A knowledge of basic chemistry and a few experiments helped me perfect this handy fire starting gel that I’m about to share with you.

You’ll only need three simple ingredients, a digital scale, and a plastic bag.

1. Potassium nitrate (KNO3) can be purchased at Amazon.com and many hobby stores, but you can also find it in any hardware store or garden center packaged as stump remover. This acts as an oxidizer.
2. Powdered sugar can be found in any grocery store. This acts as a fuel.
3. Petroleum jelly, also known as Vaseline is available in grocery and drug stores. This acts both as a binder and as a fuel.

Combine 70% potassium nitrate and 30% powdered sugar by weight and mix well. Pour the mixture into a plastic bag and add a blob of petroleum jelly about half the size of a your powder mixture, and knead the bag until you achieve the consistency of paste. You want it to feel a little dry and gritty, but still stick together.

You have a few choices for storage. You could leave it in the plastic bag, squeeze it into a pill bottle, or even force it into an empty toothpaste tube.

Using it is easy; just form a ball about 1″ in diameter, surround it with your tinder and kindling, and then ignite it with your preferred method. A single spark from a strike fire starter works like a charm, but a magnifying lens, matches, or any other method will work nearly as well too. Just don’t get too close—it will burn hot and fast—usually spraying burning liquid several feet in all directions.

A natural disaster can disable our debit and credit card infrastructure, preventing you from purchasing basic necessities for day-to-day survival. The continued inflation and manipulation of our currency will eventually devalue the dollar to the point of worthlessness just as we’ve seen in countless countries over the last few years. And in a world of ever-increasing and unwarranted surveillance, you may want to keep the details of your finances away from the watchful eyes of the government.

In each of these situations, barter of physical products will take the place of traditional cash or credit transactions. You can (and should) stock up on items that will be valuable in an emergency, but none pack the value that gold and silver do in such a small, easily transportable package. It’s a currency that has worked well around the world for thousands of years, and will continue to do so long after you and I are gone.

Success means starting with the end goal in mind; in this case, financial stability and security in an uncertain world, so you need physical gold and silver in your hands—not paper assets like gold or silver in an IRA that can disappear at a moments notice. Remember Greece? Those who are financially well-off may be tempted to buy expensive coins or larger bullion to simplify the process; I don’t recommend this. Instead, I recommend purchasing smaller pieces because a $55–1 gram gold bar will be infinitely more useful than a $1,400–1 ounce gold coin. Why? Do you think you’ll need to buy $1,400 worth of food, supplies, or gear at once? Smaller denominations give you more flexibility for purchases.

Both gold and silver have recently dropped in price, and  but remember, you’re not buying them as an “investment” like stocks or bonds. You’re buying them as an alternative currency for use in an emergency. The price will continue to fluctuate, just like it always has.

We all know (or can easily find out) the value of gold and silver now, but what about during an emergency? When the Internet goes down and you can’t look up the market price—or worse yet, if the economy falls apart and the markets go haywire? Whether in a perfect world, amidst absolute chaos, or somewhere in between, the price of gold and silver is determined the free market. It is up to an individual to decide if their next meal is worth 1 gram or 5 grams of their gold.

Before you can use gold and silver as a currency, you must differentiate authentic precious metals from forgeries. Fortunately, this is easy to do by measuring the specific gravity using just a digital scale, a lightweight cup, some string, and a tripod, as seen in the video below. For reference, the specific gravity of gold is 19.32 and the specific gravity of silver is 10.49.

I’ve investigated several vendors, and found that most operate on an ethical level slightly lower than that of a politician. Some of the biggest names, pimped by some of the biggest media figures, don’t even offer pricing online; they force you to speak to a sales representative. Others offer misleading pricing—I found one company that appeared to offer the same 1 gram gold bar for $7.85 less than a competitor, which doesn’t seem like much, but it worked out to a 15% price difference. Further inspection revealed that you must buy $10,000 worth of that product to receive the advertised price. You’ll need to do your homework; talk to several vendors, check reviews, and pay close attention to the real price. I am working with JM Bullion because in my experience, they are the most honest and upfront dealer I’ve encountered, their pricing is generally the lowest, and they ship quickly. Ultimately though, it’s up to you to decide which vendor is right for you—but don’t wait until it’s too late.

