If you are trying to find prepper and survival books, you’ve come to the right place. Below is a list of 667 of the best survival manuals, books, and survival guide PDF downloads. To download any of these titles, simply right-click on a file, and then select “Save As”.

Survival Guide PDFs – Table of Contents

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Military, Combat and Tactical (51)

Many of us are familiar with firearms, gun safety, self defense, or even have our concealed carry permits. But military life lends itself to a particularly intense set of circumstances that most civilians will never know. Learn from the timeless wisdom of people who have engaged in prolonged combat, in less-than-ideal circumstances.

U.S. Army Survival Field Manuals (7)

Special Forces Manuals (4)

Self Defense and Hand to Hand Combat (15)

Terrorism (2)

Nuclear (3)

Military Trades and Skills (3)

Other Military and Law Enforcement PDFs (17)

Wilderness Survival Books (51)

If you like bushcraft and learning how to use the earth around you to survive in nature, this list is for you. Along with a handful of non-negotiable wilderness survival tools, information found in these downloadable PDFs can help you enjoy yourself more in the outdoors, and could quite literally save your life. Learn about sheltering, foraging, medicinal plants, hunting, cold weather survival, bushcraft, and more.

Sheltering (2)

Foraging for Food (15)

Medicinal Plants (14)

Snaring and Hunting (3)

Cold Weather Survival (5)

General Wilderness Survival Guides (4)

Bushcraft (8)

Food and Food Storage PDFs (220)

Over 200 survival books and PDF downloads about food storage, gardening, chickens and backyard farming, permaculture, hunting and fishing, slaughtering animals and processing them, canning and food preservation, and even survival recipes.

Also, if you’re looking for a really solid but SIMPLE starting point with food storage, be sure to check out our complete survival food list.

Food Storage (2)

Gardening and Food Production (74)

Tree Crops (12)

Permaculture (5)

Livestock (9)

Hunting and Trapping (5)

Fishing (4)

Butchering (12)

Food Preservation (56)

Recipes (9)

Food Preparation (26)

Survival Cooking (4)

Homestead Skills Books (76)

All kinds of DIY projects, food production and general self-sufficiency skills to help you thrive on your homestead. Bees, wine-making, cleaning, soap-making, and much more! Even the old school Foxfire books.

Beekeeping (43)

Other Skills (27)

Wine Making (4)

Best Emergency Medicine Books and Downloads (42)

The ever popular midwife guide, home remedies, first aid, herbal medicine, personal hygiene issues and how to combat them, medicines and prescription substitutes, and general survival medicine.

Security and Defense (27)

Firearms, home defense, primitive weapons, weapons construction and improvisation, explosives, the mental aspects of defending yourself, and more.

General Emergency Preparedness and Survival PDFs (100)

Like the other books on this page, this archive of emergency preparedness and survival PDFs is provided here as a resource to the public, for browsing or download. Topics range from communication to EMPs and everything in between.

Alternative Energy Books, Downloads, and PDFs(2)

A couple of solid resources to help you in your alternative energy efforts around the homestead.

Generator Load Chart – PDF Chart offers a quick reference guide to typical wattage loads of various electrical items commonly found around the home. From TV’s to power tools – chart can be used to determine of your generator size is sufficient in case of a power outage.

Practical Guide to Free Energy DEVICES

Books on Water Storage, Treatment, and Resupply (41)

Like is often talked about, water is liquid life. Learn to store it, filter and purify it, harvest rainwater, and if possible, secure your own renewable source of water, such as a well or a reliable source of topwater.

Emergency and Survival Shelter Books (36)

Lots of PDFs about improvising emergency shelter, retreats and bug out shelters, and more permanent housing and off grid homesteads (as well as improvements and fortifications you can make to your existing home).

Emergency Hygiene and Sanitation Downloads (2)

Sound information and best practices on maintaining hygiene and sanitation in a disaster scenario.

PDFs on Knot Tying (16)

Knots, rope tricks, lashing, and handy skills to know in dealing with cordage. Learn important fishing knots, climbing knots, boating, and knots for a hundred other scenarios.

Street Smarts and Urban Survival PDFs (11)

These manuals and PDFs are a great resource for learning urban survival tactics and techniques. They are available here for download, and can be printed out if you would like a physical copy in case of no electricity.

Free Survival Guides and Books for PDF Download (15)

What is the best survival book?

Although this is a subjective and nuanced answer, one of the most popular survival guides of all time is the SAS Survival Handbook, by John ‘Lofty’ Wiseman. It has had multiple revisions over the years, and has been the launchpad for related titles (such as the SAS Urban Survival Handbook). The Army Survival Field Manual (FM 21-76) has also been a long-standing favorite for generations.What is the best wilderness survival book?

Bushcraft 101, by Dave Canterbury is a New York Times Bestseller, and one of the most thorough, best written books, by an author with decades of experience. Although it is a newer publication (2014), it contains a curated collection of the wisdom of several centuries.How do you learn survival skills?

The best way to learn survival skills is from experienced teachers, in person. All over the world you can find survival courses that teach students how to shelter, hunt, purify drinking water, defend themselves, grow a garden and more. Although you can learn a lot from books and videos, when the subject matter can mean life or death, you want to be certain that you aren’t missing a detail or nuance that might’ve not been correctly conveyed in a book.How do you survive in the wild with nothing?

While it’s impossible to survive anywhere with “nothing”, people have successfully survived in the wild with very little. The 2 most foundational survival tools are a knife and fire. With good training and these 2 items as your base, you can successfully build shelter, hunt animals, purify water, make tools, stay warm, send communications, defend yourself, cook, and a hundred other things.