GUNS 1955–2025
These old pages of GUNS Magazine,
many forgotten but still valuable
For 70 years — starting with this cover — GUNS Magazine has
continued to publish its monthly magazine while adding
digital and social media channels.
On the occasion of our 70th birthday, GUNS Magazine would like to take our loyal readers on a short trip down memory lane to look at the stories and advertisements that made this magazine such a significant chronicle of firearms and shooting through the years.
While compiling this special section, I often found myself sitting back to reminisce, not only about the guns I owned — or wanted desperately to buy — but all the adventures and enjoyment shooting sports has brought. These old stories, names and advertisements took me back to the smell of burned powder hanging in the still morning air the first time I successfully bagged a squirrel, the curmudgeonly advice heard at countless gun counters or drinking lousy coffee on the cold morning of a hot shooting match. There were literally countless others, all inspired by smears of ink on a page.
My hope is these images and words will help the reader do likewise. These old pages of GUNS Magazine, many forgotten but still valuable, are really a time machine and I hope you can hitch a pleasant ride.
Your Faithful Correspondent,
Brent T. Wheat
Editor, GUNS Magazine
The cover of the July 1957 edition of Guns featured King Faisal II
of Iraq, a noted shooting enthusiast. Unfortunately, he was murdered
in a coup only one year after this story. Miss Douglass kept ruffians at
bay and “the Woman who is my companion” safe on her Vermont
farm with a Sentinel revolver.
1950's
The year 1955 was one of the more momentous in the 20th century. The Cold War was rapidly spiraling, Bill Haley rocked around the clock, Disneyland opened, the Dodgers beat the Yankees in the World Series and John Taffin was a senior in High School.
On the shooting front, Smith & Wesson introduced both the .357 Combat Magnum and the .44 Magnum while Colt brought out the .357 Python. Bill Ruger offered his first Blackhawk revolver in .357 and Brownells introduced Acraglas.
Meanwhile, a small publishing company started selling a new gun publication on the newsstand.
This was significant because it was the first time a gun-focused magazine was sold to the general public. Before 1955, if you wanted to read a “gun” magazine, you had to join the National Rifle Association and receive one of their fine publications. Other magazines such as Outdoor Life or Field & Stream included shooting information but it wasn’t their sole reason for being. If you wanted firearms content, GUNS Magazine was your only option.
Now, 70 years later, many other publications have come and gone. At the turn of the latest century, cell phones became ubiquitous and helped turn the internet into a central part of both our private and work lives, changing mass communication forever. Through it all, GUNS has stayed true to its mission of bringing the best gun stories to readers
It was quite a coup to interview for Guns the King of Iraq.
A coup one year later didn’t go so well for King Faisal II.
Miss Douglass kept ruffians at bay and “the Woman who is my
companion” safe on her Vermont farm with a Sentinel revolver.
Need a 7MM Remington Rolling Block? You could order
one through the mail for $14.95. How about a Colt Government
Model shipped to your door for $39.95?
ABOUT THIS ISSUE: July 1957
Just two and half years after the first issue, GUNS was full of advertising and international stories. The cover of the July 1957 issue featured a profile of shooting enthusiast King Faisal II of Iraq. It’s amazing to think a “mere” gun magazine could have an audience with such an important world figure to discuss his love of shooting. Even so, it’s hard not to roll your eyes at the hyperbolic first sentence: “Guns are the emissaries of peace, not war, in the hands of King Faisal II of Iraq.” The king would be murdered in a coup only a year later.
Another interesting story is about Ruth C. Douglass, a .22 pistol-packin’ mama who kept ruffians and varmints at bay on the farm she shared with “The woman who is my companion.” This sentence undoubtedly raised an eyebrow or two in 1957. Opposite the Table of Contents, “Top-Name Comedian” Jerry Lewis is bragging about his guns, including his .357 used by Chicago Police Detectives “ to kill three crooks.” Society, and our stars, have certainly changed!
On the advertising front, companies such as the Hollywood Fast Draw Holster Company, Stoeger, Pachmayr Gun Works and Hoppes were buying small ads while the only full-page firearms ads came from Hi-Standard and Firearms International Corp.