The ability to start a fire can mean the difference between life or death, but even in the best of scenarios, it will mean the difference between relative comfort or absolute misery. Of all the elements needed to start a fire, tinder is the most critical because it allows you to make up for poor fuel, kindling, and ignition sources.

Tinder is an easily combustible material that burns very hot. This allows it to ignite your kindling material, which burn for longer, allowing you to finally ignite your fuel source, typically logs. Tinder also burns very quickly so you should have plenty of hand before attempting to start your fire. The last thing you want is to have your fire on the verge of starting, and then running out of tinder. I usually aim for three times the amount I think I’ll need to get my fire going.

So how do we find tinder in a survival situation? It’s a lot easier than you might think. Generally, you want something that burns easily and has a large surface area. In case you missed physics class, that just means it should be shaved, shredded, or torn as finely as possible. Some excellent options are:

• Birch bark
• Shredded paper or cardboard
• Steel wool
• Cattail fibers
• Gauze bandages
• Finely shredded plastic or rubber
• Punk wood
• Bird nests
• Tobacco (cigarettes or cigars—not chewing tobacco)
• Dandelion heads
• Certain fungus
• Sanitizing wipes
• Dry grass, pine needles, or leaves
• Char cloth
• Trioxane or hexamin tablets
• Magnesium or other alkaline earth metals
• Lint
• Animal dung
• Seed down
• Saw dust
• Cotton balls, tampons, or maxi pads
• Plastic bags
• Cigarette filters
• Pine bark
• Hair or fur
• Bird down
• Diapers
• Rope, string or twine (natural or synthetic)
• Dead Spanish moss
• Nearly anything flammable, such as kindling sized sticks, once covered with petroleum jelly, shoe polish, ChapStick, paraffin wax, lard, pine sap, or any accelerant like gasoline can be used as tinder as well.

Spend a little time outdoors on nearly any continent, and you will eventually encounter a snake—likely sooner than later. The key to surviving this encounter is the ability to quickly and accurately determine whether you’re facing a minor annoyance or a deadly threat.

You can often identify a venomous snake by looking for certain physical features, which unfortunately means you must be closer to them than you’d like. That’s never a good thing. This isn’t a fool-proof solution though, because there are some that do not posses these features.

1.) Venomous snakes generally have a thick triangular head that is wide in proportion to their body like the rattlesnake hiding amongst these rocks.

2.) As with this cottonmouth, venomous snakes often have a stout, heavier bodies, compared to the thin, lighter bodies of many non-venomous snakes.

3.) Most venomous snakes have elliptical pupils that resemble long narrow slits, as seen in the baby copperhead below, rather than the round pupils you find in most creatures.

4.) All snakes have teeth, but only venomous snakes have fangs capable of delivering poison, as shown by this bush viper. They often display their fangs long before striking in an attempt to scare you away—and it usually works.

5.) If you have the unfortunate opportunity to get really close, you can look for two small holes that look like nostrils, visible on this Malabar pit viper. They aren’t though; they are actually heat-sensing organs used to find prey.

These features aren’t the only indication that a snake is venomous though. The coral snake, found throughout temperate U.S. states, does not have a large triangular head, a stout, heavy body, or elliptical pupils, but it packs one of the most potent venoms of any snake in North America. Throughout the world, there are many other snakes, such as the cobra, sea snake, and mamba, to name just a few, that don’t have these easily identifiable features, but are just as, or more deadly than their counterparts.

The only 100% certain way to identify venomous snakes is to learn about them ahead of time. I recommend the book, Venomous Snakes of the World to familiarize yourself with the species you’re likely to encounter where you live or travel. It would also be a wise idea to carry a snake bite kit on your outdoor excursions; you don’t know how long it might be before you can get to medical attention after being bitten and it can buy you some extra time.

Hurricane Sandy and other recent hurricanes have taught us two things: 1.) the average American grossly underestimates the power and devastation that a natural disaster can bring, and 2.) the average American is shockingly unprepared for even a minor disruption to their soft, cushy lifestyle.

