Submission Guidelines

Evaluation

We evaluate all stories based on photo quality, trophy quality, and the overall quality of the story. Stories with the best of all three aspects are the most likely to be published as feature stories in the Western Hunter Magazine. We also pick others for the “All Tagged Out” section of the magazine, or you can be highlighted on Wester Hunter Online in the Hunt Stories & Adventures category. 

Western Hunter’s Story Guidelines

You don’t have to be the world’s greatest writer to submit your hunt story; don’t worry we have a team of writers and editors that will help you along the way. However, here are some guidelines to keep in mind that make a story more compelling to the readers.

1. Word count - Submissions are to be 1,200 – 1,500 words. Stories longer than that will be edited down or returned to you for revision.
2. Leave the advertising to us - Do not promote companies or products, although the guide, outfitter, or landowner’s name can be mentioned. If a product was used on the hunt, it may be put on the Gear List block at the end of the article.
3. Show us your emotion –  Hunting is an emotion-filled sport – whether it was positive or negative, its part of your story and we want to hear it. Be descriptive in what you were feeling, and why you were feeling that way. Draw the readers into your emotion.
4. Describe the scenery – Take a bit of time to describe the landscape around you and set a mood for the hunt. Create a picture in the minds of the readers. 
5. Reflect – Take some time to reflect along the way. What did you learn? What could you have done better? What went absolutely perfect because you planned ahead, or trained a certain way. You want the readers to come away from your story having learned from your lessons.

Adventure Story

An “adventure story” is typically a 2-4 page recounting of a successful hunt. The type of story we prefer to print consists of 1000-1500 words + a gear list and 3-5 great photos. Those parameters can be adjusted slightly depending on the content and quality of the content, but the closer you get to them, the more likely your story is to be printed.

Short Story

A “short story” is a 400-800 word(ish) piece that tells of a memorable experience, funny moment, near-death scenario, or something along those lines. Think related to hunting, but not necessarily the usual drawn tag > stalk > kill. Examples: A description of a panicked retreat from the mountains after a fall and broken ankle, a funny conversation or situation in camp, or an awful night in a tent in bad weather.

Fiction

As you might expect, these are fictional stories. Although accepted, these will likely be sparingly chosen, so keep brevity and big-picture relatability in mind. Ideally, a fictional story would be between 800-1200 words, but if you’ve got something that fits this category, don’t hesitate to submit it! Bonus points for illustrations or relevant images.

All Tagged Out

If you fancy yourself a killer more than a writer, submit a photo or two and a short description of when/where/how you were able to take an animal. If it’s huge, we can work with you on writing out a full story or print it as is in this section. Who knows, if you have a truly magnificent animal with great photos, you may end up on the cover!

Just a Cool Picture

We value excellent photography and Western Hunter Magazine offers plenty of space for printing photos! We welcome anything interesting and at least somewhat related to hunting. Photos of cool weapons, beautiful landscapes, live wildlife shots, tough packouts, we love it all. However, we have just a few qualifications:

1: Photos must be “printable” – this means that they need to be high-resolution. “High resolution” to us is at least 2500 pixels wide. It’s possible for an iPhone photo to fit our standards, but it has to have some serious artistic qualities. Portrait mode is essentially an automatic disqualifier.

2: No edits unless you’re a professional – we know there are lots of subjective ways of making an image stronger, but we have a style that we don’t want to stray too far from. We prefer to receive RAW files or completely unedited .JPGs. Please save the Instagram filters and VSCO tweaks for your own use. Even if you are a professional with great editing skills, please submit both final JPG and RAW files.

Q&A

We are planning to feature more reader-submitted questions in the near future. If there’s anything you’d like to know from our staff or editors (even Nate) about their tactics, gear, or about the magazine itself, please send it to us! We’ll do our best to get it answered.

Gear List

Include a short list of gear that you believe made a worthwhile impact on your hunt. Think weapon, clothes, pack, boots, any piece of gear that you want the reads to know you were using. These will be included at the end of your story and gives our reader a bit of insight into what you were using during your story.

Image Guidelines

Having proper images to go along with your story is mandatory to be published in the magazine. Please avoid submitting low-quality, small, or low-resolution images. We require high-resolution images to ensure the highest quality end product for our readers. Images can be from any aspect of the hunt, i.e. camp, glassing, hiking, etc. This is another opportunity to help draw the reader into your story.  

We hope to receive images that are at least 1.25MB in file size – Please do not resize your images down or compress them in any way in order to send them to our editors. If you have any questions don’t hesitate to reach out to us at info@westernhunter.net