Scott Gentry
Active member
anyone here subscribe is it a worth while mag? thanks in advance
wildfowl magazine
- Thread starter Scott Gentry
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Jeff Jacobs
Active member
Scott,
I've gotten Wildfowl for several years. I'ts a good magazine, but not as good as when I first started getting it. Mostly because Worth Mathewson doesn't write for them any more and that has left a big hole. The main reason I get it is because it's the only pure waterfowling magazine that I know of other than the DU magazine. If I stopped getting it would I be heart broken? NO. But I do enjoy it.
I would suggest looking for it on the news stand before subscribing.
Jeff
I've gotten Wildfowl for several years. I'ts a good magazine, but not as good as when I first started getting it. Mostly because Worth Mathewson doesn't write for them any more and that has left a big hole. The main reason I get it is because it's the only pure waterfowling magazine that I know of other than the DU magazine. If I stopped getting it would I be heart broken? NO. But I do enjoy it.
I would suggest looking for it on the news stand before subscribing.
Jeff
David Robinson
Well-known member
I just got a subscription for father's day. I think its a high quality magazine with a variety of good stories about waterfowling. I'm always looking forward to the next issue to get me through the non-hunting months.
Scott
After having a subscription for over 15 years I let mine lapse. It's a good magazine for any waterfowler but for me 15 years was more than enough. Try it for awhile and see what you think. It won't break you. Less than a box of magnums.
After having a subscription for over 15 years I let mine lapse. It's a good magazine for any waterfowler but for me 15 years was more than enough. Try it for awhile and see what you think. It won't break you. Less than a box of magnums.
Rick Kyte
Well-known member
Like many magazines of its type, lots of ads, lots of promos for the latest and best gear, which are just ads disguised as articles. Sometimes 2 or 3 pages of real content. When that happens, I think it's worth the price. I agree with Eric, when Worth Mathewson was contributing, you could count on something worth reading. But now it's hit and miss. Usually has good pictures, which is what most "readers" want. I can't remember the last time I spent more than 15 minutes on any outdoors magazine, and I've got them piled all over the house.
Lee Harker
Well-known member
I quit subscribing to magazines when I felt that I was paying for catalogs. When I donate or go to a DU, Pheasants Forever, Delta...etc....I tell them to keep the membership and subscriptions and put it towards the birds. I have enough crap to recycle. If I want to read about hunting, I come here.
John Augustine
Well-known member
I've been getting Wildfowl ever since Waterfowlers World went out of circulation.
I think I have some as old as 1985! I enjoy them all because this is not a sport, but an
illness or lifestyle. Hey I gotta go. Just got in from a nice woodie hunt and there's a new
Retriever Journal here!!
Feed the illness, John
I think I have some as old as 1985! I enjoy them all because this is not a sport, but an
illness or lifestyle. Hey I gotta go. Just got in from a nice woodie hunt and there's a new
Retriever Journal here!!
Feed the illness, John
Mike Kluesener
New member
Been a subscriber since late 80's. Not the same, to many ads. Articles that are just camo'ed ads. To much hype,I don't like the "new" face of waterfowling. Extreme this, hardcore that. You can keep it. Let it lapse a couple months ago.
Scott Gentry
Active member
ive already ordered it i got a offer from them through macs prarie wings i believe $14 for 7 issues seemed fair just was wondering what too expect thanks
Ray
Well-known member
Its an OK mag for what it is. My biggest complaint is that their editing has tanked. The last several issues I have come across a few sentences that made no sense what so ever. It stops the flow of the article pretty fast when you can't follow from one sentence to the next until you figure out what was edited out or just not edited. With the quality of word processing programs this shouldn't happen in todays publications.
Still takes quality education to operate the programs and be the brain behind the buttons.
It would be better if the pages were softer, then at least it would serve as half-way decent a**wipe.
The quality of the articles is dismal with few bright spots. The editorial staff is lousy - as the writing is resplendent with tpyos and misteaks. In my opinion the editor Strangis is a poser at best, every editorial starts with... "Well my wonder dog from so-and-so breeder and I were hunting with the folks from so-and-so advertiser..." Rather than an editorial he seems to be trying to build his duck hunting cred., then again he could really be an expert bow hunter and duck hunter. They have even been running articles by the editor in the text as well - good cost savings, you don't have to pay someone for an article then.
