# Survival magazine



## gypsysue (Mar 27, 2010)

Anyone remember "American Survival Guilde" magazine? It was big in the '80s and '90s. Then it was bought out by another company that forced the guns off the front cover, renamed it "Self Reliance" magazine, and made it more about wilderness survival.

Jim Benson, who ran the old Survival Guide magazine, started up his own magazine on the internet. We've been subscribers for a couple years.

It just occured to me that some of you out here, especially the ones who remember the old magazine, might really enjoy the new one. Here's the link to the website. I've got it in my signature line, too. I think it's a great magazine.

Welcome to ModernSurvival.net, Independence Publishing, Inc.


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## HozayBuck (Jan 27, 2010)

I remember something like that around 98 or so..just before y2k.. bought a couple of them but they were so stupid.. their idea of a BOV was some 45 K SUV from one of the big importers .. stuff like that, made no sense.. and little or no useful information and no guns or gun talk.. 
It was more about name brand stuff then common sense survival.. Like what not to be found dead dressed in... lol..

Will check out your recommendation !! thanks!!


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## mosquitomountainman (Jan 25, 2010)

Towards the end American Survival Guide Mag. was purchased by another publisher who wanted the magazine to be politically correct. It killed the magazine. Since then the editor, Jim Benson, has done an online version complete with gun reviews (usualy three or more per issue) and other survival related issues. It is no longer politically correct by any stretch of the imagination.


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## The_Blob (Dec 24, 2008)

went to the link and... 

who PAYS for information, especially online, anymore?  ... that would be like when people had to pay for PORN back in 'the caveman days'  :lolsmash:

the only information I *pay* for is 1st-hand instruction, but that's just me


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## SurviveNthrive (May 20, 2010)

I'm tempted to take a look, but at those prices, I want something more than a download. I want something in my hands.

*American Survival Guide*, we even called it ASG, was great in the 1980's, early 1990's, in fact, it even had a networking section where you could exchange correspondence with people who were into survivalism. Some of what we do with PM's we actually did with snail mail!

"Conservative, Christian Survivalist, patriotic, served in military, Law Enforcement with family looking to contact same or similar in my area and beyond it to exchange ideas, tips on preparedness. _Ted, 123 his Street, his town, his state, his zip code_."

I've lost contact with those I use to correspond with, but it was neat receiving letters, pictures and I'll keep the confidences I had.

One funny thing, it was prudent to send in your first contact letter "Not into racism, anything illegal and/or the violent overthrow of the government" because you didn't know who you were contacting. This is one of many reasons I got a PO Box because I certainly wasn't going to have my address out there.

Many of the articles were interesting. I remember the firearms ones the best.

I still remember the gists of several, including one where a guy wrote about a friend who had a single shot 10 gauage for everything. Hardly a practical firearm, but that article's author wrote he'd count on that old guy with a 10 ga over anyone else with anything else because that's all the guy carried and used. The notion was if everyone became proficient with whatever they had, they'd be capable.

Then toward the end of the good ones there was a crazy trend to skeltonizing wooden (I think laminated) stocks. Right on the cover was an M1A with a stock with the middle cut out. Some previous articles or letters covered more practical things like survival kits in the hollow of synthetic rifle and shotgun stocks. (If anyone remembers how to do it so you don't need to be unscrewing it, but is still secure, please pass that on, it'd be a great project.)

Some fun and silly stuff was there too. Some guy who didn't have the money for a Main Battle Rifle set out to make one, and showed how he got a synthetic pistol grip stock, put it on an old Browning autoloader and got some Eagle or other 10 round magazines. Other guys were using long old field shotguns on some improvised tactical course. It looked funny, but they were at least training. I wondered why not simply buy a combo gun, a Mossberg with both barrels ran like $150 back then.

I miss ASG. I wonder how many practices I do now stemmed from ASG back in the 1980's.


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## gypsysue (Mar 27, 2010)

The new "Modern Survival Magazine" is more like the old ASG. "New" being that it's going for a couple of years now.

I, too, sometimes wonder why pay for information when there's so much free information on the internet, and I'll admit we've let some magazine subscriptions expire.

However, my husband and I are ON the other side of that coin and we're being hurt by it. We're writers. 

So yeah, lots of free information out there. And I guess my husband and I are just another casualty of that and of the economy. But if it keeps up like this for us, I won't have access to that free information out there because we'll have to disconnect the phone and internet. Good thing we already live off-grid and have no debts. 

