Survival Skills Books

SAS Survival Handbook: How to Survive in the Wild, in Any Climate, on Land or at Sea

John Lofty Wiseman

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 114 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Do you want to be a Mountain Man? 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Very good book, packed with detail. Good bathroom read. I can't wait to put some new lessons to use.

Fantastic survival book 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

You know the saying when you stop looking for something you then find what you are looking for. I purchased this book with the mangnesium firestarter. I thought what the heck another surival book but at least i get a deal on the firestarter. After i opened this book i quickly forgot all about the firestarter. I was amazed at the greatness of this book. I can't say enough here about it you have to see it to believe it. I own about a dozen survival book and this is the best of the best. Actuall colored photos on edible and not edible plant, color photos on posinious snakes as well. The section on traps and shelters is top notch. Knot tying is also a great section. This book has rekindled my desire to grab my knife and go test myself in the wilds.
simply superb

Editorial Review:

The SAS Survival Handbook is the Special Air Service's complete course in being prepared for any type of emergency. John 'Lofty' Wiseman presents real strategies for surviving in any type of situation, from accidents and escape procedures, including chemical and nuclear to successfully adapting to various climates (polar, tropical, desert), to identifying edible plants and creating fire. The book is extremely practical and is illustrated throughout with easy-to-understand line art and diagrams.

US Army Survival Manual: FM 21-76

Department of Defense

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 56 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Website Recommendation 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I have always been interested about the aspects of survival. I found a website called . I really liked the website, and it turns out that the site was based on this book. So I purchased the book and am looking forward to reading it!

IMPORTANT - MAYBE 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Get this as a free download (Input on Google: "FM 21-76") and save this PDF File on a memory chip. It is what it purports to be. It could save your life and the lives of everyone in your family - even your neighbors. If it turns out that you don't have a need for it, then it cost you nothing.

Disappointed 2 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

The item arrived in good condition and quickly but it was not as described as far as the information it provides it left a lot to be desired.

getting ready 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I live right on an earthquake fault and thought it was about time I get prepared. This book isn't glamorous but gives alot of information.

Editorial Review:

The US Army Survival Manual: FM 21-76 is a good basic guide, standard reading for our troops, and unlike some survival manuals, it is fairly well written and organized.

One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey (Annivers

Sam Keith, Richard Proenneke

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 105 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

The Journey 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

One Man's Wilderness; ..... Well written, entertaining , I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys adventure in beautiful Alaskan Wilderness .....

Preserving Alaska's Wonders 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Preserving Alaska's Natural Wonder

Based on the 1960's journals kept faithfully by Dick Proenneck, an archetype of the Sierra Club's advocate, this book presents an amazing story with glorious color photographs. "I don't think a man knows what he can do until he is challenged," p. 211) concludes the man who hewed out a log cabin single handedly in the wilderness. This is a succinct statement of Proenneck's motivating philosophy of personal achievement. Readers follow his non-boastful narrative of trial and error during a remarkable 18-month sojourn in wild Alaska. His survival odyssey (physical and emotional) presents him as the quintessential Mountain Man.

Satisfied to rely on Nature to supply his basic needs (and more contemporary items being flown in at irregular intervals by a cheerful bush pilot, faithful Babe, Proennecke realizes his dreams of carving out a pioneer life in the wilderness near Twin Lakes. Several chapters are quite long but fall into natural, timely categories. I am always interested in How-to descriptions involving caareful planning and manual labor, so I found the BIRTH OF A CABIN chapter fascinating. Even many of his actual tools were made by his own hands, as he started from scratch; his rustic creation is now part of a State Park which tourists may admire 40 years later. The cabin, fireplace and chimney, and cache-on-stilts all bear testimony to his skill and craftsman dedication--proving that a determined man can carve out a hearth after his own heart.