I still get a subscription, since I enjoy the aggravation.
T
The quality of the articles is dismal with few bright spots. The editorial staff is lousy - as the writing is resplendent with tpyos and misteaks. In my opinion the editor Strangis is a poser at best, every editorial starts with... "Well my wonder dog from so-and-so breeder and I were hunting with the folks from so-and-so advertiser..." Rather than an editorial he seems to be trying to build his duck hunting cred., then again he could really be an expert bow hunter and duck hunter. They have even been running articles by the editor in the text as well - good cost savings, you don't have to pay someone for an article then.
I still get a subscription, since I enjoy the aggravation.
T
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Steve Sutton
Well-known member
after having had a subscription to it from the beginning, first when it was GunDog, then when that morphed to 3 publications; Gun Dog/Wing and Shot/Wildfowl....
Charley Waterman died and I let my subscription to Gun Dog lapse for the same reason cited here, i.e., too much "this electro shock therapy for your dog", "call it "nick" it sounds less like torture", "its BUMPER dummy", (this after "dummy" was good enough for millions of dogs and trainers), because he was the voice of the hunter there.
Wing and Shot died because people got tired of reading Tom Hugglers stories about which Columbia product was the best for Michigan Grouse and why you needed a different one for Manine Grouse, and yet another one for Texas Scaled Quail.
Wildfowl hung on through the departure of people like Worth, and sevral other notables, and the evolution to what "real" duck hunters want....through that I kept subscribing because "once in awhile" there was a nugget that was worth the price.
Finally pulled the plug with the final straw being the very reason that Scott is now a subscriber after becoming thoroughly pissed off that my "since the beginning of time" renewal price was more than somebody new could get. Bad enough that the magazine is little more tha a poorly edited products catalog but when a company values loyalty less than fresh blood then I figured it was time to quit being aggravated.
My rant for the day.....gotta go vote-FOR THE THIRD TIME TODAY....
Steve
Charley Waterman died and I let my subscription to Gun Dog lapse for the same reason cited here, i.e., too much "this electro shock therapy for your dog", "call it "nick" it sounds less like torture", "its BUMPER dummy", (this after "dummy" was good enough for millions of dogs and trainers), because he was the voice of the hunter there.
Wing and Shot died because people got tired of reading Tom Hugglers stories about which Columbia product was the best for Michigan Grouse and why you needed a different one for Manine Grouse, and yet another one for Texas Scaled Quail.
Wildfowl hung on through the departure of people like Worth, and sevral other notables, and the evolution to what "real" duck hunters want....through that I kept subscribing because "once in awhile" there was a nugget that was worth the price.
Finally pulled the plug with the final straw being the very reason that Scott is now a subscriber after becoming thoroughly pissed off that my "since the beginning of time" renewal price was more than somebody new could get. Bad enough that the magazine is little more tha a poorly edited products catalog but when a company values loyalty less than fresh blood then I figured it was time to quit being aggravated.
My rant for the day.....gotta go vote-FOR THE THIRD TIME TODAY....
Steve
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John Molnar
Active member
So True..
Greg P
Active member
I still subscribe to Wildfowl but agree it is nothing like it was under prior ownership. Really miss reading Worth's articles like everyone else noted. It is much more of a product marketing oriented publication now and not a "true waterfowler" magazine. Saw that shift about 4-5 years ago. Also heard from good sources the new company really dicked around some of the old contributors. Probably should tell them to stick it for that reason alone but It's hard to let go of one of the very few waterfowl publications out there. Sometimes big business really screws things up.
Anyone know of any other waterfowl hunting publications beside DU and Delta ?
Anyone know of any other waterfowl hunting publications beside DU and Delta ?
John Gabriel
Member
your comment sounds like an inditement about the quality of our educational system mmmmm maybe it is
Matthew R. Snyder
Active member
My thoughts:
I have subscribed on and off for the last ~15 years. Over that time much more "off" than on. Quality has trended consistently and rapidly down.
The cutting of a check with "L.P. Brezny" in the payable to line is reason enough for any editor to be driven out of the publishing business and into something more appropriate to his sensibilities, like honey wagon driving or maybe adult theatre mop and bucket operator.
