K Williams
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What are some good wilderness survival books that have been published after 1990?
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Good "Modern" Survival Books?
- Thread starter K Williams
- Start date
I am pretty sure all of these in my collection are from 1990 or recent
SAS survival guide
the complete wilderness training book
Tom browns field guide to wilderness survival
Deep survival
Wildeness Survival by mark elbroch
Outdoor Survival skills
Bushcraft
Even my boyscout handbook has some useful tips.
SAS survival guide
the complete wilderness training book
Tom browns field guide to wilderness survival
Deep survival
Wildeness Survival by mark elbroch
Outdoor Survival skills
Bushcraft
Even my boyscout handbook has some useful tips.
- Joined
- Aug 10, 2007
- Messages
- 96
this one i have is copyrighted in 1996, it's Camping & Wilderness Survival by paul tawrell
- Joined
- Jul 20, 2006
- Messages
- 20,776
Sorry Scottman, Kochanski's Bushcraft is copyrighted 1987 and Graves' is 1972. That said, I don't think any modern book could improve on the classics too much as far as wilderness survival.
My favorites of my collection so far. (All pre 1990)
Bushcraft - Kochanski
Bushcraft - Graves
Wildwood Wisdom - Jaeger
Not really survival but also
Camp life in the Woods - Gibson
Shelters, Shacks, and Shanties - Beard
Wilderness Shelters - Angier
Rustic Retreats - Stiles (1998)
Boat Building and Boating - Beard
Whittling and Woodcarving - Tangerman
I have "Rural Ranger". It's modern, but I haven't had a chance to read it yet.
My favorites of my collection so far. (All pre 1990)
Bushcraft - Kochanski
Bushcraft - Graves
Wildwood Wisdom - Jaeger
Not really survival but also
Camp life in the Woods - Gibson
Shelters, Shacks, and Shanties - Beard
Wilderness Shelters - Angier
Rustic Retreats - Stiles (1998)
Boat Building and Boating - Beard
Whittling and Woodcarving - Tangerman
I have "Rural Ranger". It's modern, but I haven't had a chance to read it yet.
Bushcraft by Mors Kochanski
http://www.amazon.com/Bushcraft-Outdoor-Skills-Wilderness-Survival/dp/1551051222
Survival: A Manual That Could Save Your Life by Chris Janowsky
http://www.amazon.com/Survival-Manual-That-Could-Skills/dp/0873645065
Not survival skills, but a great book...
Build the Perfect Survival Kit by John McCann
http://www.amazon.com/Build-Perfect-Survival-John-McCann/dp/0873499670
http://www.amazon.com/Bushcraft-Outdoor-Skills-Wilderness-Survival/dp/1551051222
Survival: A Manual That Could Save Your Life by Chris Janowsky
http://www.amazon.com/Survival-Manual-That-Could-Skills/dp/0873645065
Not survival skills, but a great book...
Build the Perfect Survival Kit by John McCann
http://www.amazon.com/Build-Perfect-Survival-John-McCann/dp/0873499670
- Joined
- Jun 24, 2003
- Messages
- 473
One question asked a LOT is, "What is the best book about wilderness survival?".
Well, IMHO, what this means is not just the ability to stave off death until rescued or resupplied after praying into the radio altar to the Great Helicopter God, but rather the ability to walk out into the woods with minimal stuff, like you simply had to drop everything and make a run for it, and live a sustainable lifestyle.
IMHO, you need to learn the basics of primitive wilderness living down pat, and then everything after that is pure gravy.
There are a great many 'survival' books out there, and over time I have read just about all of them. Usually on websites like this I try and avoid being too opinionated about stuff concerning primitive skills, because most people tend to have a valid point on one thing or another.
However, without much doubt, for a single source to use as a primitive skills training manual, for both the seasoned bushrat and the beginner, I have come to the conclusion that the #1 best book on this subject to date is:
1) 'Naked Into The Wilderness: Primitive Wilderness Living and Survival Skills' by John McPherson & Geri McPherson
Amazon link
and it has a pretty good sequel
2) 'Naked Into The Wilderness 2: Primitive Wilderness Skills, Applied & Advanced' by John McPherson
Amazon link
3) 'Bushcraft' by Mors Kochanski is a choice that many rave about. But, as an all around manual for sustained primitive living in the wilderness it is rather lacking. HOWEVER, it is a top notch manual for knife and axe techniques in the wilderness, which is the bulk of the book.
It makes a good 3rd book in the set, for when you have the luxury of using metal tools, which most people tend to have, even if it's the proverbial multi-tool or Swiss Army Knife.
