Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
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.

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!?

This book has lots of information for your beginner survivalist. It isnt to bad but one thing that really bothered me in how shiny the pages were under certain lights makes it very difficult to read, thats just me though maybe the pages are waterproof for that survival situation?

There will always be different philosophies when it comes to survival. With that in mind, this book has snares, colour pictures of plants, pictures of snakes, howto's for building a shelter, starting fires, and so... so much more!

you may be a survivalist, and you may disagree with some of the things mentioned in this book, but you cannot disagree about owning this book. It is a must have.
-B

This is a good reference for those who have little experience in survival techniques. Although there are shortfalls in certain respects, e.g. fairly limited and simplistic treatment of nuclear crises, most emergency survival situations are adequately addressed.

For nuclear WMD, a better resource would be Nuclear Weapons & Their Effects by L W McNaught, Brassey's Defence Publishers, 1984.

I'm also a big fan of this book. I also have the Collins Gem version so I can put into my backpack when I feel like trying out something else.

One of the big things that people criticize (survival) books on is not being comprehensive. Well, if it was, it wouldn't be one book! It'd be an Encyclopedia!!

Lets face it - There are whole books written on just trees, mushrooms and wildlife I.D (Audubon Society series) , books on plants and what to do with them (The Magic and Medicine of plants), Survival trapping (too many to list), Map and Compass (Staying Found), Camping tips (Roughing it Easy) and on and on and on!

I mean really, If you're going to visit Egypt, get a book on Desert survival. Going to the North Pole? Get that book, Gonna take your yacht on a long cruise, get one on sea Survival...

But if you wanted one book that covers everything decently to well, out of all the survival books I've seen this is the One Book.

I think the author did a hell of a job condensing this into something that's not 50 lbs. It's basic enough for even the novice survivor to use, and it's got enough hard-core info for anyone else.

If you can only have one survival book, I would recommend this one. Otherwise, start your Library of all the survival books you can afford on every subject out there.

It may be impossible to write a survival book that is accurate and authoritative on all environments and all areas of the world, and this is something to keep in mind when purchasing a general survival book like the SAS Survival Handbook. For the most part, it's quite good and gives excellent information on outdoors survival in most temperate climates. HOWEVER, one place the book does fall down is in areas like jungle and desert survival. There is little specialized information for those environments, ESPECIALLY important topics like navigation, first aid, water collection, and animal/plant information, and what there is can be dangerously vague. For those interested in jungle or desert survival I would definitely recommend other specialized books like Adventure Travel in the Third World by Jeff Randall or The Ultimate Desert Handbook by Mark Johnson, which do a much, much better job at covering those environments.

The first time I read this book, was as a teen. I "borrowed" the copy belonging to my brother, and have never been without a copy since then.

The information contained within is aimed at surviving in the most extreme conditions. Granted, not many of us will be stranded in the North Pole - but if we were, we'd know not to eat a polar bear's liver, because the amount of vitamin A contained therein is toxic!
More usable information includes:

- Beautiful, accurate pictures of edible and poisonous plants
- How-to advice on setting up temporary camps
- Basic first aid and medical care
- How to survive a nuclear attack, war conditions, fire/ice/extreme weather conditions
- A virtually complete instruction on how to set up different traps to catch your food,
And other amazing pieces of information simply too numerous to list.

All in all, there are probably more professional, intensive survival guides - but this is by far one of the more approachable, with common sense advice that we can use even in a non-survival situation.

All together a pretty good book. The book gives you a lot of useful information and is well organized. Discusses knot tying, trapping, ways to obtain drinking water, building shelters and starting fires. Covers various climates and terrain. A good basic guide but I'm still searching for something a little more detailed.

This book is a wealth of information arranged in an attractive format with a good mix of illustrations, facts, and anectodal accounts. The pages and binding are also durable. Excellent book to read thru, then take camping to try various skills. Wonderful!