A conscientious chronicler of his own activities (and thoughts) Dick used both his still and movie cameras to capture the cabin in various stages of completion, as well and the flora and fauna of the relatively unspoiled Alaska. With tongue-in-cheek humor he shares his attempts (successful and otherwise) to peacefully interact with the curious or persistent creatures who tried to share his digs and provisions. He seems to feel that critters are a lot like some people-- drawing stoic or amusing conclusions about his attempts to coexist. His gripes with the callousness of humans (seasonal hunters, flown in to bag moose, caribou and Dall sheep) indicate his deep awareness of the fragility of an environment and man's duty to preserve it intact as much as possible--not only out of respect for the animals that inhabit the area, but for future generations of tourists and residents. When he was flown out after his 18-month odyssey he realized that many of the smaller creatures would suffer Hand-Out withdrawal, now that Dick's Welfare was about to dry up. Hats off to a pioneering environmentalist who made us all Aware of Alaska's potential.

Sept. 2, 2008

Editorial Review:

To live in a pristine land . . . roam the wilderness . . . build a home. . . . Thousands have had such dreams, but Richard Proenneke lived them. Here is a tribute to a man who carved his masterpiece out of the beyond.

98.6 Degrees: The Art of Keeping Your Ass Alive

Cody Lundin

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 43 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

"If you breathe and have a pulse, you NEED this book." -Cody Lundin
Cody Lundin, director of the Aboriginal Living Skills School in Prescott, Arizona, shares his own brand of wilderness wisdom in this highly anticipated new book on commonsense, modern survival skills for the backcountry, the backyard, or the highway. It is the ultimate book on how to stay alive-based on the principal of keeping the body's core temperature at a lively 98.6 degrees. In his entertaining and informative style, Cody stresses that a human can live without food for weeks, and without water for about three days or so. But if the body's core temperature dips much below or above the 98.6 degree mark, a person can literally die within hours. It is a concept that many don't take seriously or even consider, but knowing what to do to maintain a safe core temperature when lost in a blizzard or in the desert could save your life. Lundin delivers the message with wit, rebellious humor, and plenty of backcountry expertise.
Cody Lundin and his Aboriginal Living Skills School have been featured in dozens of national and international media sources, including Dateline NBC, CBS News, USA Today, The Donny and Marie Show, and CBC Radio One in Canada, as well as on the cover of Backpacker magazine. When not teaching for his own school, he is an adjunct faculty member at Yavapai College and a faculty member at the Ecosa Institute. Cody is the only person in Arizona licensed to catch fish with his hands, and lives in a passive solar earth home sixty miles from Prescott, Arizona.
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Primitive Wilderness Living & Survival Skills: Naked into the Wilderness

John McPherson, Geri McPherson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 40 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Great overview! 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Overall, I think this is a great book. The authors are experienced and let you know if what they are saying is something they read as opposed to something they are claiming to know or have experienced by combining information from everyone (including themselves) or every book they have read. They also point out when and in what types of situations you need to be extra careful. There are important things to be reminded of when practicing these skill and we can sometimes forget we are all still subject to nature. For example, exploding rocks and food poisoning as well as foraging for plants and being certain of what you are eating. The style of writing is maybe awkward for some and I found it easier to pull pertinent information by hi-liting or underlining useful stuff. This also helps for easier reference later. I will point out one error but it is a common misconception. On pages 222-223 the author states "In fact, the water will boil hotter at higher elevations and so cook faster. I know one fellow who does all of his boiling with hot rocks (in a dutch oven) while in the mountains just because it does cook faster." In fact, the laws of physics would not allow the claimed scenario above...I'll explain so no one goes off thinking this is the case. Water being heated at higher elevations comes to a boil faster because IT BOILS AT A LOWER temperature. Therefore, FOOD COOKS SLOWER at higher elevations and I think one reason people invented the pressure cooker (more pressure = higher boiling point = food cooks faster). The reason water boils at a lower temperature at a higher elevation is because the atmospheric pressure is lower (the atmosphere thins out as you go up). The boiling temparature of substances are pressure dependent and when there is less pressure the molecules (or atoms) need less energy to escape from a liquid to become a gas. Hope that clarifies this for everyone who wasn't sure. Otherwise, some pictures may be disappointing but for the time period this book was compiled from I think it is pretty good. Inspiring and well worth the read but stop reading about it and go do it! (I'm guilty too :)

Editorial Review:

This book is an in depth "how-to" of outdoor primitive skills.

