about "our" own David Hagerbaumer after he passed away....you won't see that in OL or F+S.
 
Tod, Buy yourself a nice high-end side by side. I can't have you showing up at Granot Loma after I buy the place with your off the rack 870
 
Tod, Buy yourself a nice high-end side by side. I can't have you showing up at Granot Loma after I buy the place with your off the rack 870
Click to expand...

Better yet, have a loaner program at the lodge. :)
 
I quit reading Gray's after they published an article on the best way to kill and cook wild atlantic salmon. At least they had the good grace to publish my letter to their editor where I, in no uncertain terms, criticized them for it.
Gary
 
I've been a Gray's reader and subscriber since issue #1. The writing, art and photography are top shelf. My mother told me many years ago that I have champagne taste on a beer budget, and that has not changed. Gray's has always expanded my horizons, kept my dreams alive and educated me in things concerning the lifestyle of hunting, fishing and conservation. I continually go back back to past issues each winter, to reread and enjoy how I got hooked.

Kneeling in the Shallows by Miles Nolte, in the current May/June 2016 issue, may well be the best short story about fishing I have ever read...
 
Kneeling in the Shallows by Miles Nolte, in the current May/June 2016 issue, may well be the best short story about fishing I have ever read...
Click to expand...

Miles Nolte wrote a great book called "The Alaska Chronicles" telling his story of guiding fly fishing clients in the big state. He's a super nice guy I fished with him for a few days down here in TX several years ago. Great writer.
 
Just picked up the May/June issue, and lo and behold there is an article on New England shad fishing by my friend Warren Winders, conservationist extraordinaire. Warren is one of the key individuals in the protection of Massachusetts' Red Brook for sea-run brook trout, and one of the founders of the Sea-Run Brook Trout Coalition.


http://www.searunbrookie.org/

It's a fine piece.
 
Best thing about Grey's used to be John Hewitt, he was the Beluchi of all outdoor writers, had some health issues and Grey's just made him disappear. Wrote and emailed to Grey's when his stuff stopped, they never responded. John has a book but none of his Grey's stories are in it. He was listed on their masthead as an editor too, lucky I saved all my old Grey's just to capture his humor, Vietnam Marine vet, near killed in action, long recovery and figure related to how he is now, brother killed in Nam too.
al Koz
 
Yes, Hewitt was great, as was his buddy Ron Rau. Rau wrote a book of his short stories called Sage Lake Road I believe.

Grays really plowed new ground back in the '70s and is still the best source for an occasional "Great" piece of outdoor literature in my opinion.

Ed Gray was a good writer too. I always enjoyed his lead-in to each issue called Gray's Journal.

One of my favorite stories in the old Gray's was called Tarred and Feathered. It was written by a guy named Lawrence Dracut. For years I wondered why such a talented guy only wrote one story. I finally realized that Lawrence Dracut was a pen name that Ed Gray used. Lawrence and Dracut are towns in Massachusetts not far from where the Grays lived and published their Journal.

Matt
 
The title of Hewitt's book is "the model 12 Winchester As A Way of Life", just sells them out of his house I guess, when I sent for some I included a note about just how much I missed his writing, he sent me four books and a nice hand written note back. If Grey's owns his stuff they should republish it or give it back to him.
koz
 
All the top shelf writers have been published in Gray's since day one, as well as many very good artists and photographers. That's why I enjoy the old issues as well as the new ones. Considering the changes they have been through in more than 40 years. I'm just glad they are still doing what they do, as these are not good times for quality magazines.

"The Model 12 Winchester As A Way Of Life", was ordered from Mr. Hewitt as soon as I could. He inscribed the first page with a personal long note.

This quote from his note sez it all.

"Always glad to hear of a reader who has been with Gray's since the old days. Don't sweat my stroke - I haven't been". - John Hewitt. Now that is one helluva man.

As the book notes, all but two of the stories were published in Gray's. When I wrote Mr. Hewitt to tell him how much I enjoyed the book. I also asked when volume II was coming out, as this book covers 1945 - 1970. I eagerly await that book.
 
I thought about getting Field and Stream, etc. so my son could read basic articles, but they have WAY too many adult ads. I did not want to explain performance enhancers, Viagra, etc.
 
Kneeling in the Shallows by Miles Nolte, in the current May/June 2016 issue, may well be the best short story about fishing I have ever read...
Click to expand...

I was reading through this issue and had thought about what you posted. I had already been enjoying the stories and one in particular was "sputnik two" then I got to "Kneeling in the Shallows". I stared reading it and thought it was good but not exceptional. By the time I finished it I understood exactly what you were getting at. Great short story.

Overall I really enjoy Gray's. I keep buying it at the book store I should really just get a subscription.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top