Most people think of themselves as rugged and self-reliant, but when the power is out, they are being devoured by mosquitoes, and Starbucks is closed indefinitely, they tend to end up in the corner, shaking, feeling sorry for themselves, and crying. Most people are wildly delusional.

Those of us who survive, and even thrive through natural disasters do so not because we’re superheroes, but because we’ve invested the time to prepare ahead of time. We’ve kept our bodies in excellent shape. We’ve stored enough food, water, and supplies for our families. And most of all, we’ve learned the necessary survival skills and developed the mental toughness to utilize those skills.

Preparing for a hurricane is really quite simple; you need only to follow a few basic steps and have some supplies and equipment on hand.

The first thing you need to do is establish mental toughness ahead of time. Stay healthy and in shape, challenge yourself regularly, practice using your survival skills before you need to, and occasionally conduct trial runs where you shut off your power and water, living though a weekend as you would through a hurricane.

If landfall of a hurricane is likely, follow the recommendations of emergency management personnel. I remember watching the weather reports leading up to Hurricane Katrina’s landfall and being stunned by the drunk buffoons continuing to party despite being advised to evacuate. They all ended up suffering; many paid for their stupidity with their lives. If the emergency management personnel suggest that you leave, and you have enough time and a way to get out-of-town, do it.

If you are going to ride out the storm, make sure you have enough food and fresh, clean water for your family. The CDC (Centers for Disease Control) recommends a minimum of a three-day supply of food and one gallon of water per person per day. I recommend more—a lot more. I won’t disclose specific details, but my family can survive for several months with no outside intervention. Make sure you store non-perishable foods, such as canned goods and/or freeze-dried foods because they will stay safe and edible without refrigeration. Don’t forget powdered formula if you have a baby, and pet food if you have a pet. You can stock bottled water, water jugs, 55-gallon barrels, or in a pinch, you can even fill your bathtub just before the hurricane hits and water is shut off or becomes contaminated. The standard American bathtub holds 42 gallons of water.

Once your food and water needs are met, ensure that you have the following:

• First aid supplies
• Hygiene supplies
• Flashlights, candles and chemlights
• Radio
• Batteries
• Cookware and utensils
• Disposable knives, forks, spoons, plates, and cups (there is no need to waste precious water washing dishes)
• Manual can openers
• Grill, camp stove, or fire pit
• Fuel (propane, charcoal, wood, fuel tablets, etc.) Regardless of the type of fuel you burn, be sure to burn it outdoors. It will produce carbon monoxide; an oderless, colorless gas that can quickly kill occupants.
• A boat, canoe, or raft
• Coolers
• Lots of ice (it will last longer than you think, and can keep food fresh, people cool, and reduce swelling of injuries)

You also need to ensure the structural integrity of your home. This means packing sandbags around all doors to keep flood waters out and screwing plywood to windows and glass doors to prevent deadly flying debris. Also, there is a myth that opening your windows will equalize the pressure and cause less damage—do not do this! Once hurricane winds get into your home, it won’t be long before it’s filled with rain and deadly flying debris, so keep all openings sealed. When a hurricane does hit, be sure to take refuge in a sturdy inside room without windows; a bathroom or basement are ideal.

After the hurricane passes, take care when you venture outdoors. There will likely be standing water, fallen debris, and downed power lines. And that’s just the start of your problems because unprepared people may be willing to do anything for basic necessities like food and water, while opportunistic criminals will be, well, opportunistic criminals. You are armed, right?

Tarps are a versatile, lightweight, and inexpensive tool that should be a part of every emergency plan.

I have one tucked in several locations: at the home, in our vehicles, and in our bug out bags. You should too.

During a routine inventory and inspection of our gear, I was thinking about how to become more efficient and pack lighter by utilizing gear that can serve multiple purposes, so I began compiling a list of additional uses for some of our existing gear. These are some of the uses I came up with for a tarp:

• A clean surface for dressing game.
• Wrapping field-dressed meat.
• A stretcher when used with two poles.
• Constructing a tent or lean-to.
• An improvised poncho.
• A temporary patch for a leaky roof.
• Building an improvised raft or canoe.
• An improvised body bag.
• A makeshift bath.
• Keeping firewood dry.
• An improvised water bucket.
• A signaling device.
• Building a solar still.
• An improvised backpack combined with paracord as pack straps.
• Constructing a sail for your boat.
• A bivy sack.
• A makeshift Ahkio sled. (Though it won’t last long in rough terrain.)
• Building a hammock.

