Prepper’s Free PDF Library
“Knowledge is the key to survival. The real beauty of that is that it doesn’t weigh anything.” – Ray Mears.
Knowledge is one of the essential tools in the prepper’s inventory. Having the latest and greatest equipment and gear won’t save you if you lack the proper knowledge of using them. In this post, we will feature FREE PDF books and guides available for you to read in their entirety online. I’ll add to it periodically because there’s so much information out there that can be incredibly useful to our community. I suggest that you use a small thumb drive or even a micro SD card and download these sources and others you come across to build an electronic prepping library that you can access offline.
I also added a whole section at the bottom of this page with massive amounts of PDFs I found on other websites. The more I have researched this topic, the more I have realized there are, well, nearly an infinite amount of free survival PDFs you can find online. What you’ll find here is a starting point to a lot of resources and some you can download now.
Prefer to have physical books on hand instead? If so, start here.
Table of contents
- Emergency Preparedness – Quick Guides & Checklists
- Emergency Preparedness – Survival Manuals
- Traditional Ways
- Hunting & Trapping
- Knots
- Medicine
- Food Production & Recipes
- Foraging
- Old & New Recipes
- Food Preservation
- Nuclear Threats
- Water
- Shelters
- Additional Resources
Emergency Preparedness – Quick Guides & Checklists
- Child Care: Emergency Preparedness Toolbox
- Emergency Preparedness Guidelines for Levees
- Water Purification by Evaporation & Condensation
- Surviving the Unexpected Emergency
Emergency Preparedness & Survival Manuals
Traditional Ways
- Foxfire One: Compiled from the Foxfire magazine, the book is individual stories of mountain folk, told in their voices. From building a cabin to processing a hog to making moonshine, this is probably one of the most straightforward examples of passing down old-world skills. Real pictures, real stories, and real people make this book come alive in your mind. So if you ever need to build a chimney or weave a basket, you’ll have what you need to know with this book in your inventory.
- Foxfire Two
- Foxfire Three
- Bushcraft 8: Bush Leatherwork
- Rediscovering Ancient Egyptian Beer
- How to Make Black Powder
- Bushcraft & Indigenous Knowledge
- Ten Bushcraft Books
Hunting & Trapping
- Camp Life in the Woods and the Tricks of Trapping and Trap Making
- The Basics of Turkey Hunting in Washington
- The Basics of Elk Hunting in Washington
- The Basics of Deer Hunting in Rhode Island
- Deer Hunting: Whitetail Deer Hunting Basics & More
- Duck Hunting Tips for Beginners
- Fox Hunting Basics
- Basic Hunting
- Dove Hunting for Beginners
- Trapper Education Manual
- Traps & Snares
- Deadfalls & Snares
Knots
If a single invention has raised humanity out of the wild, it has to be the knot. The first tied knot was probably an accident, but the second tied knot was intentional. Even through all my years of scouting, I only learned a handful of the thousands of knots out there, but you have to have at least a dozen knots you can tie in your mental prepping inventory. From fishing to making clothes or climbing sheer rock faces, every knot has a function, and each that you learn increases your odds of survival just a little bit more.
- Pioneer Knots & Lashings – Troop 24 – Kennett Square Pennsylvania. A lashing is an arrangement of rope, wire, or webbing with a linking device used to secure and fasten two or more items together in a somewhat rigid manner. Lashings are most commonly applied to timber poles and are widely associated with cargo and structures. If you try and make a structure with a granny knot, it’s going to collapse in on you. These knots and rope techniques are particular to building sturdy structures that will hold up for long periods. Lookout stands, bridges, shelters, and more can all be made with these techniques.
- Sea Scout Knots – Once again, the scouts come through with another guide on knots. Were it not for the knot, sailors would have never existed. From tying down cargo to connecting logs for a raft, sails to a ship, or rescuing someone from the inevitable death of drowning, knots are critical. The same knots are applicable off the ship, as well. They aren’t dependent upon water to function. I used this same manual when teaching young Cub Scouts, so it’s easy to use. Set a goal of learning one knot per month.
- Knots for the Farm
- Knots for Mountaineering, Camping, Climbing, Utility, Rescue, Etc.
- Knots: An illustrated and practical guide to the essential knot types and their uses – Andre Adamides. This is probably one of the best-looking knot books I have ever come across. It has clear illustrations and step-by-step instructions. I also like that it has a little history and explanation of practical uses for each knot. This is a good one to print out the main knots you want to learn and practice daily. It gives you the feeling you are continuing a time-honored tradition.