The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook

Joshua Piven

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 202 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

How to Wrestle Free from an Alligator: 4. If its jaws are closed on something you want to remove (for example, a limb), tap or punch it on the snout.

Though it's being marketed as a humorous title--after all, it's unlikely you'll be called upon to land a plane, jump from a motorcycle to a moving car, or win a swordfight--the information contained in The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook is all quite sound. Authors Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht consulted numerous experts in their fields (they're cited at the end of the book) to discover how to survive various and sundry awful events. Parachute doesn't open? Your best bet for survival is to hook your arms through the straps of a fellow jumper's chute--and even then you're likely to dislocate both shoulders and break both legs. Car sinking in water? Open the window immediately to equalize pressure, then open the car door and swim to the surface. Buried in an avalanche? Spit on the snow--it will tell you which direction is really up. Then dig as fast as you can.

Each survival skill is explained in simple steps with helpful illustrations. Most stress the need to be prepared--both mentally and physically. For example, to escape from quicksand, you will need to lay a pole on the surface of the quicksand, flop on your back atop the pole, and pull your legs out one by one. No pole? No luck. "When walking in quicksand country, carry a stout pole--it will help you get out should you need to."

Hopefully you'll never need to know how to build a fire without matches, perform a tracheotomy, or treat a bullet wound. But in the words of survival evasion resistance escape instructor "Mountain" Mel Deweese, "You never know." --Sunny Delaney

Survival Wisdom & Know How: Everything You Need to Know to Thrive in the Wilderness

CC The Editors of Stackpole Books

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Survival Wisdom is a large-scale practical guide, jam-packed with information on every aspect of outdoor life and adventure.

Survival Wisdom & Know-How is the most complete, all-in-one volume on every aspect of outdoor adventure and survival ever, from orienteering to campfire cooking to ice climbing and beyond. Culled from dozens of respected books from Stackpole, the industry's leader in outdoor adventure, this massive collection of wilderness know-how leaves absolutely nothing to chance when it comes to surviving and thriving in the wilderness—and appreciating every minute of it.

Topics include Building Outdoor Shelter, Tracking Animals, Winter Camping, Tying Knots, Orienteering, Reading the Weather, Identifying Edible Plants and Berries, Surviving in the Desert, Bird Watching, Fishing and Ice Fishing, Hunting and Trapping, Canoeing, Kayaking, and White Water Rafting, First Aid, Wild Animals, Cookery, and much more. Useful illustrations and photos throughout make it easy to browse and use. With contributions by the experts at the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) as well as the editors of Stackpole's Discover Nature series, Survival Wisdom & Know-How is the definitive, must-have reference for the great outdoors.

How to Stay Alive in the Woods: A Complete Guide to Food, Shelter, and Self-Preservation That Makes Starvation in the Wilderness Next to Impossible

Bradford Angier

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 29 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

A little outdated, but contains some solid tips. 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

First off, it's important for the potential buyer to realize that this book was written in the 1950's.


This is a handy book - if you already have some experience with the out-of-doors. The author assumes some familiarity with roughing it on the part of the reader, and does not give in-depth instructions on some survival skills such as procuring food - making this book less than ideal for the rank beginner. However, there are plenty of valuable tips and skills outlined in this book that it would be good for the beginner to learn - and this book can serve as a starting point for figuring out which skills you need to learn more about! This book is not nearly as in-depth as the U.S. Army Survival Manual - it's not designed for anything like the same purpose, however. The author stresses preparedness, common sense, and choosing the proper gear to carry with you while trekking in the wilderness. This book is more of an overview of important things to consider for your survival, not an instruction manual.