Any other ideas?

There will be times when you’ll want to stay well-hidden. Most of you will never be deployed behind enemy lines in some third-world country and stalked by trained killers, but in a SHTF scenario, or even just traveling through the wilderness surrounded by natural predators, effective camouflage offers tremendous peace of mind and dramatically increases your chances of surviving. I’ll help you do that by breaking camouflage into its key elements, in order of importance:

Cover: If you’re behind or underneath something, it becomes a lot easier to stay completely hidden. This could include natural debris, such as trees, fallen logs, rocks, or unnatural debris like vehicles, trash, or buildings. During training in Camp Lejeune, we would often use holes underneath oak trees uprooted by frequent hurricanes. Operating in Bosnia, we were able to use buildings, viewing the outside world through small holes in the walls. (Nearly every building I encountered there had at least a few holes from mortar, artillery and other large munitions.) In the desert, we would take advantage of rock formations and boulders. The upside of using cover as camouflage is that it can provide some degree of protection from incoming rounds and thermal imaging.

Movement: The slightest movement, especially where everything else is still, will alert even a modestly trained observer to your position. They key is to move as slowly and smoothly as possible. A perfect example was a mission conducted by Marine sniper, Carlos Hathcock, when he crawled over 1,500 yards through an open field to shoot an NVA commanding General. This took four days and three nights, without sleep, of constant inch-by-inch crawling. It’s not just movement your own body and gear that you need to worry about though. You need to consider everything you touch. The toe of your boot brushing against a tall reed or snagging a vine causing a branch to wag back and forth might as well be a flag saying “Here I am!”

Shape: People and most objects have a very distinct shape, and with a little training, an observer can spot them fairly quickly even when they blend in to the colors of their surroundings. A well-trained observer can often spot a person at night just by their silhouette. This is why you need to break up your outline. A ghillie suit is ideal for this, which you should supplement with local vegetation. If you don’t have access to one, you can improvise with vegetation inserted into holes in your clothing, or by wearing loose, bulky clothing. We used the latter in arctic environments; donning a loose white jacket and trousers over our uniforms. Don’t forget your equipment; wrap shredded burlap around your rifle and scope, and attach strips of shredded burlap to your pack and other gear to break up and soften the silhouette.

Color: This is the first, and often only element most people turn to because it’s the easiest, but surprisingly, it usually has the least impact. During a patrol through a shallow riverbed, I watched half a dozen Marines step over a bright yellow Habu viper. I’ve seen jungle warfare experts maneuver past experienced troops while wearing colorful civilian t-shirts. And one occasion that involved far more alcohol than was prudent, two Marines, one of which may or may not have been me, managed to surreptitiously cross the gated grounds and enter a well guarded and illuminated training compound for high-ranking officers (Colonels and Generals), wearing light grey sweatshirts and green running shorts. I don’t say this to minimize the value of choosing the proper colors to blend into your surroundings; I strongly recommend that you make every effort to blend in because along with the previous techniques, you can become virtually invisible.

Pattern: The pattern of your camouflage works hand in hand with the colors. During the 1950s and 60s, our ground troops’ uniforms consisted of olive drab utilities, which were marginally effective at best. Eventually we migrated to a woodland camouflage pattern of irregularly-shaped color blotches that remained the standard uniform for ground units in all branches for several decades. Shortly after entering Afghanistan, the Marine Corps transitioned to the superior digital MARPAT pattern. In a rush to follow suit with their own pattern, the army equipped their troops with the digital ACU, which was such a failure in nearly all environments that just a few years later, they began replacing it with the Multicam pattern. There are a number of other domestic and foreign camouflage patterns, as well as civilian patterns, such as Realtree that can be extremely effective in the right environment. The goal of any camouflage pattern is to blend in with the surroundings, and more importantly, break up the wearer’s silhouette, making them harder to identify. The more irregular the pattern, the more effective it is, but MARPAT is generally effective in the widest range of environments, followed closely by Multicam. Woodland camouflage works well in darker forests, jungles, and swamps, while ACU works better in urban areas, lighter-colored deserts, and barren mountains.

