Tag: survival library

Categories
Phillosoph

Survival Library: Chapter 4, No Need to Die

The other day, I went looking for an old survival book.
The search engine provided me with hundreds of titles just within the bushcraft/wilderness field alone.
Back in the 1980s, the choice seemed much more limited. Of course, with my memory I may be forgetting quite a few titles from then!
Eddie MacGee Rucksack Packing Suggestions
The main work in the field was what was then FM21-76 and related publications.
There were a few books from other official sources, such as the Air Ministry pamphlets: “Arctic Survival”, “Desert Survival”, “Jungle Survival” and “Sea Survival”. Those are still well worth a read, incidentally.
“Combat Survival and Evasion” was apparently compiled from the course notes of some gentlemen in Hereford. It is an interesting, if a little eccentric, read which I may discuss in a later blog.
I owned copies of “Can You Survive” by Robert DePugh, “Jack Knife Cookery” by James Austin Wilder and “The Art of Survival” by Cord Christian Troebst. Not strictly survival manuals, but all interesting and all containing some useful information.
“The SAS Survival Handbook” by John “Lofty” Wiseman was the new kid on the block, and had already established itself as one of the go-to books on the subject.
The “Survival Handbook”/“The Book of Survival” by Anthony Greenback was a little older, but did not seem to get as much attention as some other works. A shame, since it remains an excellent book.
Admittedly, my memory often fails me these days, but the only other manual I can recall from that time is “No Need to Die” by Eddie McGee. This was actually the book I had been searching for, although naturally I could not recall the author nor title until I found it.
Back in those days, this had been one of the few survival books my local library had.
No Need to Die Cover
Personally, I tend to think of this book as more of a discourse than a guide. Some topics are covered in great detail, while other fields, less so.
For example, there is some discussion of direction finding using plants and other means, but very little instruction in navigation as a broader topic.
On the other hand, there are large sections on tracking, trapping and fishing. These are very good, and it will be a very rare reader that does not learn something new.
There is a certain, very British eccentricity to the book. It is written in an informal, chatty style. There are numerous cartoons and sketches by the author, some of which detail ideas only touched on in the main text.
Reading it once again after several decades, one of the sections I now find interesting me is that on the use of fishing skiffs and fishing with gourds/balloons/condoms/plastic bags.
Fishing SkiffFishing SkiffBalloon Fishing
Pine bark as insect repellent is worth knowing too. (Some other tree barks, such as birch and cedar may also be suitable, as might other parts of the pine tree)
I would not suggest “No Need to Die” as a sole or first book someone should read on survival. See Survival Library Chapter One for my recommendations in this regard.
“No Need to Die” is certainly a book worth reading once you have a grounding in the basics. You are bound to learn a few things.
McGee was later to write “Eddie McGee's Complete Book Of Survival”. I hope to find time to read and review this in the near future.
One story from “No Need to Die” sticks with me (p.178):
“I remember once on a long desert walk in the Oman, while serving with the Sultan’s forces, making my way across to a known water well. I knew that the arabs guarded their water hole tenaciously but when I arrived at the well I did not expect to find that each arab, in fact, carried his own water collection skin, so having found the water well and removed the stone covering I was dumbfounded to find the water over twenty feet down and the hole about two feet in diameter. I had no bucket, only my water bottle and no means of lowering it down by rope and it was certainly too dangerous for me to climb down, so I sat a little and thought. I removed my survival bag from my belt, took off my vest, fastened my fishing line to it and lowered this to the water. In a couple of minutes I had not only filled my container, I’d also stepped back and had a good strip wash and removed some of the grime and salt from my body. Later I made a cup of tea, went to sleep, had a good rest and moved off the next morning feeling on top of the world and re-supplied with water.”
As luck would have it, the same day I read the above passage, I came across a forum where some members were glibly challenging if anyone’s life had ever been saved by a survival fishing kit?
Right here was an example of how a component of a fishing kit (and a vest!) had potentially saved someone’s life, even though they were in a desert and probably miles from the nearest stream.
With my current situation, lifestyle and location, the chances of myself needing to fish or trap to feed myself are remote. Thus, I had been tardy getting around adding any fishing or trapping components to my skin-level EDC.
Reading the above story, I vowed to add some fishing line to my EDC pouch. A couple of packets of hooks on nylon couldn’t hurt either. Better to have them and never use them…
Categories
Phillosoph