This book was written in the 1950's, so some of the instructions (particularly for medical supplies and other kit) are a bit out of date, but there is plenty of timeless, common sense advice at hand. I found the information on finding one's direction and not getting lost in the first place to be quite useful - but understand that this book was written in a different time, and for a different audience than today's casual hiker or vacationer.

This book focuses mainly on survival in the North - i.e. the Canadian wilderness, but there are some tips on survival in desert climates, as well.

There are probably better manuals out there for practical survival skills, and this book suffers from a lack of clear illustrations and step-by-step instructions, But much of this lore comes straight from those who truly DID have to survive in the woods - trappers, prospectors, and the independent spirits who simply wanted a simpler way of life. I think this book is mainly useful as a general work on the subject of survival - and it does give you an interesting insight into how old-timers managed to live off the land in days gone by.

But with a little brains and common sense most of the tricks in this book can be adapted to different types of terrain, vegetation, and climate, and outdated survival kit items can be substituted with more modern ones.

Not a must-have book, in my opinion, as there are better survival guides out there these days, but it was an interesting read and does contain some solid tips for survival, I think.

Editorial Review:

Rosehips, rich in vitamin C, will remedy scurvy. Poplar, red cedar, elm, and willow are preferable for friction fires. If stuck on a flat, shelterless desert, dig a shallow pit (east-west) to lie in; even a few feet can result in a 100-degree temperature change. This is the sort of information outdoor enthusiasts will find in Bradford Angier's classic guide to survival in the wilderness. Divided into four parts (sustenance, warmth, orientation, safety), How To Stay Alive in the Woods is packed with woodcraft tips and age-old tricks--and it's packable as well, so don't leave home without it.

Finding Your Way Without Map or Compass

Harold Gatty

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Very informative 5 out of 5 stars.
25 of 25 people found this review helpful.

This book is an example of why books are great. The knowledge contained in it would be largely lost or very difficult to compile had hte author not taken the time to publish it. He spent his life learning various methods of navigation around the world from many cultures: cultures not assimilated to the modern or western world.

I've always thought it would be fascinating to learn navigation or tracking from a native or someone who has learned information that has been passed down from generation to generation. Low tech, but very skillful. Art more than science. That is exactly what this book teaches.

The most interesting part for me was the explanation of how Polynesians navigated at sea: following migrating birds, seeing land beyond the horizon by watching reflections on the bottom of clouds, wave variation, and star positions.

There is a lot of good information for both land and sea, plus some for air. The author taught naviation to the US Air Force about the middle of the 20th century.

Editorial Review:

Immensely useful, highly instructive manual for would-be explorers, hikers, bikers, scouts, sailors, survivalists—anyone who enjoys exploring the outdoors. Today’s adventurers will learn how to find their way in the wilderness, in towns, in the desert, in snow-covered areas—even on the ocean—by observing birds, animals, weather patterns, vegetation, shifting sands, patterns of snow fields, and the positions of the sun, moon and stars. Clearly, precisely and graphically explained by one of the world’s great navigators.

Tom Brown's Field Guide to Wilderness Survival (Field Guide)

Tom Brown

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 43 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

interesting storing telling, poor survival information 1 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This book has many far fetched tales and only a few good survival tips. The author talks alot about what seems to be a fictional character called stalking wolf and tries very hard to make him sound real. I liked a few of his shelter ideas and some of the traps, but there was nothing in this book i havent read before. If you want to read some interesting survival tales and dont care to learn survival skills, this will be a good book for you. my advice, look else where for a good survival handbook.

book 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

good book to have in the field. Very informative. a must have for wilderness survival. Great price.
john rich

Excellent field guide 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Again, this is an excellent field guide put together by Tom Brown Jr. Another must have for anyones personal library. Excellent, life improving information in these pages. Great work!

Practical 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Cool book. Very practical about how to survive in the wilds of North America with nothing but the clothes on your back. Maybe not even that!
A little bit of "be at one with nature" stuff, but otherwise very informative. Good choice for a Boy Scout, or anyone wants to "go lite" when hiking and camping - using natural surroundings for cover, shelter, and food.