Welcome to the Vintage Gun Journal.
Our purpose is to promote our sporting gun heritage and the continued use of vintage sporting guns in the field. We provide a platform for the sharing of information, sales, restoration and links between professionals and enthusiasts.
Creating a digital platform, bringing together enthusiasts and professionals who share a passion for traditional British sporting arms, has been a journey.
We struggled with a name. We tested many clever and esoteric alternatives but, in the end, decided on one which requires little explanation. To use a line from a memorable British TV advertisement for quick-drying wood stain; 'It does what it says on the tin’.
The format is a departure from traditional, printed, publications. With almost half our readership in the United States and Australasia, we think this offers greater immediacy, accessibility and value. We did consider a print format, because, contrary to conventional wisdom, print media is not dead. The market wants niche publications and it wants quality. The success of the new Fieldsports Journal and publications like The Explora from Westley Richards, or Modern Huntsman, indicate a healthy demand being catered to by some talented and ambitious publishers.
For our project, we took a cold, clear look into the future. Information is shared digitally today and that trend is set to continue. The decision, therefore, was to make the best use we could of this, twenty-first century means of communication, rather than what has been the norm since the sixteenth century.
Digital also carries with it the environmental benefits that we, as passionate conservationists and hunters, feel we should be active in supporting. Much as we writers like to think our words will be cherished for evermore, the fact is that print magazines and newspapers invariably end-up in land-fill, incinerators or, sadly, as litter. Digital media is clean. There is no waste, no clean-up.
There is also no carbon footprint. Nobody has to manufacture the paper and ink, nobody has to transport it around the globe and it does not require a wrapping which creates trash.
Storage and indexing is also easier with digital. All our articles are archived by classification. So, if you want to read old gun articles, you can just open the archived section and read them all at your leisure.
Furthermore, and not inconsequentially, we want as many people to have access to the Vintage Gun Journal as possible. That means no pay-wall. Content is free to view. If you appreciate what we do, we will be providing a voluntary contribution system to help us fund production and improvement.
If you don’t like the Journal, don’t think it worth a dollar, can’t afford to pay, or just don’t want to, that is fine. You are still welcome and valued. Half of all contributions are donated to our charity, The Gurkha Welfare Trust.
Finally, we are dedicated to continual improvement. We are confident that this will be the only publication you need if vintage British sporting guns are your passion or your business. We hope you enjoy The Vintage Gun Journal; you are the reason it exists.
Published by Vintage Guns Ltd on (modified )
