The Best Manuals and Reference Material?

I am posting this thread to see what some of your views are on the best Manuals and reference Material as it pertains to Surviving during any kind of disaster or societal Collapse. If one wishes to survive such an event than having a good library of information that you can read or refer to would help immensly.

So does anyone know of good manuals or reference books for any various subject dealing with survival?

I found a website that offers Manuals for various survival subjects and I have never seen these ones before has anyone else? I am sending for the catalogue


Manuals site

I want to learn as many survival skills as possible but i also want reference material because i know i cannot memorize everything i need, and i wont have the internet to look things up.


mod edit: removed survivalist from title due to creation of new forum

[edit on 12-12-2006 by UK Wizard]

"The U.S. Army Survival Guide". It's the field manual for the Army and tells how to survive anywhere, any time, from any kind of threat. If you had never been to the North Pole for example or the Amazon jungle, and got lost your first hour there, if you had this book with you, you could survive. I highly recommend it. It tells you how to tell if plants are safe to eat, it covers literally everything.

Foristlady is right on the money with that, annother book out I don't know if you can find it anymore is the US army Improvised Explosives and Demolitions book. I mean if you are gonna survive better be able to defend yourself with anything you can.

My recommendation would be for you to study history. Find out how people lived 100, 200, 1000's of years ago.

Your going to want to find out how to..

Build a permanent shelter - The lean-to is gona get old FAST. Especially if you have children.

Dig a well - Water purification tablets/filters will not last forever, and boiling water all the time is going to use up resources.

Food prepration/harvest/storage - Nuts and berries will also get old fast, and you need to think about winter (or summer if you live someplace hot) when pickins get slim.

A good overview of this type of stuff can be found in books like Storey's Basic Country Skills - A Practical Guide to Self-Reliance covers a lot of the basics of living. The Foxfire series are also good if a little lacking on exact step by step guides.

You might also think about what skills you have, in other words what will be your job?. Imagine it's a year after whatever happened and you come across someone offering a loaf of bread (you haven't even seen one in a year and it sure looks good, look your even drooling!) What service/items could you offer in trade? If you can't think of anything off hand it would be worthwile to read some books on a subject you find interesting.Things like blacksmithing, pottery, baskets, leather, preserved foods, shelter building, clothing, well digging and on and on...

Surviving the event is only the first step, you also need to live and thrive.

Here is some free manuals for download.
www.hometownmich.com...
There is some interesting ones there but also some old and tired ones. check it out.

The USAF Search & Rescue Survival Training manual has a plethora of great information (it's one seriously hefty book, not practical for bugging out with, but you can make copies of critical information and memorize other stuff), on everything from trap construction to living with fallout, to edible plants/animals by region, and evading pursuers.

The army technical/field manuals are also very handy. Particularly TM 31-200/1-1 (Unconventional Warfare Devices and Techniques), TM 31-210 (Improvised Munitions), and FM 5-31 (Boobytraps) - there are others, dealing with military explosives, demolitions, and other, less conventional weapons/systems, but the three I listed are the ones I consider most critical in a survival situation.

Most people ought to stay away from explosives. They can easily do more harm than good if you're not properly trained.

I highly recommend Wayne J Fears' Complete Book of Outdoor Survival Second Edition, which covers all terrain and just about every situation short of civil war/collapse of society. Of course as someone pointed out earlier these kinds of things work fine for the short term, for the long term I would advise getting the Backwoods Home anthology, which is an off-grid persons dream come true in terms of infomration.

Here is a link to a complete US Military survival manual that is a great place to start. It has a little bit of everything from building shelters, catching game, navigation, and general survival craft.

www.equipped.com... ( survival manual military)



[edit on 12-12-2006 by Terapin]

I mentioned this elsewhere, but I was able to grab large amounts of survival guides, ebooks, & pamphlets from peer-2-peer groups for free. If you put aside the political beliefs behind the authors, you can amass huge amounts of info.

I did searches with keywords; anti-terrorism, survival, field manuals, winter handbook, NBC survival, & wilderness guide.

If you are as resourceful online as in the bush, you will get by fine.

I've managed to get a copy of the SAS/SBS survival booklet, which in the eyes of the British Military is the mutts nutts.

Very interesting facts on surviving almost everything.

Is there a website that allows you to share documents like pdf and such?
A sort of PHOTOBUCKET for texts one could share with others. Some of my 'free to distribute stuff' would available to interested parties.

Imo, military manuals, pubs and orders are too complicated and hard to follow. Boyscout survival books and internet printouts work much better, theyr'e easier to read and they usually have step by step pictures to follow.

Also, it will be much better in case your children or someone with less experience has to ever to use it.

Anthropology degrees come in pretty handy there. Imagine a post-apocalyptic world where anthropologists are the new celebrities . . . . it takes one's breath away.

Here's a book I HEARTILY recommend:

"THE GUIDE TO SELF-SUFFICIENCY"

It's an out of book from the 70's, designed to help people who were moving back to the country and living on farms without having grown up that way.

There are chapters on dressing game, curing meat, raising livestock, making your own bread, beer, you name it. A lot of it has survival implications, and all of it is fascinating.

I'd also suggest a Chilton's-type guide for every vehicle you own. Auto mechanics will rule the earth in any survival situation.

I have owned chilton's all my adult life, albeit for reasons unrelated to this. I remember reading here about some really interesting books about living on a farm. FOXFIRE BOOKS were mentioned. I was most excited by this find. Sometimes I swear I must live under a rock. There are real gems out there.