And the "How to buy a shiny new layout boat to kill your limitz of extreeem diverz" stories... or worse yet the "how to kill extreem limitz like a badass with guide X," whom if you've actually met him, you would know as a man who marches somewhere near the banner-and-baton end of the parade of flaming assholes, and whose clients shoot about two buffleheads and a cormorant a trip on a stretch of river that's home to about 20,000 bluebills (though in their defense they do it out of an extreeeeeeem DUCK DETH DEELIN' CUSTOM BOAT that will draft 2" of water, take on 24' seas, fly at 32,000' altitude and turn out a perfectly toasted sesame bagel...)
Well, it just makes me laugh and let my subscription lapse.
Publications worth reading:
Gray's Sporting Journal. Even the stuff about pursuits that don't interest me is very good reading. I'm starting to get seriously into bird hunting the last couple seasons, and I largely have Gray's to thank for sparking the interest. The best cooking column in print, and even the poetry's good.
Field and Stream. At least you know what you're getting... there's some good fishing knowledge to be had and a good recipe once in a while (Doves from Hell from their Sept. issue has been getting applied to a lot of ducks in my house lately)... and I like to read Heavey. Plus I like to read the weenie ads in the back, keep up on the latest in the world of "big pharma" to know how much bigger I can make it after duck season ends and I have time to start using it again.
The [Your state here] Outdoor News publications. None of it's what I would call literary, but they do some decent reporting when it comes to issues affecting sportsmen... witness MN Outdoor News' recent coverage of FWS' scaup brain fart.
And, I'd say Delta's mag is coming along in leaps and bounds. Far better than DU's these days.
I have subscribed on and off for the last ~15 years. Over that time much more "off" than on. Quality has trended consistently and rapidly down.
The cutting of a check with "L.P. Brezny" in the payable to line is reason enough for any editor to be driven out of the publishing business and into something more appropriate to his sensibilities, like honey wagon driving or maybe adult theatre mop and bucket operator.
And the "How to buy a shiny new layout boat to kill your limitz of extreeem diverz" stories... or worse yet the "how to kill extreem limitz like a badass with guide X," whom if you've actually met him, you would know as a man who marches somewhere near the banner-and-baton end of the parade of flaming assholes, and whose clients shoot about two buffleheads and a cormorant a trip on a stretch of river that's home to about 20,000 bluebills (though in their defense they do it out of an extreeeeeeem DUCK DETH DEELIN' CUSTOM BOAT that will draft 2" of water, take on 24' seas, fly at 32,000' altitude and turn out a perfectly toasted sesame bagel...)
Well, it just makes me laugh and let my subscription lapse.
Publications worth reading:
Gray's Sporting Journal. Even the stuff about pursuits that don't interest me is very good reading. I'm starting to get seriously into bird hunting the last couple seasons, and I largely have Gray's to thank for sparking the interest. The best cooking column in print, and even the poetry's good.
Field and Stream. At least you know what you're getting... there's some good fishing knowledge to be had and a good recipe once in a while (Doves from Hell from their Sept. issue has been getting applied to a lot of ducks in my house lately)... and I like to read Heavey. Plus I like to read the weenie ads in the back, keep up on the latest in the world of "big pharma" to know how much bigger I can make it after duck season ends and I have time to start using it again.
The [Your state here] Outdoor News publications. None of it's what I would call literary, but they do some decent reporting when it comes to issues affecting sportsmen... witness MN Outdoor News' recent coverage of FWS' scaup brain fart.
And, I'd say Delta's mag is coming along in leaps and bounds. Far better than DU's these days.
Dwight Harley
Well-known member
I subscribed for 20 years but finally let it lapse. Wildfowl has sucked for a long time... With a few exceptions, all the articles are thinly veiled product pitches by endorsement whores. Don't know why I waited so long to give it up. However, they keep sending me copies, along with frantic messages that say "LAST ISSUE! ACT NOW!"
I'm going against the grain and will say I really like Wildfowl Magazine and plan to subscribe indefinitely. The boats and blinds section is fantastic and I've picked up a lot of tips from it over the years. Furthermore, I have no problem with advertising or product reviews. Nobody holds a gun to my head to buy anything and I like to keep up with what is new. Even the little ads along with the classified section keep me abreast of new innovations with the quick flip of a few pages. In every issue there are some really great pictures and it keeps me pumped up pretty much year around. Some articles appeal to me and some don't, so I read the ones I like. You will find Wildfowl Magazine and Great Lakes Angler in the reading section on the top of my throne all year long.....