Certainly the most heartbreaking reminder of the old days are those breathless listings of mail-order military surplus guns. On the back page, Golden Star Arms Corp. of Pasadena, Calif. — it certainly was a different time — sold 7mm Mauser surplus bolt actions for $19.95, plus $1 for 20 rounds of ammo. A 1901 7mm Remington rolling block rifle would be purchased for $14.95 while British No. 1 Mark III rifles in “Guaranteed Good Condition” were offered for only $21.95! If they would only invent a time machine …
Eight years after Guns first debuted, the magazine was full of ads and
focused primarily on hunting. The cover was a spectacular Ballard A1 rifle.
The “Great Western” influence was readily apparent in the ’60s.
1960's
Peace, love, war, assassination and the Beatles ruled this decade. To say the 1960s was a time of turmoil is similar to saying Donald Trump “occasionally” gets involved in controversy. Vietnam was rapidly ramping up, the Civil Rights movement gained full steam, riots swept the country, the Great Society programs aimed to fix poverty and people kept shooting political leaders. Kids were advised to “Tune in, turn on and drop out” as hippies roamed the landscape in their tie-dyed uniform. This was a visible reminder of the great Culture War sweeping every town, where concerns about the length of your hair sometimes often resulted in serious argument if not an actual beating.
On the gun front, one of the most pivotal moments was the adoption of the M16 in 1964, replacing the M14, which had only been issued since 1959. However, arguably the top shooting story of the decade had to be the passage of the Gun Control Act (GCA) of 1968. Prompted by the slaying of President Kennedy by a mail-order rifle, even the NRA Vice-President Franklin Orth supported parts of the legislation banning purchase of guns via the mail. Other important parts of the GCA include requirement for placing serial numbers on all guns and the federal licensing of firearms dealers. Meanwhile, if you wanted to get involved in “serious” self-defense shooting, there was some group of guys out shooting in the California desert that included unknowns named Cooper, Reed, Carl, Weaver, Chapman and others.
Society was in literal upheaval but GUNS Magazine provided a beacon of stability by focusing on what united shooters rather than what separated them.
Imagine being able to order any of these guns direct, without a trip to an FFL. The prices still bring a tear to the eye of many collectors!
ABOUT THIS ISSUE: October 1963
By this point, GUNS was well on its way to becoming the pre-eminent shooting magazine on newsstands though other upstart publications were nipping at its heels. On the cover of the October 1963 issue was a Ballard A1, a target rifle produced from 1861 to 1888. Hunting was one of the main subjects covered throughout the magazine with stories such as “Choosing A Guide,” “No Magnums For Muley’s” and “Handguns For Small Game.” If you peruse the pages, the Old West mystique was also clearly alive and well.
On the advertising front, the magazine was full of ads for everything from scopes to anti-tank weapons. By 1963, all the major gun manufacturers were represented, but the best ads were undoubtedly contained in a three-page section awkwardly named “World’s Greatest Collection of America’s Greatest Shooter’s Bargains,” which featured Enfields for $14.95 and S&W .455 Webley revolvers for $39.95.
However, if you were in the market for something with a little more firepower, you could also purchase a 20mm Finnish Lahti Anti-Tank Rifle for only $99.95, while a 25mm Hotchkiss Cannon would set you back $125. Of course, if you were on a budget, you could pick up a Chinese 60mm mortar for $29 or a U.S. M1938 mortar for only $19.95 — so inexpensive, you should buy an extra one for the kids! Of course, in only five short years from the publication date, gun buying would get infinitely more complicated with passage of the GCA.
The ’70s were the start of the “Golden Age” of magazines. Advertising
dollars were much bigger, staffs were larger and even the magazines
themselves had more pages.
1970's
Ahhh, the ’70s — disco, environmentalism, Watergate, energy crisis and the “Me Decade.” Back in Indiana, a certain future editor of GUNS could occasionally be seen in his denim three-piece suit, platform shoes and pukka beads headed to the Junior High dance. He looked good but never worked up the nerve to ask Judy The Cheerleader to dance …
The 1970s was like the Sunday-morning hangover to the 1960s. Things generally calmed down, people turned more inward while longing for a little stability and calm after the non-stop strife of the previous 10 years. Though there were some notable clunkers, television, films and popular music produced some of the greatest works of all time. The Cold War was still hot but the Soviets were running out of steam, which is fortunate since we eventually elected one of the nicest but most ineffective presidents of all time, Jimmy Carter.
