Who was your favorite old survival books or instructor

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BPrepared304

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Feb 11, 2012
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Nowdays you seen Bear Gryles, Dave Canterbury, Les Stroud, Cody Lunden, and more on TV and writing books. I remember growing up in the early 1980s we did not have the internet or reality TV survival shows, however we did have books. Larry Dean Olsen's book - Outdoor Survival Skills was one of my favorite books. Larry Dean was also technical adviser on one of the best (in my humble opinion) Mountain Man movies ever made -- Jermiah Johnson. Not to mention I also think he also contributed to the origional Boy Scout Wilderness Survival Merit Badge Book. We also had Eule Gibbons. And the old FM 21-76 Wilderness Survival Field Manual. Who do you remember or what was your favorite survival book preinternet days?
 
Sorry for the BAD wording - it should have read - What was your favorite old survival book or you favorite instructor? - but hopefully you all know whay I was looking for.
 
My Uncle Albert who lived in Breckinridge County, KY. He showed me how to fish catfish, clean a snapping turtle, make knives from sawmill blades and a whole bunch of other stuff. He was a tug boat hand, town sheriff, shoe cobbler, river rat trapper and would have been at home on the Corp of Discovery with Lewis and Clark, he was born 115 years to late for that one. He left us with a lot of stories and the example of someone who was pre-internet and not afraid to figure things out by watching, asking and trying. He loved God, read the Bible and was full of comments that would turn you hair blue. Few men like him today, likely they are there but laying low since they don't like crowds and attention so much.
 
I remember reading "Hatchet" as a kid and I was hooked on survival stuff in addition to all things BSA related. I remember watching "The Bear" and thought it was an awesome movie and being a kid from Texas, I always wished I could run into a grizzly up north with a pack of dogs and a rifle :D For reading material I had my BSA handbook which looking back now seemed to contain a few more tricks than the newer variations that my younger brother is using now.
 
Liberando said:
BSA Fieldbook, second edition, circa 1973...superb.
Click to expand...

I was going to say the same thing, except mine was from the mid 80s. I still have it somewhere. The info in there is still relevant and very well presented.
 
"My side of the mountain" more of an inspirational book than a teaching.
I've never felt like any of the skills here was "survival", as much as just plain livin. I can't remember a time
not being interested in these skills.
 
My favorite instructor in bushcraft ,never considered himself to be an instructor in anything but tribal lore .
He is dead now , and out of respect for the custom , his name goes unmentioned , untill his family has also passed anyway .
I was lucky enough to live a couple years with a traditional Pitjinjarra lore man and his family .

He taught some stuff that to him was simply day to day living skills , to me was important stuff to know if I had to survive in the bush .His personal idea of survival was based on his own experience , of being hunted off his land ,and then just hunted , as the land was "opened up" for cattle .
 
Wildwood Wisdom by Ellsworth Jaeger
Jack Knife Cookery by J. Austin Wilder
98.6 degrees & When All Hell Breaks Loose: by Cody Lundin (these may not qualify as old)
Chernobyl Syndrome by Dean Ing
 
I started bow hunting in 1979 with the neighbor who lived behind my parents house.He was the one who got me into archery and was quite a bit older than me. As my thirst for knowledge for everything outdoors increased I bought Outdoor Survival Skills by Larry Dean Olsen and How to Stay Alive in the Woods by Bradford Angier.I still have these books and I bought them around 1981.My dad did not hunt and my grandpa could not take me due to him battling cancer.If not for a man in his early twenties willing to take a 12 year old kid under his wing and teach me a deep love for the wilderness and hunting I may have never learned the things I did.He introduced me to it and the drive for learning had me buying every book or magazine I could about hunting and the outdoors.I always think of that and have made my self available to teach things like hunters safety and talk to kids about hunting being a whole lot more than about a kill.
 
Havin' grown up in Jersey and havin' the Pine Barrens as my playground, and the fact that his school is about 25 minutes from where I live in PA, I'd have to say Tom Brown.
 
All sorts, but the ones that stand out in my memory, my Dad, ...and Tom BrownI found some of his books out there and they are good and readable...

Also just trying things, (with a "safety net", like in the back yard), a great way to learn what works for you and what doesn't without undue risk. :)
 
I have to go with Mors Kochanski and Bernard Mason's Woodcraft and Camping are really good. For books more along the survival side of things I have to go with John'Lofty" Wiseman and his SAS survival guides cuz they are insanely informative and have tons of good color illustrations. Also I gotta give props to my fellow Wisconsinite Cliff Jacobson who is a legend in the canoeing world and also writes camping books and used to teach survival. His books "Camping Forgotten Skills,"Basic Essential of Trail side and emergency shelters" and "Basics of Camping" are just great and easy reads unlike some books in these genres.

And I really want to read the 1987 book "Bushcraft"-A serious guide to survival and camping by Richard Graves.
 
I'm going older...
Vilhjalmur Stefansson. Neat guy.
 
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