Everyone raves about Kochanski's book, but I've come to the conclusion it's because it gives them an excuse to play with their cherished knives and carve on lots of wood. I like the book myself, but it is NOT a good, full spectrum source of information on primitive living in the wilderness. When you take the extraneous knife and axe minutiae out of the book, and focus on the meat of the issue at hand - sustainable living in the wilderness using primitive skills - 'Bushcraft' gets rather thin and what actually is there primarily focuses on the Boreal Forest of Canada.
But, for techniques on axe and knife use in the bush, it is an excellent manual, a 'cut' above everything else.
If you know the material in 'Naked Into The Wilderness' down pat, and then merge in the knife and axe material from 'Bushcraft', they compliment each other like few books from separate authors do. With the combined know-how from those books embedded into your brain, you're living large at that point if you're in the bush with, say, only a small knife.
4) A decent 4th book is a good plant guide for your area. I keep a couple handy. A good starter book if you are in the US is 'Edible Wild Plants: A North American Field Guide' by Thomas S. Elias & Peter A. Dykeman. If there is any book that should take up weight in a bug out bag or backpack, it's a good, color, plant manual or set of color plant ID cards for your area. The knowledge from books like 'Naked Into the Wilderness' or 'Bushcraft' should already be stored in your head and practiced ahead of time.
-----------------
'Naked Into The Wilderness' editorial reviews from Amazon:
Prof. John S., Dept. of Anthropology Harvard University
"I have bought all eight of the previous volumes in your series, and use them regularly in teaching prehistoric/aboriginal technology..."
Museum of the Fur Trade Quarterly
"This is without doubt the best training guide for real primitive living skills"
--------------------
I got the first printing of this book years ago and got another one after the first one wore out and fell apart from too many people reading it over and over. I already knew a lot of this stuff and they still taught me more than a few new tricks. Their emphasis in being able to do live well without metal tools is a level where most people don't go and it shows you what a fantastic, unbelievable luxury what a well made, modern knife really is.
When they say, "NAKED Into The Wilderness" they mean it. These people have lived it. Their teaching shows how you could literally run off out into the primitive wilderness while stark, raving naked, with no manufactured metal tools, and thrive in a sustainable existence. 'Naked Into The Wilderness' is probably the single best written, best illustrated, and most informative single primitive living and survival book out there.
What sets this book apart is that it's more than just another book with a drawing or two of a classic snare or a lean-to, or illustrations on how to cut or carve wood. 'Naked Into The Wilderness' is a full spectrum, combination of skills, tasks, and outlook towards a sustainable, comfortable lifestyle in a primitive setting. It's also one of the most heavily illustrated books of it's genre, with step by step photos, that you are ever going to find.
For example, it's one of the only books of it's kind that shows in clear, step by step photos how to skin and butcher an actual deer that they've hunted, and harvest the various materials like sinew, all done with just bare hands and a few pieces of quickly broken stone.
The McPherson's are one of the main outfits that the US Army sends it's Special Forces guys to for training on primitive skills nowadays. Many of their classes don't involve a knife or any manufactured item. The use of a knife is shown as a luxury, and simple rocks and stone implements are even used in the step by step photos of skinning and butchering a deer. In the words of Geri McPhereson, "A deer can be field dressed/skinned and cut up using nothing more than a fingernail file." (page 230)
They focus a lot on hunting (and fishing) because most primitive societies used that as their primary food source. It is the only realistic way to stay well fed and nutritionally healthy in the bush for a prolonged period.
Naked Into The Wilderness is about actually living a sustainable and prolonged existence in the wilderness at a primitive level, not just mere 'survival'. If you get ONE book on wilderness 'survival', THIS one is it. The book is 408 pages long and about 90% of the pages have at lest one drawing or photo, mostly photos. Many pages are all captioned photos showing how to do everything, step by step.
When you learn their methods, you appreciate just how valuable even a simple pocket knife or hatchet is. When I chose a 'textbook' for my kids to use as a written guide when I began teaching them this stuff, THIS was the first 'how to' book I gave each of them.
In it's 408 pages, this book will show you in both text and photos how to:
*skin and butcher a deer with your hands and a couple of expediently sharpened rocks
*harvest and use sinew from animal carcasses
*sewing with sinew
*tan buckskin
*construct baskets
*make primitive pots
*make effective and simple bows and arrows
*make cordage
*construct semi-permanent shelters (wikiups, etc)
*flintknapp basic tools
*Make basic tools, like sewing awls, from various natural materials
*start fires from natural materials
*make and use fishing nets and other fishing gear
*primitive trapping and snaring
*make and use an atlatl
*preserve meat
*learn various ways to cook on a regular basis without metal implements
*harvest, prepare, and eat insects
and more
The 293 page sequel teaches things like lamps, clothes, dugout canoes, moccasins, water containers, etc.
Well, IMHO, what this means is not just the ability to stave off death until rescued or resupplied after praying into the radio altar to the Great Helicopter God, but rather the ability to walk out into the woods with minimal stuff, like you simply had to drop everything and make a run for it, and live a sustainable lifestyle.