Technology was starting to change our lives. Microwave ovens became a common feature of homes, video games likewise, while personal computers were starting to appear in offices. Some aging hippies named Jobs and Wozniak formed a company named Apple as the Sony Walkman redefined how people on the go listened to music.
On the firearms front, guns took a definite turn toward tactical. The Ingram MAC-10 appeared in the 1970s and then in every single movie about drug dealers thereafter for a decade. Bill Ruger came out with the Mini-14 in 1973, which immediately gained a bad reputation as most of the guns could only hit the side of a barn if it were firing from the inside. It was a rare misstep for Ruger, the result of poor quality control and was later fixed. The Mossberg 590, a popular police shotgun, was introduced in 1975 and just so the hunters weren’t forgotten, the Winchester Model 1300 shotgun was unveiled.
Competition was a big topic in the 1970s.
(Left) Col. Jeff Cooper did indeed write for many different magazines, including GUNS.
(Left) Col. Jeff Cooper did indeed write for many different magazines, including GUNS. During the ’70s, the “Guns Magazine Sweepstakes” (below) was impressive — three first prizes and 90-second prizes!
ABOUT THIS ISSUE: March 1978
By 1978, GUNS had entered the golden age of shooting magazines. The magazine was filled with advertisements large and small, while the “Guns Magazine Sweepstakes” didn’t offer just one first prize — it offered three! There were 90-second prizes and more guns than you could imagine. Elsewhere, the first inklings of the “tactical” revolution were being seen. This issue included coverage of the 1977 IPSC Combat Championships by Col. Jeff Cooper and a story on the National Police Combat Championships by Bill Jordan. The editorial mix is noticeably skewing toward self-defense topics and competition shooting with virtually no mention of hunting and only a smattering of Old West guns.
On the advertising side, books were making a big appearance covering all sorts of mainstream and odd topics. One notable was a small advertisement of “Bodyguard and Mercenary Functions Provided — A Manual on Bodyguard, Assassination and Harassment Techniques.” Unless you’re a narcotics kingpin, we wonder why your bodyguard needs to know assassination and harassment technique but the information was available for $4.95. Elsewhere, the advertising roster is a virtual Who’s Who of gun and accessory manufacturers. Some notables include Winchester, Colt, Ruger, Don Hume, Reinhart Fajen Inc., Tyler’s “T” Grip, Oehler Chronographs, MTM Casegard, Dixie Gun Works, Birchwood Casey, Weaver scopes, Lee Precision and many others. Of course, there was also a ubiquitous full-page ad for the “Learn Gun Repair” correspondence course from North American School of Firearms.
The cover of the May 1986 issue made it clear the magazine
used non-professional photos for the cover.
1980's
The 1980s were a great time if you were a conservative and/or a shooter. The buzzword of the 1980s was “the Preppy” and many people ran around in chinos, boat shoes and with turned up the collars on their Izod shirts. If you were a serious knob, you wore two Izod shirts with the collars turned up. You know who you were!
Ronald Regan was president and America suddenly woke up to the crazy idea that the U.S. Military was actually an important and honorable part of our country. On the social side, everyone wanted to be a Wolf of Wall Street and pretended to be a part-time bond trader while pining for a car phone of their own. Conspicuous consumption was “in” and simply being “good” wasn’t good enough.
On the shooting side, I can summarize everything about the decade with two words — Miami Vice. The show was wildly popular and used current rock hits alongside an ever-changing panorama of sexy guns to stage the stylized weekly gunfights. Though the gun handling was pure Hollywood and cringeworthy, Crockett and Tubbs were probably the first TV detectives since Starsky & Hutch to affect gun sales. To this day, gun nerds — I’m talking to you, Dr. Will Dabbs — still get a gleam in their eye when they discuss Sonny’s Bren Ten and his backup Detonics Pocket 9. The show also gave a major sales boost to Galco gun leather.
