Every once in a while, I like to sit back and relax and do some light reading. Whenever I go camping, I like to bring along a survival book or a prepper magazine. Reading it’s one of my favourite past times, and I often pick up literature that can improve my survival knowledge.
I discovered my first prepper magazine a while back, and I was impressed by the amount of information found in such a publication. Over the years, I’ve bought subscriptions to a few of them, and I now have a few favourites. I recommend picking up a prepper magazine if you have the chance, and I guarantee you will be hooked!
Why should you read a prepper magazine?
First of all, these publications are designed to pack a good amount of information on various topics. No matter what type of prepper you are, there’s always something in a prepper magazine to cover your needs or wants, when it comes to emergency preparedness and survival.
Second, almost all these prepper magazines have a survival scenario depicted in detail, and survival experts will add their valuable input on how to survive that particular scenario. In other words, they explain what they would do to make it out alive if such a crisis occurs. Each approach is different, and there are a lot of things you can learn from their knowledge and experience.
And third, a prepper magazine will include all the latest news regarding gear and other supplies useful to preppers. You will find reviews and in-depth testing of any survival gear you can think of. From firearms to food, and pretty much every piece of gear that’s out there on the market, you can find it all in a prepper magazine.
My Top 5 Best Prepper Magazines
All the recommendations you will find below make a good addition to your SHTF Library and will only improve your knowledge and set of skills. I have a good stack of these, and every time I pick one, there’s always something new that catches my eye and makes me want to research more on the topic.
1.American Survival Guide
This is the first prepper magazine I’ve discovered, and after more than five years, it still remains one of my favourites. I consider American Survival Guide to be a complete magazine since it has it all when it comes to survival. I enjoy their informative articles which cover various survival scenario. Not only they provide a solution to each problem, but they also include pictures and other resources that make the learning process easier.
One of the strong points of ASG is its thorough test and review of various firearms. Each issue has at least one article concentrating on a firearm, and I must admit the info I’ve gathered from such articles was a decisive factor in adding a new gun to my collection.
Another strong point that makes it a reputable prepper magazine is the writing style, which is informative and constructive rather than manipulative and fearmongering like you usually find in survival literature. Even more, they add sources for each article, and they encourage you to research the topic on your own, so you have all the information needed before establishing if the knowledge they shared is right for you and most importantly, complete and unbiased.
2. Survivor’s Edge
When first launched, this prepper magazine was more like a survival catalogue and a great source of survival gear review, recommendations, and everything on the marketing side of survival stuff. They also had informative articles, but mostly survival stories that would present the actual facts and ordeals that different survivors experienced.
However, in recent years, Survivor’s Edge has become a favourite prepper magazine of mine, and the reason behind this is the balance between informative and promotional content the editors managed to find. Now it contains more informative “how-to” articles and all sorts of survival scenarios that captivates the readers.
The magazine still has a lot of product reviews and gear recommendations, but that’s just an added bonus right now. This approach also makes it a key choice as a prepper magazine for beginners since they can find all sorts of goodies listed inside.
3. Recoil Off-Grid
This prepper magazine stands out due to its “what if” articles in which various scenarios are depicted with the main role of challenging the reader. Even more, besides making you “think about it,” each scenario provides the input of at least two survival experts. This not only helps you learn how to handle various scenarios, but it also helps you identify what mistakes you would have made or if you were on the same track with the survival experts.
Recoil OFF-Grid magazine has its share of product reviews and gear testing, but it stands out when it comes to firearm reviews. Each issue has content dedicated to the review of firearms, and various experts in the field put different guns to the test for you. These reviews are informative, and it helps you make the right choice if the firearm reviewed is the one on your “to buy” list.
Another thing worth mentioning is its survival literature recommendations. Every time some new survival book comes out, may it be fictional or educational, you can find it mentioned in the magazine. Even more, the editors often make recommendations such as “best Bushcraft books,” “top first aid field guides,” and so on, with the sole purpose of keeping the reader informed and eager to consult other survival literature.
4. Bushcraft & Survival Skills
As an outdoor enthusiast, I love this “prepper magazine,” although it can be more classified more like a “wilderness living magazine.” As the name implies, the Bushcraft & Survival Skills magazine concentrates more on the wilderness side of survival and living and aims to teach people how to survive in the wild. It’s a great magazine to learn new and exciting things and to put your skills to the test.
I love the magazine for the following reasons:
- It teaches you how to improvise with various natural materials you can find in the wilderness.
- Provides DIY projects that are easy to follow even if you’re just a bushcraft enthusiast with little to no field experience
- Provides plant identification and classification which makes it ideals for foragers
- The content is learning-driven, and you will always discover new things.
I should mention that this magazine was designed mostly for the UK public, even though the information you will find inside can be applied anywhere. For example, some plants may be native only to Europe, and it won’t help you learn how to forage and consume those plants unless you plan to travel to that part of the world. However, I consider this a minor inconvenience since the overall knowledge you will gather from this magazine can be put to good use no matter where you find yourself.
For preppers interested more in gear reviews, firearm presentations, and gear testing, this is not the prepper magazine for you. I hardly found any firearm mention in the magazine, and all their promotional material is concentrated on other learning resources.
5. The New Pioneer
First of all, this is not a 100% prepper magazine, and if you want, you can call it a homesteader’s magazine. Although the prepping and homesteading lifestyles are somehow similar and have a lot of things in common, this magazine’s goal is to help people achieve self-sufficiency.
As preppers, our goal is to become independent, and living off-the-grid is perhaps our final destination in this journey of ours. Suppose you want to learn how other people are living in harmony with Mother Nature, how they manage to work the earth and earn their own living, then this magazine is ideal for you. It teaches you the way of homesteading with the help of new technology.
I’ve mentioned “other people” above, and this is a topic worth expanding. In the New Pioneer magazine, you will find success stories of regular folks, just like you and me, and you will gain valuable lessons if you want to follow their path as well. Even more, you will discover how regular folks turned their off-the-grid dream into a source of income by trading goods and services. I guarantee that some of these stories will help push you forward in following your own self-sufficiency journey.
I have an ongoing subscription for this “prepper magazine,” and it helped me plan my retreat and figure out what plants and trees to grow on my property. I’ve also discovered various food recipes from the old days and great self-healing tips.
Honourable mention
I couldn’t end this article without mentioning the lesser-known American Frontiersman prepper magazine, or the lost ways of the past magazine, as I call it. Old-timers love this one because it concentrates on the ways of living of our forefathers and the skills of the early pioneers.
The magazine showcases various skills, and it also presents firearms that are not so common nowadays. With the help of this magazine, you can learn how to tan skins, how to make gun powder, how to preserve meat, just to name a few skills, but you will also discover things you never knew existed and at the same time, help preserve the legacy of our ancestors.
The downside of this magazine is that you can’t get more than four issues per year since it’s seasonal, and each issue will let you wanting more, making the wait annoying. Even so, I recommend getting it if you have the chance.
Concluding
There is no prepper magazine that can cover it all, and as you’ve seen in this article, each magazine has its own strong points. However, picking one or two of these magazines can satisfy your thirst for survival knowledge.
Yearly subscriptions for these prepper magazines are not expensive, and I can personally guarantee that no matter what prepper magazine you chose, you will not be disappointed by the amount of information provided.
Recommended resources:
The #1 food of Americans during the Great Depression
The latest innovation in solar pannels – 3D technology