Survival Library: Chapter 3, Practical Outdoor Survival

In “chapter one” of the Survival Library, I recommended a number of books on the subject. Many of these are available in free on-line editions.
In the subsequent chapters, other books are to be examined.
One of the things I will be looking at is if these additional titles offer supplementary information to that in the books from chapter one, or handle common topics in a more easily digestible form.
For chapter two, I looked at “Bushcraft 101” by Dave Canterbury.
For chapter three, I read “Practical Outdoor Survival” by Len McDougal.
I will admit, chapter three has been a long time coming. There are a number of reasons for this:
For one thing, Practical Outdoor Survival is in many respects similar to Bushcraft 101.
Both are mainly written for North American outdoorsmen. Both are essentially “what to do if lost in the woods” books, although other environments such as deserts are dealt with.
I wanted to make a fair review of Practical Outdoor Survival without recent impressions from Bushcraft 101 clouding my recollections.
A second delay was that I acquired two copies of Practical Outdoor Survival, one from 1992 and another from 2008. I wanted to read both editions to give a more comprehensive review.
I will start by saying I do think Practical Outdoor Survival is worth a read. In fact, it nicely complements Bushcraft 101.
The 2008 edition naturally includes updated information. For example, we now know that iodine is not 100% effective against waterborne pathogens.
Information on some new products that have become available since 1992 is also included.
We also see an evolution in techniques: In the 1992 version, Len McDougal was carrying his “survival gear” in an LBE massing around 15 pounds. In the 2008 version it has been realized that a backpack is a better way to carry camping gear. Details of the contents of a “day and a half” pack are given.
I will note that often the initiation of an emergency situation is finding yourself unable to access your LBE and/or rucksack. Then you must get by with what is in your trouser pockets, on your belt and in your coat or jacket.

Shelter

The shelter section has some interesting ideas.
Using leaf litter to “thatch” your shelter is a good trick.
Another interesting technique is to use a fire to melt a shelter into deep snow rather than trying to dig one in subzero conditions.
In the 1992 edition is the idea of digging a “den” or “bunk niche” into the side of a leeward earth bank (p.62). For some reason this technique was dropped from the 2008.

Clothing

Sometimes your hands need protection from things other than the cold and rain. McDougal makes the wise recommendation of adding a set of leather work gloves to your outdoor kit.
McDougal also points out that faces also need protection from dust, sand, wind and cold.
Your outdoor kit should already include keffiyeh, scarves, neck gaiters and/or headovers.
One of the woolly hats in your kit should be a ski-mask or the type of balaclava that covers the nose and mouth.

Hunting and Fishing

The sections on hunting and fishing are very good. Adding a “frog gig” to your outdoor gear is a good idea, since such multi-tined spear heads can also be used to fish.
A fishing float improvised from a foam ear plug is interesting.
Unless you are issued them for free, using an ear plug is actually a relatively expensive option. Any small piece of scrap foam, bottle cork or polystyrene could probably be used. Trim corners off kip mat? Use that foam!
Ideally you want a float some distance above the hook, with room to add some shot to weigh the bait down.
Cut a thin slit halfway through the foam, place the line of snood/trace/leader through the slit. Wrap the piece of foam in a few centimetres of bright coloured electrical tape.
I differ with the author on a couple of points:
Carrying multi-vitamins seems redundant. Problems from vitamin deficiencies take months or even years to develop, so you are unlikely to carry enough tablets to make a significant difference. You can avoid “rabbit starvation” by eating your greens!
As an aside, consequences of hypervitaminosis can be very rapid. You are unlikely to get this from most over-the-counter vitamin supplements. Liver from polar bears or bearded seals is toxic because of high concentrations of vitamin A. Since 100% positive identification (seal of approval?) may be problematic, best avoid the liver of any seal.
Carrying glucose tablets for hypoglycemia detracts from the potential of other sugar-containing foods and drinks that are an equally effective or better treatment.
I don't see the point in carrying a glass heliograph that weighs several ounces when there are cheaper, lighter and larger plastic mirrors available.