Otherwise, the layout and design was quite good. GUNS has always
been known for not following mainstream trends as slavishly as other
gun magazines. Below, an intro primer to black powder shotgunning
is a good example.
Oddly, the only full-page gun advertisement was
from Sturm, Ruger and Co. on the back page.
ABOUT THIS ISSUE: May 1986
By the mid-1980s, significant changes had taken place in GUNS. The magazine embarked on a more modern layout, used thicker paper and had moved corporate offices to San Diego, Calif. from Skokie, Illinois. The editorial direction was much less about defensive shooting and competition as it had been during the mid-’70s and early ’80s, and settled back toward a mix of general shooting topics with no single subject overly represented. This was the last decade for “Guns” versus the “GUNS” of today.
The cover still used a non-professional photography and the Gun of the Month was reduced to a two-page spread to highlight the monthly gun giveaway. Massad Ayoob retained his status as handgun editor, while Bill Jordan and Jeff Cooper seldom appeared as writers. The story mix in this issue included a feature about the gun collection of S&W historian Roy Jinks, a review of the Colt No. 3 Frontier Single Action, introduction to blackpowder shotgunning and the .411 Magnum, an obscure dangerous-game round made from a necked-down .458 Winchester casing.
On the advertising side of things, books and training courses continued a strong showing, along with the “Learn to be a Locksmith” course advertisement that seemed to be in every magazine of the era. The “Gun Marketplace” of classified ads was a robust three solid pages in which you could find anything from Ninja equipment to Nazi war souvenirs and Excalibur wax pellets to make your own indoor practice ammo. In the display ads, you could also pick up belt buckles and rawhide whips while larger ads featured names such as FIE, Kleen Bore, RWS, Beeman, CCI, RCBS, Hornady, Federal, AMT and Outers. Strangely, the only full-page gun advertisement is from our longtime friends at Ruger on the back cover.
In the 1990s, the magazine turned to using professional photography on the cover.
Ichiro Nagata was well known for his beautiful covers during this era.
1990's
Just when everything seemed fairly staid and calm, along came the ’90s. The decade almost seemed to be a violent backlash against everything from the 1980s. Music went from bland pop into the Grunge movement as rap also surfaced to foul the ears of humanity.
Technology started its major ascent during this decade. Music went from vinyl to cassettes to CDs and finally MP3s while personal computers became a fixture in many homes. At the same time, the fledgling internet grew as more people learned how to use a dial-up modem to connect. Though speeds were slow, things like file sharing and email started to show a hint of what the world would look like today. People also began talking in earnest about a future world where anyone could publish anything at the push of a button and the whole of the world’s knowledge was available in your hand.
In other words, we all thought the 2000s would be wonderful. In 1997 we should have realized the Dot-Com bubble was a foreshadowing of the dangers of placing too much stock on an invisible data stream.
In 1991, the Soviet Union finally fell, sparking a series of anti-communist revolutions across Europe while the U.S. assumed the role as the only legitimate superpower. In 1990, Saddam Hussein made the first of a couple of critical mistakes by invading Kuwait. For the first time since arguably WWII, the U.S. public actually responded favorably and wholly supported the troops. Hussein was roundly defeated and peace has ruled the Middle East since that time. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist).
On the gun side of life, this decade marked the rise of semi-autos. Law enforcement was rapidly trading in their old sixguns for higher-capacity semi-auto guns and shooters everywhere noticed. Meanwhile, the AR15, now intimately familiar to a whole generation of former soldiers, became the “Modern Sporting Rifle.” One tragedy did occur — this was the time of the “.45 versus 9mm shootout” article, a trite concept wholly flogged to death by every single firearms publication in the world aside from GUNS Magazine. This is a true claim!
A magazine selling catalogs? GUNS tried selling catalogs from its
partners for a small fee. The ironic thing is catalogs were soon to
become a thing of the past, thanks to that internet-thingy people
were talking about.
The Kahr 9 in nine millimeter was representative of the
“new breed” of CCW guns in the 1990s.
