Practical Outdoor Survival: A Modern Approach

Rating:
Summary: A poor written attempt at survival (with a fancy hardcover)
Review: Anyone who gave this book 5 stars has no idea what a good book on the subject should contain. This is a poor attempt at written survival manual at it's best. The beginning starts out with the author recommending survival knives. What about if you don't have one? then what? Your survival knife will be there where you don't need it(this is from experience of many). While other books teach you how to use natural resources for cutting tools and shelter, this guy recommends the latest high-tech compasses, navigaton equipment and blah blah... Maybe there's some marketing trick in the survival world that I don't know about. Hard to say but whoever ends up in a survival situation without all the fancy modern tools, best luck to ya! I will say though that it has a decent info on building natural shelters but just about every other author has covered it and done way better. Don't expect to learn alot here. Just the basic stuff that you probably already know. This book should be titled "Practical Camping" and should cost half the money too, even then I'd opt for a refund.

Rating:
Summary: PRACTICAL OUTDOOR SURVIVAL hits the mark.
Review: I have been a survival instructor for 5 years and have used military survival manuals in the past. With the growing number of civilians wanting practical survival skills I needed to find a book that would teach from a civilian view point. This book is exactly what I have been looking for. While giving the basics needed to survive the book is very easy to read and understand. The chapters are organized well and cover everything a hunter, camper, hiker or outdoors person would need to survive for either a short or long period of time. Len McDougall tells it like it is and does not pull any punches when making reccomendations on equipment to purchase. This book will be utilized by myself in any future civilian survival courses I teach.

Rating:
Summary: Very thorough survival manual.
Review: I have been a survival instructor for 5 years and have used military survival manuals in the past. With the growing number of civilians wanting practical survival skills I needed to find a book that would teach from a civilian view point. This book is exactly what I have been looking for. While giving the basics needed to survive the book is very easy to read and understand. The chapters are organized well and cover everything a hunter, camper, hiker or outdoors person would need to survive for either a short or long period of time. Len McDougall tells it like it is and does not pull any punches when making reccomendations on equipment to purchase. This book will be utilized by myself in any future civilian survival courses I teach.

Rating:
Summary: The original civilian survival manual.
Review: I often kayak alone on remote lakes, and before I found Practical Outdoor Survival I was always afraid that I might be forced aground by foul weather in a place that was too far from my truck to reach on foot. This book makes that prospect a lot less frightening. Not only does it contain great information about which emergency items I should pack, it tells me how to pack them, and how to use them effectively. I own a number of good wilderness survival manuals, but this is the one I take with me when my life might depend on the advice I get from a book.

Rating:
Summary: This book lives up to its title.
Review: Most of the survival books I've read focus on living like an aborigine, which is not what the average backpacker needs. I wanted a book that would tell me what I needed to take in the woods with me to prevent troubles from happening in the first place, and tell me how to get out of trouble if something went wrong. This book is ideal for civlian backpackers and campers who want serious advice about surviving in a real world survival situation.

Rating:
Summary: This book lives up to its title.
Review: Most of the survival books I've read focus on living like an aborigine, which is not what the average backpacker needs. I wanted a book that would tell me what I needed to take in the woods with me to prevent troubles from happening in the first place, and tell me how to get out of trouble if something went wrong. This book is ideal for civlian backpackers and campers who want serious advice about surviving in a real world survival situation.

Rating:
Summary: PRACTICAL OUTDOOR SURVIVAL hits the mark.
Review: Thanks to Lyons Press for publishing Len McDougall's PRACTICAL OUTDOOR SURVIVAL. Thumbing through other books on living in the outdoors, I find many of them interesting and useful on the topic of surviving a calamity in the wilderness, but this book hits the mark by being both thoroughgoing and compact. If you could pass this on to Mr. McDougall I would appreciate it.

Rating:
Summary: Useful, but outdated
Review: This book delivered less than I expected. Its chief flaws are that it is outdated, superficial and poorly organized. It begins with highly detailed advice about basic tools that outdoorsmen should always carry: knives, compasses, etc. This is welcome information, but the author put the cart before the horse by introducing this material first. What was needed was a general discussion of the challenges of wilderness survival and the basic methods needed to overcome it. Without this overview, how can the reader prepare a proper shopping list? And regarding the author's proposed shopping list, few of the specific tools he mentions are still available. So the author's list of compasses and survival knives is nearly useless. The same type of problem is illustrated by the author's strong recommendation that every outdoorsman should carry a "dog rag", because it has so many uses. But this term and the cloth it refers to are now obsolete. In fact, I was unable to find a single reference to "dog rags" when I performed an internet search. There may be a few old timers who still use this term, but that's the point: it's now obsolete! Many other sections of the book also seem outdated or superficial. For example, although the section about snares will help the reader understand their general nature, it doesn't provide enough detail so that he could actually build one that will work properly. Despite these problems, I found this book somewhat helpful. It's short and easy to read, and it provides many useful ideas about basic issues such as finding food and shelter. But the overall impression left by this book is that it is merely an expanded magazine article rather than a thoughtful and thorough discussion of methods that can save a hiker's life during a wilderness emergency. On balance, I'm disappointed that this very good author produced such a light weight book on this important topic.