IMHO, you need to learn the basics of primitive wilderness living down pat, and then everything after that is pure gravy.
There are a great many 'survival' books out there, and over time I have read just about all of them. Usually on websites like this I try and avoid being too opinionated about stuff concerning primitive skills, because most people tend to have a valid point on one thing or another.
However, without much doubt, for a single source to use as a primitive skills training manual, for both the seasoned bushrat and the beginner, I have come to the conclusion that the #1 best book on this subject to date is:
1) 'Naked Into The Wilderness: Primitive Wilderness Living and Survival Skills' by John McPherson & Geri McPherson
Amazon link
and it has a pretty good sequel
2) 'Naked Into The Wilderness 2: Primitive Wilderness Skills, Applied & Advanced' by John McPherson
Amazon link
3) 'Bushcraft' by Mors Kochanski is a choice that many rave about. But, as an all around manual for sustained primitive living in the wilderness it is rather lacking. HOWEVER, it is a top notch manual for knife and axe techniques in the wilderness, which is the bulk of the book.
It makes a good 3rd book in the set, for when you have the luxury of using metal tools, which most people tend to have, even if it's the proverbial multi-tool or Swiss Army Knife.
Everyone raves about Kochanski's book, but I've come to the conclusion it's because it gives them an excuse to play with their cherished knives and carve on lots of wood. I like the book myself, but it is NOT a good, full spectrum source of information on primitive living in the wilderness. When you take the extraneous knife and axe minutiae out of the book, and focus on the meat of the issue at hand - sustainable living in the wilderness using primitive skills - 'Bushcraft' gets rather thin and what actually is there primarily focuses on the Boreal Forest of Canada.
But, for techniques on axe and knife use in the bush, it is an excellent manual, a 'cut' above everything else.
If you know the material in 'Naked Into The Wilderness' down pat, and then merge in the knife and axe material from 'Bushcraft', they compliment each other like few books from separate authors do. With the combined know-how from those books embedded into your brain, you're living large at that point if you're in the bush with, say, only a small knife.
4) A decent 4th book is a good plant guide for your area. I keep a couple handy. A good starter book if you are in the US is 'Edible Wild Plants: A North American Field Guide' by Thomas S. Elias & Peter A. Dykeman. If there is any book that should take up weight in a bug out bag or backpack, it's a good, color, plant manual or set of color plant ID cards for your area. The knowledge from books like 'Naked Into the Wilderness' or 'Bushcraft' should already be stored in your head and practiced ahead of time.
-----------------
'Naked Into The Wilderness' editorial reviews from Amazon:
Prof. John S., Dept. of Anthropology Harvard University
"I have bought all eight of the previous volumes in your series, and use them regularly in teaching prehistoric/aboriginal technology..."
Museum of the Fur Trade Quarterly
"This is without doubt the best training guide for real primitive living skills"
--------------------
I got the first printing of this book years ago and got another one after the first one wore out and fell apart from too many people reading it over and over. I already knew a lot of this stuff and they still taught me more than a few new tricks. Their emphasis in being able to do live well without metal tools is a level where most people don't go and it shows you what a fantastic, unbelievable luxury what a well made, modern knife really is.
When they say, "NAKED Into The Wilderness" they mean it. These people have lived it. Their teaching shows how you could literally run off out into the primitive wilderness while stark, raving naked, with no manufactured metal tools, and thrive in a sustainable existence. 'Naked Into The Wilderness' is probably the single best written, best illustrated, and most informative single primitive living and survival book out there.
What sets this book apart is that it's more than just another book with a drawing or two of a classic snare or a lean-to, or illustrations on how to cut or carve wood. 'Naked Into The Wilderness' is a full spectrum, combination of skills, tasks, and outlook towards a sustainable, comfortable lifestyle in a primitive setting. It's also one of the most heavily illustrated books of it's genre, with step by step photos, that you are ever going to find.
For example, it's one of the only books of it's kind that shows in clear, step by step photos how to skin and butcher an actual deer that they've hunted, and harvest the various materials like sinew, all done with just bare hands and a few pieces of quickly broken stone.
The McPherson's are one of the main outfits that the US Army sends it's Special Forces guys to for training on primitive skills nowadays. Many of their classes don't involve a knife or any manufactured item. The use of a knife is shown as a luxury, and simple rocks and stone implements are even used in the step by step photos of skinning and butchering a deer. In the words of Geri McPhereson, "A deer can be field dressed/skinned and cut up using nothing more than a fingernail file." (page 230)
They focus a lot on hunting (and fishing) because most primitive societies used that as their primary food source. It is the only realistic way to stay well fed and nutritionally healthy in the bush for a prolonged period.
