Classic 1958 Hunting Article from Sports Illustrated

[WH1]

I was checking some information on the SI website and happened to see the cover from this 1958 issue on the page. It is worth a look. The article is about John Olin, inventor of the Winchester Super-X shotgun shell and his passion for bird hunting and conservation. The issue also has great ads. An interesting piece of outdoors history and worth a readhttp://http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/cover/featured/7590/index.htm

 

[John in Covina]

The whole vibe of the magazine exudes a classiness seldom found today. As I paged through it, I was looking a lot at the advertising and was transported back to the time of my childhood. While this has some themes earlier than me there was some holdover as to the style of advertising to my youth.

As an aside: The Cities Service ad made me stop because I seem to recall when the name change to CITGO just like Esso becoming Exxon.

 

[Doublegun]

My father kept (and I have) a copy of the first issue of SI and flipping though the pages is a snapshot of what sports and sportsmen were like back in the day. In that article there was a great article about what to feed your bird dog to help get ready for the season. I really enjoy older sporting magazines because they give you insight into the attitude and psyche of sportsmen of old and there are plenty of lessons we can learn from them.

 

[WH1]

It is sad the state of most of the great old mags. i still occasionally read Field & Stream, love the Double Gun Journal (the wish book), subscribe to "shooting sportsman" and Petersen's Hunting. But they are all so "MODERN" Petersens comes close to capturing the feel of the older mags. In many cases the writing is the issue. While there are some good writers I don't find people like Charlie Waterman who could always make me feel the immediate need to go spend time in the field and was able to elicit intense emotions with his stories about his gundogs. This is the same response I have to most of the modern hunting shows on television. They are poor performers next to the memories I have of "The American Sportsman with Curt Gowdie (sp?). Too much about " look at me and my ego" not enough about the quality of the experience in my opinion. There are a few I like, Craig Boddington and Scott Linden.

 

[John in Covina]

Unfortunately much of the modern image of the hunter of today combines equal parts professional wrestling fan, Jerry Springer show attendee, with a Confederate flag tattoo and chewing tobacco spittle drool on his face as relatives to the sodomy gang from the film Deliverance. It not the facts of the nature of today's hunter it's just the perception perpetuated by the anti-hunting crowd.