Rimfire .22 for Survival

The section on a survival rimfire rifle in the 2008 version is very good, but I disagree with the comment that “first guns should not be semiautomatic”. No justification for this statement is given.
Money is tight for many of us, and the first survival rimfire may be the only one for many years to come!
A semiautomatic means less body motions to alert sharp-eyed game.
Semiautos are also better suited to emergency defensive fire with a .22. Less fumble factor under stress! Defence will rely on rapid, accurate fire.
Openly carrying a firearm may not be prudent in certain locations. A takedown design that can be stowed in a pack has merit, if it has adequate accuracy.
A small game rifle/shooter/ammo combination needs to be capable of reliably taking squirrel‑sized targets.
I also recommend that at least half of your .22 ammo be solids.
In a genuine emergency hunting situation, your .22 rifle may have to be used against targets larger than this chambering is generally recommended for.
Penetration and headshots are a priority.
Hollowpoint rounds for 22s are designed for very small game and will lack sufficient penetration for larger targets.
Hypervelocity loadings such as CCI Stingers or Remington Yellow Jackets and Vipers also need to be carefully considered.
Some authors have noted that the performance improvements these loadings show on paper do not result in a similar;y sized increase in performance in the field.
Tissue damage (aka “loss of meat”) may be greater but shot placement still needs to be effectively the same as a lethal hit for a standard high-velocity .22LR.
Are a few extra yards of range worth what may be a 65% increase in price?
Many hypervelocity loadings are also only found in hollowpoint configuration.

Compass

A comment worth digesting is that “basic orienteering with map and compass can be learned in a matter of minutes”.
The Phillosoph crash course in compass:
1: To find the bearing/heading of a landmark: Point the reference mark of your compass at the landmark. Turn the bezel until the “N” (0 degrees) has the magnetic tip of the needle pointing towards it. The value on the bezel next to the reference mark is the bearing.
Compasses that do not have rotating bezels and reference marks on the body or baseplate are considerably less useful!
2: To find the direction of a desired heading/bearing: Turn the bezel until the desired bearing is next to the reference mark. Move your body until the point of the needle points to “N” on the bezel. The reference mark will be pointing in the desired heading. Pick out one or more landmarks in that direction and walk toward them.
Bonus Lesson: The difference between a bearing and its back-bearing is always 180 degrees.
Method using Arithmetic: If the value of the bearing is less than 180, add 180 to it to get the back bearing. If the value of the bearing is greater than 180, subtract 180 to get the back bearing.
Non-Maths Method: Take a non-ferrous straight edge such as the edge of a map or page. Place the straight edge next to the value of the bearing on the bezel. Make sure the straight edge also passes over the pivot point of the compass needle or card. Where the straight edge crosses the bezel again is the value of the back bearing.
A variant of this technique uses the corner of a page or map to add or subtract 90 degrees from a heading. This may be useful when “boxing” an obstacle.
How to use a map and compass together is another set of lessons. You may like to read my blog on magnetic declination. A number of field manuals explaining how to use a map with a compass are available on-line for free. These include:
FM 3-25.26
RP0505- Land Navigation (USMC)
How To Find Your Way (GTA 05-021-013)
FM21-25 (1944)
I cannot really say which version of Practical Outdoor Survival is better. 2008 is more up-to-date, but 1992 seems to have a few extra ideas and I prefer how some sections are written.
If possible, get both, and read them alongside Bushcraft 101.
Categories
Phillosoph

Survival Library: Chapter 2, Bushcraft 101

Continuing my suggestions for a survival library.
Today I will look at a title that is relatively new to me. Some other reviewers consider it a “must have”.
The book is “Bushcraft 101” by Dave Canterbury.
Cover of Bushcraft 101
I quite liked this book.
The early section on safe and effective ways to use your knife and other tools is particularly good, and possibly worth the price alone.
It is a good book for rending topics down to a simply grasped form.
An interesting aide memoire Canterbury uses is “the Five Cs”: Cutting, Cover, Combustion, Containers and Cordage. Personally, I would advise adding “Consumables” and “Compass” to that list.
Another useful aide memoire is the “Four Ws”, used for selecting a good campsite: Wood, Water, Wind and Widowmakers.
To the advice given in the book, I will remind the reader that water sources often come with biting insects, so a camp should not be too near. Under the same category, one should consider watercourses. If you camp in a dried river bed or runoff, a storm miles away may result in your camp literally being washed away.
A third handy memory aid is “LURD”, used to determine the direction viewed by star movement. I recommend memorizing it as “LURD:NESW”. If a star is moving upward, you are looking east, and so on.
Determine direction of facking by star movement
The section on maps and compass is much more straight forward than in some publications:
“The most important reason to carry a compass is so that we can walk a straight line over distance.”
• Here I will insert a useful tip not given in this book. To walk in a straight line, align three objects. Tree trunks in a forest are ideal.
As you reach the first object, align the next two objects with a fourth, and keep repeating this process as necessary.
While applying a calculation to compensated for difference between magnetic and grid north is mentioned in Bushcraft 101, the actual method (LARS) is not detailed.
Perhaps it was felt that in a survival situation the difference is not significant, only a general orientation of the map being adequate. A similar approach is taken in the SAS Survival Handbook.
In some parts of the world, or for more general navigation, magnetic declination may be significant.
I would recommend regarding the navigation section of Bushcraft 101 as a useful primer and follow it with some more detailed reading on the topic.
The above brings me to one of the shortcomings of Bushcraft 101.
The book is very much written for a North American audience, and mainly geared for travel or emergencies in woodland.
If you frequent the prairies or deserts, you may wish the book had mentioned some tent poles to rig the suggested tarp. Similarly, some of the advice given may not be so valid for other parts of the world.
That said, my impressions of this book are very positive.
Once you have the suggested titles by Kephart, Greenbank and Wiseman (and my own books, of course!), Bushcraft 101 is worth considering as a useful addition. 

