RE: First Issue
I'll tell you...I'm picky about which hunting magazines I'll buy. Some of them are nothing but story after story that could be best summed up as "Bubba Stuck Him a Biggun'"...drives me nuts.
Bowhunter Magazine I like. Lots of good diverse info.
TBM I really like. Good writing and a broad cross-section of material. Almost every article has a message to it, and it's not "look at what I stuck". Some of the writers, like Don Thomas, T.J. Conrads, Monty Browning, and Noelle Naiden (just to name a few) are true artists with a keyboard...much like Dean Torges. Fred Eichler's hunting articles are great, and Jerry Gowins' how-to stuff has probably helped more hunters take better pictures than anything else has. And yes, Fred Asbel's stuff is very enjoyable...from how-to articles to hunting stories.
No publication can be all things to all people, but I think TBM is as close to it as I've seen.
JRW