I was privileged to receive an electronic copy of the upcoming Spring 2013 issue of Living Ready Magazine. Faithful readers here may recall all the great things I had to say about the premier issue that came out late last year. Let’s take a look and see if the new issue lives up to expectations.

After reading through the new issue, let me start my review by saying Living Ready is, hands down, THE BEST PREPPER PUBLICATION ON THE MARKET TODAY!

When the first issue of Living Ready came out last year, it had been intended to be just a one-off special. Few people were more excited than I when they decided to make this a quarterly publication.

Whereas some of the other ones out there concentrate heavily on firearms and/or conspiracies, Living Ready Magazine truly hits all the high points of well-rounded survival planning. Here’s just a sampling of the wide range of coverage in this issue.

–Heirloom seeds
–Seed banks
–Go bags
–Concealed carry handgun selection
–Shotguns
–Survival medicine
–Reversible outerwear
–Flashlights
–DIY home security

One of the articles I found particularly interesting was Why Air Matters: Introducing the Amazing Modern Air Rifle by Living Ready Editor James Card. I have brought up the suggestions of including an air rifle in survival preps several times and it was nice to see someone else lending some validity to my claims. The article discusses not only the different types of air rifles available but their applications in a survival situation.

Prophylactic Preparedness by noted survival expert Creek Stewart talks about several different ways to use a condom in a crisis, such as for carrying water, keeping tinder dry, and first aid. There were a few uses in the article even I hadn’t thought of!

For those new to the idea of gardening, Sustainable Feast by Deanna Caswell and Daisy Siskin gives a great overview container gardening as well as raised beds. The article also talks about garden planning in general, how to space out your planting over the season to get the most out of your gardens.

First person accounts of disasters are always welcome and In the Heart of Dark Manhattan by Ron Swegman is no exception. He describes what it was like in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

The magazine runs for about 100 pages and is absolutely crammed with great information for both the newbie as well as the experienced prepper. One thing I particularly liked was that while there are plenty of ads in the magazine, you don’t need to go through about 18 pages of them before you get to a single article. Also, the cover price is just a hair more than half of what you’ll pay for similar magazines.

I believe this new issue hits the stands the first week of April. Keep an eye out as you won’t want to miss it!

In the interest of full disclosure, there is an article in the magazine that is an excerpt from my book, Prepper’s Home Defense. Please note though that the presence of that article in this issue had absolutely no bearing on my review here. Long-time readers here should already know that.