 

Categories
Phillosoph

Build Your Survival Library: Chapter One

My girlfriend was telling me how her sister in Brazil had managed to acquire a piece of land. Living on her own land is something that my girlfriend has often said that she would like to do.
“You will have to teach me survival”, she added.
I admit I was a little surprised by that request. She is an incredibly practical person.
When she was a little girl, she would escape her toxic home environment and live on the beach, catching fish. I suspect there is quite a bit she could teach me.
However, she is a very wise lady, and part of wisdom is knowing what you do not know!
What should I put on her reading list, I pondered?

Camping and Woodcraft (Kephart)

My first thought was “Camping and Woodcraft” by Horace Kephart. Photo of Hoeace Kephart
Regular readers of this blog will not be surprised to know this is one of my favourite books. I prize my old 1927 reprint of the 1921 edition. Around 884 pages, yet fits in an M65 jacket pocket.
This book is definitely something I will save, come the apocalypse.
It is rightly called a classic and a title that every outdoorsman should read.
The book is out of copyright, so I have a number of alternate editions in PDF, found for free on-line.
Camping and Woodcraft may have been written over a century ago (1906/1916), but is still a wealth of useful knowledge. It is no bad thing to know how things may be done without Gore-tex and GPS.
Kephart often mentions Nessmuk. Nessmuk's book “Woodcraft and Camping” is worth a read.

The Survival Handbook (Greenbank)

Cover of The Survival Handbook, Greenbank
The first book I actually sent my girlfriend was “The Survival Handbook” by Anthony Greenbank. This may also be encountered with the alternate title of “The Book of Survival”.
Greenbank's book seldom appears in recommendations for survival libraries. It seems to be relatively unknown.
It is an excellent book and is a must-have in my opinion.
The Survival Handbook is a great book since it includes many possible emergency situations that other manuals neglect.
Packed with useful information and easy to read and navigate. Even readers “not into survival” will find something of worth within its pages.
This book was first published back in 1967, long before the “survival craze” when many manuals were produced. Consequently, there are a few minor points that need updating.
For example: current advice is to remove ticks by gently pulling them with tweezers, rather than the older approaches in this and many other books. Fisherman's Knot
I would also stress that you should not join different ropes with a reef knot, even with a couple of half-hitches added. Always use the fisherman's knot, as is later recommended by Greenbank. A fisherman's knot is a pair of overhands, so is probably easier to learn and remember than a reinforced reef.
Scorpion claws are not poisonous. Claw size is generally inversely proportional to potency of sting.
I am also dubious as to whether any coat worthy of the name would make a good signalling kite. It seems more prudent to keep your coat on and use your shirt for a use where a garment may be potentially lost.
Of course, no book is perfect and remains perpetuatlly up to date. This is why we should read more than one book on any topic. The more angles you look at something from, the better you will know it.
These very minor points aside, I would wholeheartedly recommend a copy of Greenbanks's Survival Handbook for any survival library.
Usefully, the Survival Handbook is a standard sized paperback, so there is no reason that one could not put it in a ziploc bag and carry it with you in a rucksack pocket.

