Airgun World

June 2009 - Issue 210

Well, I’ve always asked for readership input, and this month I’ve certainly had plenty of that. First, several of you contacted me with your views on us printing text over ‘patterned’ backgrounds, stating your objection to this. Fair enough; from now on we’ll only use that style with the background photos so ‘knocked back’ that there will be no difficulty in reading the text.

Why don’t we get rid of that style altogether and simply print black on white? We may well do that, but I’d rather have the option to add a little variety of design throughout Airgun World, unless it compromises the mag’s readability of course. I’ve made the changes in this month’s issue, so let’s see if they meet with your approval. One thing’s for sure; I know you’ll tell me if we’ve got it right, or not, and that’s just the way I want it. This is your magazine, designed by us, for you, under your guidance. So, keep those suggestions coming.

Still on the subject of getting things right for the readers, we somehow managed to publish the solution to April’s Spot The Difference competition in our May edition, which was a bit of a boo-boo on our behalf to say the least.

Obviously, plenty of you spotted that and some were rightfully a bit miffed that they’d posted off their entries before the answer to the competition was printed in the mag’, while those who entered later had the benefit of the answers.

First of all, please accept my apologies for this oversight and I’ll do my best to make sure it never happens again. Secondly, I had a serious think about this and made an executive decision; everyone who entered before the on-sale date of May’s issue would receive free entry into the June and July competitions.

I think that’s fair, but if you don’t, for whatever reason, you know where to find me. Incidentally, I was keen to see if our publishing the answer to the competition would cause a huge increase in entries. It didn’t. In fact, entry for that particular competition was very slightly down on the previous month. Here’s another fascinating fact about our spot-the-difference competition that may surprise you, in that we don’t get thousands upon thousands of entries.

We never have, actually, and our total entry averages way below 1000. Several readers have won the competition more than once, and I know of one chap who’s won it three times. I’m trying to find out that guy’s Lottery numbers, but in the meantime, get those entries in because the chances of winning are probably higher than you thought.

Moving away, at last, from my goofs  and gaffes, I’ve had another hectic month
with putting Airgun World together between attending the Kelmarsh Country Fair in Northampton, filming our new hunting DVD and testing new guns and gear.

Filming that DVD is opening my eyes to all sorts of things and among them is the incredible usefulness of electronic rangefinders. As someone who began toddling around the hunting field pretty much as soon as I was able to walk, I’ve always relied on my judgement of range to guide me while hunting, but the use of a rangefinder whilst filming the static hunting section of the DVD has changed my outlook completely.

 I’m currently compiling a rangefinder article for Airgun World, possibly for the next issue, and I’m already sold on what an advantage they are, especially now they’re more compact, easy to use and affordable than they’ve ever been. I’ve already decided never to hunt in daylight without a rangefinder and I’ll be logging my findings as time goes on.

Right, that’s enough from me. I’m off to do this month’s cover photo before putting in my final test session with the new Daystate Mk4 iS, which doing its best to change my views even more than electronic rangefinders have. Old dogs and new tricks, eh? This is Techno-Tel signing off, and I’ll see you next month.

Terry Doe

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