ABOUT THIS ISSUE: April 1996
By the 1990s, the look of GUNS Magazine was thoroughly modern and to my eye, quite upscale. The cover featured professional photography by Ichiro Nagata and full-color printing was used throughout the pages. The length had also expanded to 100 pages for the bargain price of $2.95!
The April issue was themed with “CCW & Self-Defense” so the content leaned heavily in this direction. “Officer Roy” and Suzi Huntington make a couple of appearances while Massad Ayoob gave practical tips for concealed carry. The Crossfire section was interesting as the general theme seemed to be one of deep anger toward the Federal government and various alphabet agencies, reflecting sentiment in the country at the time. Meanwhile, one reader severely upbraided Massad Ayoob for being a proponent of the 9mm. The reader’s gripe was based on the experiences of a friend who served on the Eastern Front in WWII. The friend claimed the German 9mm wouldn’t go through a frozen Soviet greatcoat, so how dare Mr. Ayoob support the cartridge for self-defense?!?
Turns out Mas was right.
In the Insider column by Editor Scott Farrell, Scott was wowed and amazed by the new Christensen Arms CarbonOne rifle with a newfangled carbon fiber barrel announced at the 1996 SHOT Show. One of the first of its kind, the CarbonOne had a palpitation-inducing price tag of $2,700. The cover gun for the issue was a Kahr K9 while the Gun Giveaway was a Custom Colt Delta Elite in .357 SIG.
In the New Product section, the Tasco PDP5 Red Dot Sight was one of the offerings profiled. It retailed for $499 and the photograph made it look the size of a 40mm grenade shell perched on a 6″ S&W wheelgun. One special feature is a Catalog Showcase section offering of 7 ½ pages of literature from all sorts of firearm and accessory companies. GUNS sold them inexpensively to cover mailing and handling costs. These pages were likely the Little Bighorn of the catalog industry.
With 100 pages to fill, the thick inventory of advertising ran the gamut: Ruger, Leupold, Tasco, Springfield Armory, Savage, Birchwood Casey, Para-Ordnance. Dillon Precision, Auto-Ordnance Corp, Mag-na-port, Shotgun News, Benchmade, SOG Knives and yes, even cigars. It was, after all, the height of The Great Cigar Boom.
The 1990s and 2000s have seen only small changes to the magazine —
“If it ain’t broke, why fix it?” The magazine covered a wild new trend —
electronic sights. Battery life then was measured in hundreds of hours
instead of the tens of thousands of hours today. They were right
about one thing — red dots are here to stay.
2000's
The 2000s was the dawn of the millennium and clearly defined by rapid technological advancements in every sector. It was also the dawn of the Digital Age of Communication, where every person has the ability to broadcast anything they want with little restraint or quality control. Advertising, once under the sole ownership of mass media, shifted to online technology companies and dramatically changed the media landscape, ultimately forcing many traditional outlets out of business. This is why I’m a “former” newspaper outdoor writer. Facebook launched in 2004 while YouTube opened a year later, revolutionizing communication among the entire human race — for better and clearly worse.
Geopolitics changed in 2001 after the 9/11 Terror Attacks. It ushered in the longest war in U.S. history and created a whole new generation of shooters who were most comfortable with polymer 9mm pistols and the AR15 platform. These sandbox-instilled preferences still drive the market today.
In the gun industry itself, the widespread adoption of computer-operated manufacturing machines meant quality went up across the board. Skilled workers on milling machines were supplanted by computerized devices, which produced nearly identical parts day-in and day-out. This, coupled with computer-aided design and improvements in design, materials and testing means even today’s “budget” guns have quality levels close to those of more expensive hand-built guns of yesteryear. Overall, there are now very few bad guns on the market and even the cheapest ones work well. Couple this with new goodies such as ballistic computers, improved ammunition, better holster technology and improvements in LED optical sights, and shooters should realize they are indeed living in the “Golden Age” of shooting.
The “centerfold” of the magazine became more prominent to
ABOUT THIS ISSUE: May 2001
If you look at the magazine in 2001 versus today, it is isn’t much different, which is a compliment to those who made the changes. Many of the names you’ll recognize — Anderson, Ayoob, Bodinson, Huntington, Taffin and others. One or two behind-the-scenes folks are also still around.