Face paint: Properly applying camouflage face paint is more than just smearing it on like a mime; you want to apply darker colors to high-profile areas like your nose, forehead, and cheekbones while applying lighter colors to low profile areas around your eyes. The idea is to making your face appear flatter and less discernible.

Everyone who knows me fairly well knows that I am a huge supporter of the Second Amendment. That does not come with any caveats or asterisks. I believe every adult who isn’t in prison or a mental institution should have the right to own whatever weapons they feel they need to defend their families, but with that right comes tremendous personal responsibility.

Your primary job in life is to ensure your safety and the safety of your family. This often begins by purchasing a weapon and ammunition, but that’s far from the end of your duty because you’re dealing with a device capable of inflicting tremendous damage and even death. Negligence can quickly result in an outcome that you can’t take back. Therefore, training, both initial and ongoing is necessary.

Before you start breaking out the pitchforks and torches, I am not advocating any form of government mandated training programs as a condition for owning a firearm. Given that a trained police officer has a hit ratio of only about 20% according to Department of Justice statistics, the last people I want in charge of firearms “training” is the people who think this is acceptable. During my days in the Marine Corps, I would have had my ass handed to me for such abysmal performance. As a civilian today, I would quickly find myself in jail if I I fired five rounds in self-defense and one hit the bad guy while the other four flew wildly into the crowd.

No, I believe it’s up to each of us to ensure that we’re properly trained in the use of every firearm we own. That means in ideal conditions like we experience at the range, as well as in the dark, the cold, the heat, the rain, and the snow. We need to be able to employ our weapon just as effectively from either hand and in unusual shooting positions. It’s critical that we can effectively draw and accurately fire our weapon in a variety of clothing. Remedial action and rapid reloading must be second nature. In essence, your weapon should be an extension of your body.

The four rules of weapons safety

The four rules of weapons safety apply to every weapon, from a Crosman pellet gun to a Howitzer, so let’s cover that first.

• Treat every weapon as if it were loaded.
  This means every weapon—even if you just unloaded it. I’ve even seen more than one well-trained Marine hand me an “unloaded” weapon only to find out there was a live round in the chamber. Much ass chewing ensued, followed by punishment that would make the hardest person cry. These a trained people— sadly, there are countless stories of ordinary people doing the same thing. If I hand you a weapon, I will remove the magazine, lock the slide or bolt to the rear, check the chamber, and then hand you the weapon rear-end first. You damn sure better do the same thing before handing me a weapon or I will ram it into your chest with enough force to ensure you never make the same mistake again. This isn’t a one-time event either. Let’s say you’re about to clean your weapon and you’ve already ensured that it is unloaded, but your doorbell rings. Most people would simply set it on the table to answer the door and then come back to disassemble and clean their weapon. Don’t. Anytime your weapon leaves your eyesight, you must again ensure that it is unloaded.
• Keep your finger straight and off the trigger until you intend to fire.
  Nearly every Hollywood action movie poster is emblazoned with an oiled-up hero, toting the latest and greatest weapon with his trigger firmly molesting the trigger. This might be cute when you’re dealing with weapons that can only fire blanks, but in the real world, it’s a good way to kill someone. Remember, there is no such thing as an “accidental” discharge, only a negligent discharge. Due to modern manufacturing, a weapon is physically incapable of firing accidentally—even if dropped. Trigger discipline is one of my biggest pet peeves, and it drive my wife nuts that it drive me nuts because I always point it out, whether I see it from amateurs at the range, on movies and TV, or even worse, from police and military who should know better.
• Never point your weapon at anything you don’t intend to shoot.
  A few days ago, I was watching a supposedly well-trained SWAT team preparing to raid a building. As the point man, oriented forward as he should be, covered the objective, the #2 man behind him fumbled with his M4 trying to figure out whether he left the stove on at home. In the process, he muzzled the point man (pointed the business end of the barrel at him) no less than six times in about 15 seconds. At that range, he almost certainly would have killed his partner despite the best body armor available today. That is the result of poor training and poor discipline. It takes only a fraction of a second to navigate the muzzle of your weapon around the good guys, rather than across their body; your weapon should either point at the target or the ground at all times. (Not up in the air—what goes up must come down, and a falling bullet still carries enough kinetic energy to kill a person.) In addition, you need to be aware of what’s behind your target as well.
• Keep your weapon on safe until you intend to fire.
  It may seem like an unimportant detail as long as you follow the previous three weapons safety rules, but consider what happens if you fall, get bumped, or something snags your trigger. My weapon stays on safe until I am in my shooting position and have my target properly aligned in my sights. Then I remove my safety, place my finger on the trigger, and with a slow, steady squeeze, send a round into my target. You should also make it a habit of regularly checking that you weapon is still on safe because it could get snagged and change position; this once happened to me. During a cold-weather operation, wearing enough extra clothing and gear to make Ralphie from A Christmas Story look under-dressed, I attempted to sling my rifle. As it slid against my extra clothing and gear, the safety became disengaged and my trigger caught on my canteen causing a negligent discharge. Thank God my rifle was only loaded with blanks, but the lesson was firmly planted in my brain housing group forever. To ensure consistency, you can tie checking your safety to something else you must do on a regular basis, like drinking water or urinating.