Naked Into The Wilderness is about actually living a sustainable and prolonged existence in the wilderness at a primitive level, not just mere 'survival'. If you get ONE book on wilderness 'survival', THIS one is it. The book is 408 pages long and about 90% of the pages have at lest one drawing or photo, mostly photos. Many pages are all captioned photos showing how to do everything, step by step.
When you learn their methods, you appreciate just how valuable even a simple pocket knife or hatchet is. When I chose a 'textbook' for my kids to use as a written guide when I began teaching them this stuff, THIS was the first 'how to' book I gave each of them.
In it's 408 pages, this book will show you in both text and photos how to:
*skin and butcher a deer with your hands and a couple of expediently sharpened rocks
*harvest and use sinew from animal carcasses
*sewing with sinew
*tan buckskin
*construct baskets
*make primitive pots
*make effective and simple bows and arrows
*make cordage
*construct semi-permanent shelters (wikiups, etc)
*flintknapp basic tools
*Make basic tools, like sewing awls, from various natural materials
*start fires from natural materials
*make and use fishing nets and other fishing gear
*primitive trapping and snaring
*make and use an atlatl
*preserve meat
*learn various ways to cook on a regular basis without metal implements
*harvest, prepare, and eat insects
and more
The 293 page sequel teaches things like lamps, clothes, dugout canoes, moccasins, water containers, etc.
I have had that book since I was a kid, great book.
Another really good old book is "A Professional Guide's Manual" by George Herter, We had one when I was a kid, and a few week ago found one online and was suprized at how much the tips have stayed with me 30 years later.
- Joined
- Apr 14, 2006
- Messages
- 7,021
Excellent review, mrostov, and accurate.
Doc
Doc
'Naked Into The Wilderness: Primitive Wilderness Living and Survival Skills' by John McPherson & Geri McPherson
I had the pleasure/honour of spending a few weeks with John & Geri back in May, 1990 I believe. He ran a great program and I am lucky enough to have autographed copies of his first 8 books. They were later combined to form the one larger one. I have not yet picked up his newer compiliation. I don't think he's running programs anymore.
Larry Dean Olsen's book Outdoor Survival Skills though not new is also highly recommended. If anyone ever gets the chance to go to Idaho in September hit the Rabbit Stick Rendezvous with Dave Wescott. He brings down an amazing amount of primitive skills practitioners.
I had the pleasure/honour of spending a few weeks with John & Geri back in May, 1990 I believe. He ran a great program and I am lucky enough to have autographed copies of his first 8 books. They were later combined to form the one larger one. I have not yet picked up his newer compiliation. I don't think he's running programs anymore.
Larry Dean Olsen's book Outdoor Survival Skills though not new is also highly recommended. If anyone ever gets the chance to go to Idaho in September hit the Rabbit Stick Rendezvous with Dave Wescott. He brings down an amazing amount of primitive skills practitioners.
. I'll order a copy of the McPherson book today. :thumbup:Although it really doesn't compare to some of the other suggestions as far as being a comprehensive primitive guide, I always like to recommend the Boy Scout Fieldbook. Not the Handbook. The Handbook is good for all aspects of Scouting. The Fieldbook is entirely outdoor oriented. Because it is aimed at a younger audience it is very well illustrated as well.
- Joined
- Sep 12, 2006
- Messages
- 776
Its not as new as you are looking, but Survival Skills Of The North American Indians, By Peter Goodchild,Chicago review press 1984, has a lot of usefull information. Remember the Indians lived here long before China-mart and Safeway. These skills were put to use everyday, as a way of life, not just survival.
Great book! the best in my opinion. There is a new updated version with color photos and up to date info. More info in this book than any other hands down.
Skam
For those who understands Swedish there is "Handbok Överlevnad" written by Survival Instructor Lars Fält.
There is a project going on to translate it to English but for those who want to look at it there is a link.
http://www.bushcraftuk.com/downloads/pdf/h_overlevnad.pdf
Even though it was written in 1987-1988 and all military uniforms and gear on the pictures are ancient the instructions are great, a bit focused on military survival, but anyway. It is focused on survival "...in Northern Europe" (between Iraq and a hard place TV show). Things like cooking in your helmet is not useful anymore
but the nature is the same.
There is a project going on to translate it to English but for those who want to look at it there is a link.
http://www.bushcraftuk.com/downloads/pdf/h_overlevnad.pdf
Even though it was written in 1987-1988 and all military uniforms and gear on the pictures are ancient the instructions are great, a bit focused on military survival, but anyway. It is focused on survival "...in Northern Europe" (between Iraq and a hard place TV show). Things like cooking in your helmet is not useful anymore
but the nature is the same.That sounds intersting.
Seems a bit odd there's no Lars Fält book in english, while he seems to have been largely pillaged by some other writers (Ray who?).
There's also that other book vintersoldat, that seems to be more military, but seems to have also quite a lot cold climate general survival tips.