We've seen the handwriting on the wall, or should I say...the S heading for the F.


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## Victor23 (Sep 15, 2010)

I still have about thirty copies stored away. Just couldnt bring myself to throw them away. I am cleaning my garage this week. I may need to do something with them.


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## SurviveNthrive (May 20, 2010)

gypsysue said:


> The new "Modern Survival Magazine" is more like the old ASG. "New" being that it's going for a couple of years now.
> 
> I, too, sometimes wonder why pay for information when there's so much free information on the internet, and I'll admit we've let some magazine subscriptions expire.
> 
> ...


I'm a Writer as well, and one of the interesting things I noted is people pirate my books electronically and that hurts the author, the publisher and the entire business.

What most people are missing is the idea that without revenue, articles aren't being written and we lose one means of communicating.


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## SurviveNthrive (May 20, 2010)

Victor23 said:


> I still have about thirty copies stored away. Just couldnt bring myself to throw them away. I am cleaning my garage this week. I may need to do something with them.


don't throw them away! Sell them, someone will want them, or else I'll pay for shipping. but I'm cheap.


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## gypsysue (Mar 27, 2010)

SurviveNthrive said:


> don't throw them away! Sell them, someone will want them, or else I'll pay for shipping. but I'm cheap.


Dang, you beat me to it! I was going to offer to buy them! Okay, Victor23, SNT gets first call on them, but I'm next in line! Those are a treasure! I left more than 10 years of back issues behind 9 years ago when we moved from Kentucky to Montana and I have kicked my own butt over it al these years.

Sigh... 

Yep, SNT, you understand what I mean about writing. Acquiring anything, even books, magazines, or movies, without paying for it is like shopligting...it's stealing. It hurts real people like me, MMM, and SNT. It's easy to think "oh, those people make tons of money on this stuff, so it's okay", kind of an entitlement mentality, isn't it? Kind of a "liberal" mentality of share-the-wealth?

For those who think writers roll in wealth, our income from all sources this year, is well under $10,000.

Movies? The "stars" make a pile of money, but the rest of the people on the movie, both in front of and behind the camera? They barely make enough to get by. Book writers? Only the big-hit top-seller authors make real money. The rest of us 'survive', eh, SNT?

I adapt, though, and I'm already dabbling in additional ways to make income. That's what surviving is all about. Letting go and changing with the flow.


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## willysman (Nov 3, 2010)

I also still have quite a few issues of ASG. I still go through them once in a while. I used to have close to 10 years of them stored up but ended up leaving a bunch when I moved as well. So now I treasure the ones I still have remaining.


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## tc556guy (Apr 28, 2011)

I know this is an old thread, but if any of you have hung onto your old copies, there are some I'd like to borrow them from you if at all possible.

I am scanning in the issues I've kept all these years, and have some significant holes in issue continuity, particularly anything prior to 1989 or so, when I started buying them on the newstand.

Steves Pages has a few years worth on his site, but none of the early or later ones and spotty on what he does have.

For some reason, maybe copyright issues, no one else has tried to scan the bulk of these issues into PDF format.

I'll cover shipping and send along PDF copies of whatever I do scan, if that would be agreeable to you


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## IlliniWarrior (Nov 30, 2010)

*Scribd*



tc556guy said:


> I know this is an old thread, but if any of you have hung onto your old copies, there are some I'd like to borrow them from you if at all possible.
> 
> I am scanning in the issues I've kept all these years, and have some significant holes in issue continuity, particularly anything prior to 1989 or so, when I started buying them on the newstand.
> 
> ...


don't know how you feel about SCRIBD site ... but a guy is downloading old issues ... search for the title or go to his individual site .... "buckonbeach"


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## tc556guy (Apr 28, 2011)

IlliniWarrior said:


> don't know how you feel about SCRIBD site ... but a guy is downloading old issues ... search for the title or go to his individual site .... "buckonbeach"


Thanks for the heads up, but most of what buckonbeach has uploaded appears to be the same issues that Steves Pages has on his site.

Since I last posted I think I have a couple of sources for hard copies of other back issues, but I'll post again if I still have continuity gaps.


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## TNFrank (Dec 2, 2012)

Use to read it back in the '90's then it got kind of hard to find. Switched to "Backwoodsman" and found a lot of good survival info and it's easier to find and doesn't scream "Prepper" if someone sees a copy on my coffee table.


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## Magus (Dec 1, 2008)

I loved it, I have most of the issues.


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