Memorize these rules. Understand the logic behind each one.  And most of all, follow them at all times. Then make sure that everyone you shoot with does the same.

Next comes training. Shooting is a perishable skill and if you want to perform at your best, you need to shoot regularly. In the Marine Corps, we would fire several thousands of rounds per week. Unfortunately, few civilians, myself included, can afford to maintain that kind of consistency, but nearly everyone can afford to fire 50-100 rounds per week from their primary weapons. Be sure to mix it up by:

• Positioning your targets are varying ranges.
• Firing from both dominate and weak stances, as well as single-handed shooting from each hand.
• Practicing remedial action (tap, rack, bang) to deal with malfunctions.
• Firing under various lighting conditions.
• Utilizing outdoor ranges during inclement weather, like heat, cold, rain, snow, and extreme wind.
• Firing from both your dominate and weak eye.
• Practicing reloading and cycling the action with one hand.
• Drawing from a variety of clothing. (Start off with an unloaded weapon!)
• Engaging multiple targets.
• Practicing rapid-fire instinctive shooting. (Using no sights.)
• Firing from unconventional positions, such as on your back, underneath vehicles, or in simulated buildings.
• Occasionally firing without hearing protection to accustom yourself to the effects.
• Engaging moving targets (Forward/backward and left/right)
• Practicing rapid magazine changes.
• Firing on very close targets within a short time limit.

If you really want to take your training to a higher level but don’t want to join the military or SWAT, you can attend an accredited course offering a force on force training with Airsoft or Simunition® and practice your skills against other humans without the danger of being killed. Keep in mind, this is a supplement to, not a replacement for range time with real weapons.

Weapons safety and training are ongoing. Time and money expended on this skill  is well invested because your life could very well depend on it. Can you afford to take a chance by relying on something you practice one or twice a year?

It’s a good idea to always have a knife handy. For most of us, that means tossing a small folding knife or multi-tool into our pocket on the way out the door, which I do most days. It’s a wise idea to add a fixed-blade knife to the list of items you need within easy reach at a moments notice as well, though. You may have noticed I said “within easy reach” rather than EDC (Every Day Carry). That’s because carrying a fixed-blade knife on your person really isn’t practical for most people, and may not be legal where you live. On the other hand, you can simply tuck one into a brief case, desk drawer, or glove box, and it will always be there, ready when you need it.

A folding knife is handy, but there are times when  a fixed-blade is a far better option, such as:

• Self-defense
• Hunting
• Prying
• Chopping wood
• Slashing brush/vegetation

There are a few things to think about before stashing a knife for emergencies.

Local laws and regulations. Breaking the law (even unknowingly) may result in a criminal record and the inability to legally own a firearm. I recommend that you hire a lawyer to explain local laws to you in plain English. This is far better than just asking a police officer; I have nothing against police, but most of them these days simply do not know much about the law.

Security of the area you plan to leave your knife. Anytime you leave your gear out of direct supervision, such as in your car or desk drawer, there is the potential that it could be stolen, so this is no place to leave that expensive bench-made knife. You can find plenty of inexpensive, durable choices through surplus distributors. I’ve even seen them for less that $10, and while I wouldn’t put a lot of trust in something this inexpensive, it’s a good option for anyone who wants to tuck a fairly reliable knife in a few different places.

