Bushcraft: Outdoor Skills and Wilderness Survival [Paperback]

Mors Kochanski (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 20, 2008

Longtime wilderness educator Mors Kochanski has dedicated his life to learning and teaching about the lore of the forest. With clear instructions, extensive use of diagrams and a color photo supplement, this comprehensive reference includes all the practical skills and knowledge essential for you to survive and enjoy the wilderness:

* Lighting and maintaining a fire
* Chopping wood and felling a tree
* Creating a shelter and keeping warm
* Safe use of the axe and bush knife
* Plants and animals important for survival
* Food, water and outdoor cooking
* Wilderness first aid.

* This bestseller should be required reading for hikers, campers, hunters, foresters, backwoods adventurers, scouts, youth groups--anyone with a passion for the outdoors.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

MORS KOCHANSKI is widely known and well respected for his years of experience in outdoor education in western Canada. His enthusiasm for wilderness recreation and his desire to learn everything there is to know about the wilderness have made him one of the foremost authorities on wilderness skills. He is especially familiar to outdoor enthusiasts in Alberta where he has worked and lived for the last 20 years. He is the former editor of Alberta Wilderness Arts and Recreation. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Physical Education at the University of Alberta.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Lone Pine Publishing (March 20, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1551051222
• ISBN-13: 978-1551051222
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #40,294 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #10 in Books > Travel > Specialty Travel > Air Travel
  • #34 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Survival Skills

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Northern Bushcraft, January 23, 2007

By 

J. Robinson "starcatjr" (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Bushcraft: Outdoor Skills and Wilderness Survival (Paperback)

This book is an excellent survival manual, although it is specifically focused on survival in the north woods of canada, ie. Boreal forest, or Taiga (In fact, the previous edition was titled Northern Bushcraft). The line-drawing illustrations are very good at conveying the concepts. Knife and axe-craft are a large part of this book because knowing how to work wood in these cold northern forests is key to both long and short-term survival there. But, there is also much more that makes the book a comprehensive survival guide.

Many survival manuals go over the generalities of wilderness survival in many different climates, and many others are focused on 'primitive skills' type of wilderness survival. This book is rather unique in its specific focus on the Boreal forest environment and woodcraft, but it is definitely a classic survival manual, and highly recommended.

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Survival and Outdoor Skills That Work!!! Finally!!!, May 12, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Bushcraft: Outdoor Skills and Wilderness Survival (Paperback)

After years of being an outdoor enthusiast, I have finally found a book that gives practical, well thought out, easy to follow explanations of techniques of survival and practical outdoor skills. All too often I have found that survival skills authors seem to simply lift a technique from a book written by someone else 20 years before. It doesn't seem to matter if it works or not, or whether the conditions have to be exactly right for it to work, they just paste it into their books. It has become obvious that most of the authors have never even tried many of the tecniques since the techniques they write about don't work or need such specific conditions to work that you never find the exact right conditions in which to use the techniques. This book is different.

Every single skill presented is detailed and clear. They have all worked for me in REAL conditions. It is obvious that the author has not only written about the skills, but has spent long hours LIVING the skills and perfecting them. There is advice and observations that I have found nowhere else, another good indication that the author has written from experience rather than from reading what other people have already written and regurgitating outdated or worthless knowledge (and knowledge that doesn't work becomes dangerous in the bush). His attention to detail (he even drew all the drawings in the book himself)and his great concern for safety in performance of the skills goes unmatched.

I would hardily recommend this book to anyone who wants to feel a little safer when they may be faced with an unexpected emergency, whether you are a backpacker, mountaineer, camper, outdoor enthusiast, or simply driving in your vehicle in a snow storm. This book could save your life one day, when you least expect it.

31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Expert survival and woods skills with a Northern bent, October 22, 1998

By 

Matt Richards - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bushcraft: Outdoor Skills and Wilderness Survival (Paperback)

If you live in the northern climes you are a fool not to get this book. If you live anywhere else it will still be invaluable! Really good thorough and easy to follow instructions on axemanship, knifecraft, fire-making, shelter building, cordage & rope, bark containers, working with birch, conifers, willows, moose and snow! A bestseller in Canada, with a cult following in the US.