The magazine did go on a bit of a diet, coming in at 80 pages.
In the Crossfire section, the letter of the month was from a reader who was greatly offended by earlier coverage of the World Sniper Championship in Arizona. The reader sarcastically wondered if the snipers were shooting targets of 10-year-old children and also managed to work in his disdain for the FBI and BATF. He closed with “… these guys inhabit that gray area between police and Gestapo.” If the gentleman is still with us, I’m sure he’s horrified that after a couple of wars, snipers are more popular than ever. There was also a letter talking about the increasing challenges of meeting Canadian firearms restrictions. This letter came two years before long gun registration became mandatory in our northern neighbor.
On the shooting side of things, Dave Anderson talked about this new .300 WSM, which was Winchester’s first new cartridge in 20 years. Little did Dave know the floodgates would soon be opened with all sorts of new factory cartridges, many focused on the growing trend of precision long-range shooting. In 2007 the 6.5 Creedmoor was unleashed on the world and rifle shooting hasn’t been the same since.
Another noteworthy news item in the issue was the intro of Hevishot, an alloy of tungsten, nickel and iron that revolutionized shotgun ammunition. Heavier than lead and hard as steel, it ushered in the era of more effective loads where even the “lowly” .410 bore is now considered a state-of-the-art turkey gun.
The Cover Gun is a movie star and one of the largest pistols in captivity — the Desert Eagle in .50 AE. Our old friend Dick Williams was the unlucky volunteer to sample the pistol’s robust recoil and he might have understated things a bit when he mentioned “the big bore semiauto does generate a lot of torque.” That’s putting it mildly!
Another interesting story is “The Aimpoint Goes Military” with the subtitle of “This rugged, high-performance red dot sight is not just for competition shooting anymore.” Indeed, it isn’t, along with its thousands of competitors.…
On the advertising side, it’s fun to use the “Mauser Index,” a comparison of prices from 1955 to today. In this Millenium-era issue, a Mauser 98K is offered for sale — through FFL only — for $295. Compare that to $14.95 (mail order) from 1963. Otherwise, the advertisements and the companies don’t look too dissimilar from today. One item of note, undoubtedly foreshadowing the future, was the GUNS Classifieds shrunk to two pages. I’d be lying if I said there weren’t challenges finding advertisers in a world where Google auctions off a billion impressions a minute and every person with a cell phone fancies themselves as some kind of “influencer.”
Dave Anderson said the time was ripe for a new wave of cartridge design.
Little did he know this trickle would turn into a full-on deluge by 2015.
Guns could no longer be sold by mail order, but companies were
still advertising Mauser rifles in GUNS. Unfortunately, the price
in the 2000s was $295 instead of $14.95. Even worse,
it seems like a bargain versus 2025 prices!
CONCLUSION
The goal of this extended saunter down memory lane wasn’t intended to be an exercise in self-congratulations. The hope was we could rekindle some of the great memories of shooting we all have. Through all kinds of changes and upheaval, GUNS Magazine has been there to chronicle our lives behind the gun and I hope you were reminded of those while paging through this section.
Though the future will undoubtedly be challenging, my belief is good storytelling will never go away and there will always be people who want the sensation of opening those crisp offset print pages to enjoy the words and experiences of world-class experts.
Our next big obstacle will be artificial intelligence (AI). AI is getting better every day and will soon replace many basic media jobs because, frankly, it doesn’t take a lot of skill to write a simple press release or short news item. Where it falls short — and likely will for the foreseeable future — is “experiential” writing, the kind where real people talk about the things they’ve done in the physical world. In other words, AI can’t do the exact same stuff we’ve been doing for 70 years. We’ve been told “print is dead” for decades but I think Mark Twain was correct when he noted, “The news of my demise is greatly exaggerated.”
We’ll now close this chapter of history for GUNS Magazine. On behalf of myself and the hundreds of people whom I represent on this page, I’d like to give a heartfelt thanks to the millions of readers for their support over the years. We’re all part of the GUNS family and I look forward to many more years of being together. I’ll even take this opportunity to be the first person to raise a toast to the 100th anniversary of GUNS Magazine!
In closing, as I always say — Now get out there and get shooting! —BW