Your environment. Thick Florida swamps and barren Las Vegas deserts present two very different environments. If I were stomping through the swamps here in Florida, I might want a thicker, heavier knife to chop through vegetation, but if I were running across the desert in Vegas, I might want a smaller, lighter knife to lighten my load. If nothing else, my time in the Marine Corps infantry taught me that every ounce you carry matters. It may not seem like a big deal until you’re dehydrated, out of food, and miles from civilization—not the ideal time to learn a lesson.

You need to have certain level of knowledge to endure various survival situations, and it’s not likely that you’ll ever learn and remember everything you need to know for every possible scenario so a library of reference material is valuable; especially in a situation where the Internet or power is out.

These days, everyone claims to be an expert. Hell, even supposedly vetted experts like Dave Canterbury, former co-star of the Discovery Channel’s Dual Survival often lie about embellish their credentials.

That there are frauds out there doesn’t take away from the fact that you need to learn (and practice) survival skills. Fortunately, there are plenty of real experts who have published accurate, realistic books on a variety of survival topics that you can learn a lot from. Here are my recommendations:

1. How to Survive the End
   of the World as We Know It: Tactics, Techniques, and Technologies for Uncertain Times
   James Rawles wrote this comprehensive book covering everything you need to know to know to protect yourself and your family during a disaster—from radical currency devaluation to a nuclear threat to a hurricane or just about any other scenario. He shares essential techniques for survival, including how much food to store, how to filter rainwater, how to protect your money, which seeds to buy for your garden, why goats are a smart choice for livestock, and how to secure your home. It’s the ultimate guide to total preparedness and self-reliance in a time of need.
2. Basic Butchering of Livestock & Game
   When times get tough and your local grocery store can’t keep food on the shelves, you’ll need to know the lost skill of butchering your own meat. This book is perfect for anyone who hunts, farms, or wants to avoid commercial livestock. John Mettler takes the mystery out of slaughtering and butchering everything from beef and veal, to venison, pork, and lamb with clear and easy-to-follow instructions combined with 130 detailed illustrations by Elayne Sears.
3. Build the Perfect Bug Out Bag:
   Your 72-Hour Disaster Survival Kit
   Sometimes survival depends on getting out of dodge fast and that means you won’t have time to pack, so you need to have a bug out bag ready. Creek Stewart shows you how to create a self-contained disaster preparedness kit to help you survive your journey from ground zero to a safer location, detailing from start to finish everything you need to gather for 72 hours of independent survival—water, food, protection, shelter, survival tools, and so much more.
4. A Guide to Canning, Freezing, Curing & Smoking Meat, Fish & Game
   You’re only going to survive as long as you have food, and that means you must store it properly. This no-nonsense guide to canning, freezing, curing, and smoking meat, fish, and game is written in down-to-earth, informative, everyday language. The third edition of this perennial bestseller is completely revised and updated to comply with the latest USDA health and safety guidelines. Includes dozens of delicious recipes for homemade Beef Jerky, Pemmican, Venison Mincemeat, Corned Beef, Bacon, Smoked Sausage, Liverwurst, Bologna, Pepperoni, Fish Chowder, Cured Turkey, and a variety of hams. Learn tasty pickling methods for tripe, fish, beef, pork, and oysters. An excellent resource for anyone who loves meat but hates the steroids and chemicals in commercially available products.
5. SAS Survival Handbook
   You rarely get a second chance at survival, so you can’t go wrong by learning from one of the world’s premier special operations forces. Recently updated to reflect the latest in survival knowledge and technology, the internationally bestselling SAS Survival Handbook is the definitive resource for all campers, hikers, and outdoor adventurers. From basic field craft and navigation to fear management and strategies for coping with any type of disaster, this complete course includes everything you need to survive any circumstances.
6. Emergency Food Storage
   & Survival Handbook: Everything You Need to Know to Keep Your Family Safe in a Crisis
   A balanced diet is essential both to staying healthy and to taking pleasure in eating. This means storing a variety of foods—but you need to know what to store and how to store it. With Peggy Layton’s handy guide by your side, you and your family will learn how to plan, purchase, and store a minimum of a three-month supply of all your necessities—food, water, fuel, first-aid supplies, clothing, bedding, and more—simply and economically.
