The magazine's recurring "Bad Man" article, about outlaws of the West, was the feature that generated the most reader mail and interest.

True West was the largest Western magazine on the market in the 1960s, selling hundreds of thousands of copies monthly at newsstands.

The magazine benefited from an era featuring popular television western series such as Bonanza, The Lone Ranger, and Gunsmoke.

Executive editor Bob Boze Bell is regularly featured on True West Moments, which airs on Encore's Westerns channel.

[4] Outrageous Arizona received an EMMY Award[5] from Rocky Mountain Southwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) in 2013.