Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(50)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

No need for a long review here. This book was written by a professional soldier who was in the SAS, or the Special Air Service. For those not in the know, that's an elite unit of the British Army trained to carry out operations in ALL parts of the world. Eventually, the author became a survival instructor to the SAS, so you can be sure that this guy knows his stuff.

The book covers all you'd ever want to know about the essentials of surviving in climates such as: the polar region, mountains, seashores, islands, tropical regions, or even at sea. Here's few of the many topics the book covers:

-food, what you can and can't eat
-animal tracking with numerous pics
-color pics of edible plants
-pictures of traps and how to trap things
-how to handle animals you've killed for food
-how to make a camp and various shelters
-knot tying pics
-first aid
-color pics of medicinal plants
-picures of dangerous/poisonous critters
-things to have in a survival kit

A very handy resource for anybody who enjoys outdoor/wilderness activities, it's just a darn good thing to have around in case of emergencies- or even just to look at the pictures! Also recommend Treat Your Own Rotator Cuff if you have a shoulder problem that is interfering with your outdoor activities.

This is a great book for reviewing the basic concepts around a huge range of survival situations and skills. The book starts off with a few chapters on the basics of survival- mental attitudes, equipment, planning, and general tips. It then briefly explores how to survive, in basic terms, in different wilderness environments, from deserts to rain forests to the arctic. Each environment gets four to six pages, so this isn't a detailed, in-depth look at survival. Rather, it's a quick look meant to point out some of the more important information.

Next up is my biggest disappointment in the book. Out of almost six hundred pages, around one hundred are spent talking about finding food. Even though the book repeatedly states how you can go for weeks without food and still survive. Tips on mushroom picking, plant harvesting, and especially hunting are likely to be futile at best, back-fire at worst. There are nice color pictures of various plants which is a helpful bonus, but many edible plants look dangerously like poisonous plants, even more so with mushrooms, so this is a dangerous bit of advice. As for hunting, the idea of someone crashing in a plane, building their own bow, then hunting, killing, skinning, and eating big game is somewhere between ludicrous and sheer fantasy. So while the chapter was sort of fun to read, some of the space could have been better utilized elsewhere.

Following this chapter are chapters including: finding and building shelters, rope use, first aid, navigation, signaling, and surviving in ocean environments. The book ends with a description of survival in urban disasters, ranging from terrorist attacks to tsunami's. The last page of the book reiterates the author's basic philosophy. The most important facet of survival is will. Then knowledge/skill. Then gear. This agrees with what I've read in every other book on the topic. So while this book is an important book to read for those interested in survival, it's just a (good & easy to read) starting point for cultivating the skills, and more importantly the will, to survive.

Information overload. Almost too much. Glad i bought it but most of this information will never be used by Joe Average but its an interesting book and worth the read. You never know i guess!?

I am not an outdoorsman. However, I am I interested in that knowledge that will help me. That knowledge that would have never occurred to me unless I came accross a book such as this. I LOVE it, and you will too!!!!!!!

This book was recommended by the firearms instructor where i took my course this book is very well organized packed with very good information and detail,it will take some time to read and understand very good purchase and will be a good source of information in the years to come.

This is an all in one book. Very complete, very small, it fits pretty much everywhere. A must have in a car or a camping backpack.

i hope this comes handy. scanned though it and the quality of writing and illustrations are great. i would recommend people to have one of these...

Real great book for survival mode if you're lost in the woods would be nice to have knowledge to survive.

I would certainly recommend this book to anyone. Even if you never go into the backcountry, its full of great survival tips that everybody should know. Buy this book you will be glade you did.

This book has lots of great information with regards to your survival. There are many different tricks tips and tools to use while you are out surviving on the land. This book is geared towards those who do not have significant knowledge of the outdoor survival skills, however would likely serve as a great refresher for those who do! Awesome purchase, glad to add it to my collection.