Barry Davies sas Arctic survival book

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Dec 6, 2013
417
5
N.E.Lincs.
I was given Eddie McGee's Complete Book Of Survival the other week by the owner of a second hand/surplus shop, in his words it was "really old and full of out of date stuff"......It's actually really interesting, I guess produced before it became 'The Done Thing' to write a survival book after leaving the forces, so it doesn't come across as trying to outdo anyone else or 'out Clever' someone else's ideas and suggestions. Just plain common sense ideas many that I had not seen or thought of. Using materials and items generally readily available and to hand depending on circumstances and conditions......plainly and clearly written, easy to follow with simple and clear diagrams. with explanations that are not overly technical and full of common sense. It wont suggest any ideas for storming embassy's but tells you for instance how to strip a pushbike down to make snares, fish hooks, knives, first aid items and a multitude of other things.

Couple of hundred pages too so it's definitely not a pamphlet.

D.B.
 

Scots_Charles_River

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Dec 12, 2006
3,277
41
paddling a loch
www.flickr.com
The Barry Davies one I read is for Arctic and Northern climes. It's got many pics of the techniques and although black and white it's clear how to use or do the techniques. It has small print so packed with info.
 

Corso

Full Member
Aug 13, 2007
5,249
449
none
I was given Eddie McGee's Complete Book Of Survival the other week by the owner of a second hand/surplus shop, in his words it was "really old and full of out of date stuff"......


brilliant! thats like saying a cook book is out of date :)
 

John Fenna

Lifetime Member & Maker
Oct 7, 2006
23,134
2,871
66
Pembrokeshire
I had the whole series - flogged them at the Moot years ago...
Barry was an interesting chap to chat to and the first man to throw a "stun Grenade" - during the Mogadishu plane hijack/hostage crisis...
Like a lot of ex SAS he went into Survival teaching after he retired from the Regiment and even worked for BCB int for a while.
His books were very good - but they repeated a lot of info across each volume so they could be useful if bought individually.
 

MikeLA

Full Member
May 17, 2011
2,005
332
Northumberland
I was given Eddie McGee's Complete Book Of Survival the other week by the owner of a second hand/surplus shop, in his words it was "really old and full of out of date stuff"......It's actually really interesting, I guess produced before it became 'The Done Thing' to write a survival book after leaving the forces, so it doesn't come across as trying to outdo anyone else or 'out Clever' someone else's ideas and suggestions. Just plain common sense ideas many that I had not seen or thought of. Using materials and items generally readily available and to hand depending on circumstances and conditions......plainly and clearly written, easy to follow with simple and clear diagrams. with explanations that are not overly technical and full of common sense. It wont suggest any ideas for storming embassy's but tells you for instance how to strip a pushbike down to make snares, fish hooks, knives, first aid items and a multitude of other things.

Couple of hundred pages too so it's definitely not a pamphlet.

D.B.

i book like this will never go out of date purely because it doesn't use gadgets and expensive clothing. still own this book and one of his other ones and they are a favourite of mine
 

Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
2,665
McBride, BC
The old books are full of reliability and very little depends on modern designs.

Ellsworth Jaeger was a museum director. In 1945, he collected, wrote and published "Wildwood Wisdom," 491 pages. Reprinted 1992.
It's really a compendium of day-to-day living procedures from the 1800's and earlier in North America. $18 USD.

I bought it to see how a "crooked knife," now referred to as the Mocotaugan knife, was made and assembled. Essentially a short, one-handed draw knife.
The chapter describing all of the utensils to be made from birch bark has me scanning the neighbors' wood piles!
 

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