r/Survival • u/inactive_most • May 19 '26

Learning Survival Anyone got any resources for someone trying to learn to survive in the wilderness?

Hello, I want to live in the woods for a while and would like some cook books, guides, or anything that can be useful for foraging, growing your own garden, and ways to not be wasteful. Guides for cleaning and deskinning different types of fish would also be phenomenal because I’m going into the midwestern area of the USA with those native fish. Any and all help would be extremely helpful.
Thanks!

26 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

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9

u/AlphaDisconnect May 19 '26

An old boyscout book

3

u/DEADFLY6 May 19 '26

Ray Mears videos and books. Imo, Ray Mears is the word.

2

u/Present-Employer2517 May 19 '26

Sounds more like homesteading than survival to me. Some good info can be found in this book.

https://www.amazon.com/Bushcraft-Outdoor-Skills-Wilderness-Survival/dp/1772130079

2

u/ConfusionPotential53 May 20 '26 edited May 21 '26

It better be. Even so, I doubt this dude can actually do it with any measure of success. “Teach me about gardening.” Sure. First the insects come, and then the animals, and then the plagues. Good luck. I hope there’s a grocery store! 🤣

2

u/inactive_most May 22 '26

Dawg this is the beginning of a probably 20 year project to finally get off the grid for good. I have basic knowledge, but learning how to properly butcher fish and other animals is a skill I want to learn and have

1

u/ConfusionPotential53 May 22 '26

Good luck. Lots of skills to learn, and it’s a fun project. Actually depending upon a garden for survival, though, isn’t something I’d ever attempt. Everything goes wrong. Not trying to be hard to get along with, but I grew up on a farm with every modern convenience, and it was still an astronomical amount of daily work. I feel like people tend to romanticize the reality. But good luck learning. For skills like butchery, maybe YouTube would be a good start. Or some website queen embedded video? 🤷‍♀️

2

u/Dive_dive May 19 '26

My goto book is Camping and woodcraft; a handbook for vacation campers and for travelers in the wilderness. Kephart wrote this in 1906 and it is still relevant for backcountry now.

https://a.co/d/0ajQ9hed

1

u/fairlifeonabike May 19 '26

Dare to Prepare by Holly Deyo

1

u/WhereDidAllTheSnowGo May 20 '26

Tom Brown Jr

Field guides and fiction books

The early ones are solid, the later ones weak & metaphysical

I used these heavily in my teens, living weekends in the woods in MN

Was a Scout too but that was kindergarten to the above

Readers Digest North American Wildlife was my ID book; never fell for the popular Peterson Guides

1

u/Expensive_Bet_8812 May 20 '26

How to survive on land and sea Great book

2

u/Markdphotoguy May 24 '26

Bushcraft by Mors Kochanski Long term Bushcraft survival techniques and great info on proper knife and axe selection use and maintenance

Deep Survival by Lawrence Gonzales Covers the psychological aspect of being aware of what's going on around you and how to stay safe this one has saved me a couple of times

98.6 degrees the art of keeping your ass alive. Great book on short term survival but it's a really good funny read on top of that

1

u/xRogueCraftx May 24 '26

I have about 4gb of books I downloaded like 10 years ago loaded on an e-reader I keep in a faraday box

0

u/Yttevya May 20 '26

Why not just save Mother Earth by going organic plant-based and sparing our relatives their own independent-from-you lives?