The SAS Survival Handbook (Wiseman)

Cover of The SAS Survival Handbook, Wiseman
For a more “conventional” bushcraft/survival manual, Greenbank's book is nicely complimented by “The SAS Survival Handbook” by John “Lofty” Wiseman. Also available with the alternate title of “The SAS Survival Guide” or “SAS Survival Guide”.
A revised edition was published in 2009.
Probably the only thing wrong with this book is the title. Even way back in 1986 when this book was published, it was already a cliché that nearly every other survival-orientated item was claimed to be either SAS, Special Forces or Green Beret. I will stress that John Wiseman is a verified genuine former member of the SAS, however.
The SAS Survival Handbook is an excellent choice for any survival library. It is easy to read, yet very detailed. Copies may be found at very reasonable prices.
The original book was nearly a foot square (228 x 238 x 22mm). I remember looking at my copy and wishing for an edited-down smaller version more suited to carrying in the field. Someone else obviously felt the same, because a few years later a Collins Gem edition was released. Amazingly, this was pocket-sized yet preserved all of the original content!Collins Gem edition of SA Survival Guide, Wiseman
My Gem edition has spent several decades in a ziploc bag in a side pocket of my rucksack. It has travelled from Hong Kong to Brazil and up to Iceland. If nothing else, it has served as an educational way to spend my time while waiting for a bus.
Both sizes of SAS Survival Guide include a coloured section illustrating various edible plants. Other Collins Gem titles may also be of interest, such as “Food for Free”.
The SAS Survival Guide/Handbook is another “must-have” for any survival library. In fact, get the large version for your bookshelf and the Gem for your pack.
Between Kephart, Greenbank and Wiseman you now have a pretty sound foundation for your survival library. It does not hurt that your survival library happens to be relatively compact and lightweight.
If you brought the Gem edition of the SAS Guide, all three books should fit in your bug-out bag.
If you buy the titles recommended above, you have acquired a lot of useful information for a relatively modest outlay.
I suggest that at least some of your library is hardcopy, for when the power is out.
How about some free books to supplement these?

US Field Manuals

Many readers will be familiar with “FM 21-76”, the US military survival manual.Cover of FM 21-76
On-line copies are freely available from a number of sites, there being no copyright on US field manuals. Many on-line copies lack the appendixes, such as the extensive illustrated appendix of edible plants, for example.
FM 21-76-1 was a related publication about SERE.
The current version of FM 21-76 has been redesignated FM 3-05.70.
Many of the sites you can download FM21-76/FM 3-05.70 from will have other field manuals on topics of interests such as navigation, hygiene and first aid.
If you want a printed copy of a field manual, these are available from a number of publishers. Price, cover and sometimes title will vary.
While these survival manuals are now described as “all services”, they were originally written as advice for downed aircrews, and this should be remembered when reading certain sections.
US field manuals tend to be clearly written but are not necessarily concise: FM 3-05.70 is 676 pages long.
There is also sometimes a tendency in field manuals for information to become institutionalized. New content may get in, but older, possibly no longer accurate content is slow to be removed.
I cannot do better than the advice Robert DePugh gives: FM 21-76 should be carefully read at home, and then left behind with other items not worth taking along.Air Force Handbook 10-644
Also worth a look are the Air Force manuals AFM 64-3, AFR 64-4 or AFM 64-5. Latest version is AFH 10-644 (also found here). These are a little harder to locate on-line.
The military manuals are not as “easily digestible” as Kephart, Greenbanks or Wiseman. They are, however, “information dense” and provide excellent background and context for the other books, at a price that cannot be beat, free!
The exception to the above statement is AFM 64-5 (1952). This is a compact and very readable work. It has several gems of information that are not often seen in many other works.
If I have one quibble about 64-5, it is that many of the illustrations are remote from the relevant text. Better and additional illustrations of some of the plants described would have been welcome.
As for any older text, some of the advice or information given may be out-of-date. For example, in the section that recommends any part of a seal, including the liver, may be used, no mention is made that the liver of the bearded seal (like that of the polar bear) is toxic.
If any publisher wishes for a new survival title, an updated version of 64-5 would be worth considering.
I would highly recommend that AFH 64-5 is the first military survival manual you consider reading.
The above recommendations will have given you a pretty comprehensive survival/bushcraft library.
In later blogs, I will review other titles, including those that are more specialized in their field.
You will also need some books on self-defence. For these, scroll down and follow the links.
I am very short of money at the moment, so you custom or donations will be very much appreciated!