7. The Forager’s Harvest: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants
   Supplementing your diet at the homestead or finding food while one the move is easy when you know which wild plants you can eat. This practical guide by Samuel Thayer covers all aspects of edible wild plants: finding and identifying them, their seasons of harvest, and their methods of collection and preparation. Each plant is discussed in great detail and accompanied by color photographs.
8. Water Storage: Tanks, Cisterns, Aquifers, and Ponds for Domestic Supply, Fire and Emergency Use
   You can survive up to eight weeks without food, but only three to five days without water, so you need a plentiful supply readily available. This book is a do-it-yourself guide to designing, building, and maintaining water tanks, cisterns and ponds, and sustainably managing groundwater storage. It will help you with your independent water system, fire protection, and disaster preparedness, at low-cost and using principles of ecological design. Includes building instructions for several styles of ferro cement water tanks.
9. The Trapper’s Bible: Traps, Snares
   and Pathguards
   I’m a carnivore through and through so I need a way to acquire a plentiful source of meat, and trapping  is an efficient way to do that. The traps, snares and pathguards detailed in this book can be constructed out of the most basic materials, keeping your expenses down and your net profits up. Includes pest snares, large animal snares, and transplant traps, plus camp alarms that alert you to intruders and deadly pathguards that could save your life.
10. Survival Wisdom & Know How: Everything You Need to Know to Thrive in the Wilderness
    Survival Wisdom & Know-How is an all-in-one volume on every aspect of outdoor adventure and survival, from orienteering to campfire cooking to ice climbing and beyond. Culled from dozens of respected books from Stackpole, the industry’s leader in outdoor adventure, this massive collection of wilderness know-how leaves absolutely nothing to chance when it comes to surviving and thriving in the wilderness—and appreciating every minute of it.
11. When Technology Fails: A Manual
    for Self-Reliance, Sustainability, and Surviving the Long Emergency
    Not too long ago, no one thought much about how they would live without the technology that we take for granted today, but that’s changing. Matthew Stein’s primer on sustainable living skills—from food and water to shelter and energy to first-aid and crisis-management skills—prepares you to embark on the path toward sustainability. But unlike any other book, Stein not only shows you how to live “green” in seemingly stable times, but to live in the face of potential disasters, lasting days or years, coming in the form of social upheaval, economic meltdown, or environmental catastrophe.
12. Grow Great Grub: Organic Food
    from Small Spaces
    Food storage is important but it will eventually run out, so you need a sustainable source to keep your family nourished. Your patio, balcony, rooftop, front stoop, boulevard, windowsill, planter box, or fire escape is a potential fresh food garden waiting to happen. In Grow Great Grub, Gayla Trail, the founder of one of the leading online gardening communities, shows you how to grow your own delicious, affordable, organic edibles almost anywhere.
13. Shelters, Shacks, and Shanties:
    The Classic Guide to Building Wilderness Shelters
    The right shelter can mean the difference between life and death in many environments and that’s why you need this practical, hands-on guide by one of the founders of the Boy Scouts of America contains information and advice on how to build everything from a bark teepee and tree-top house to a log cabin and beaver mat hut. Over 332 illustrations and clear, and easy-to-follow text make this an invaluable book.
14. The Backyard Homestead Guide
    to Raising Farm Animals
    Even a small yard in the suburbs is suitable to raise various animals. This essential guide covers everything from selecting the right breeds to producing delicious fresh milk, cheese, honey, eggs, and meat. Whether you want to be more self-sufficient, save money, or just enjoy safer, healthier, more delicious animal products, you’ll find all the information you need in The Backyard Homestead Guide to Raising Farm Animals.
15. Extreme Survival
    Survival doesn’t always mean trudging through the wilderness fighting off a pack of wolves to make your way back to civilization. Sometimes, dangerous situations arise in day-to-day life, such as crashing your car into the water, being taken hostage, or even being trapped in a burning building. This book covers these type of situations as well as the more traditional survival subjects to give you a more rounded skill-set.