- Practical Knots & Lashings
- Knots, Splices, Attachments, and Ladders
- Knots, Splices, and Rope Work by A. Hyatt Verrill
- Essential Fishing Knots – TakeMeFishing.org
- Handbook of Knots & Splices by Charles E. Gibson
- Encyclopedia of Knots (including surgical)
Medicine
- HHS Pandemic Plan
- Emergency War Surgery
- First Aid (Military Handbook)
- Wound Closure Manual
- Where There Is No Dentist
- Where There is No Doctor
- Personal Wilderness Medical Kit
- Wilderness Medicine Course (USMC)
Food Production & Recipes
- The Complete Guide to Home Composting
- How to Start a Vegetable Garden
- The Complete Guide to Vermicomposting
- Seed Saving Guide
- Backyard Composting Basics
Foraging
- A Mini Foraging Guide (WA)
- Northern Forest Foraging Guide (Ontario)
- Urban Foraging
- Colorado Forage Guide
- Shellfish Foraging Guide
- Forage Manual (AK)
- A Beginner’s Guide to Wild Edible Plants
- Wild Food School
- Mushrooms: From Forest to Plate
- Edible & Poisonous Mushrooms
Old & New Recipes
- Colonial New England Recipes
- Unusual Old World & American Recipes
- Famous Recipes From Old Virginia
- Philmont Country Cookbook
- Dutch Oven Cookbook
Food Preservation
- Traditional Fermented Foods and Beverages for Improved Livelihoods
- Preservation of Food & Meat
- Solar Dehydrator
- Small-Scale Food Drying Technologies
- Preserving Food: Drying Fruits & Vegetables
- Fermenting Guide & Recipe Book
Nuclear Threats
Water
- Water Treatment
- Giardia: Drinking Water Fact Sheet
- Plants as Indicators of Ground Water
- Distillation for Home Water Purification
- Water
Best thing you put all valuable books together at one place. It will help us lot of.
Love from India bro 😎
Thank you for doing this! And you have included some of my favourite (🇨🇦 spelling) resources!
Thank you for a great work
Great work! Can I suggest a communications section? Morse code learning, radios and antennas.
Thanks for all the work you do… it is very much appreciated.
Thanks for a great resource
Thank you for sharing. Do you have any books/PDFs on unarmed self defense as well?
Thank you so much for the information, just so you are aware in the section where the gardening encyclopedia should be there is a medical information pdf, just thought you should know, thanks again for this great resources.
the 7 gig does not auto down load……….appears the link was left out. Thanks for all you efforts.
You should had a french/english dictionnairy to help translate for both language and a board of each blood transfusion (who can transfer to who and how to do it with minimal equipment). Maybe its already there but I didn’t have the time yet to check all the information. Its very appreciated all this hard work !!Thank you so much!
Hey Chris. As usual, great information. I truly appreciate the time you put into helping the community grow. I haven’t looked through the complete list yet; but alternative energy is a worthwhile topic. FEMA used to have the pdf plans for a gasifier system on their site. I looked about a month ago and the site has changed drastically, and many of the plans (pdf) are no longer available. Fortunately I have the pdf, happy to share it.
Hi, Cheryl in Florida. Hurricanes. I, too, appreciate all you do. I’m not totally computer-internet ignorant, but I’m thinking I’m going to struggle with this. I am obsessed with my books and after Sally I keep them off the floor, wrapped in plastic and now in tubs. I hope to be able to find the PDF link on my computer and figure out a way to save it and then print it.
Thank you again so much.
https://www.driveonwood.com/library/fema-gasifier/
Oh! You should also had a medication book that describe each medication (name, utilities, etc.)
It’s called the Physicians Desk Reference. It’s downloadable in pdf
This is an huge amount of data. This is a great job. I’ve started doing this a while back but nowhere near the data in the 7GB of data. I’ve also have begun to download youtube videos – including some of yours – to add to my library.
This is so Cool!
Kris–I tried downloading the 7 gb file but it is sending me to a site called Godlike Productions?
Anyone else unable to download the 7Gig file?
me too
The owner of the site just mentioned my link to his site took down his server. He’s going to move the zip file to an AWS link so it will load. It should be back up shortly.
There is a lot of similar stuff at http://ps-survival.com
And at: http://www.survivorlibrary.com/library-download.html
This is awesome, thanx for all your work to help us!
Thank you so much for this everyone! Carry this important knowledge down the line for future generations.
.
b-ok.cc
find any PFD or E-pub dook you will ever need.
A fantastic idea and will be well supported and read frequently
I just wrote about this today on my little site, then saw your video after work and was like wow, what timing. I am downloading files now. I will have to send you a link to a post with a lot of PDF files via your email.
FYI: Personal Wilderness Medical Kit, Wilderness med course and Gardening Encyclopedia all link to the same page
Awesome information, thanks so much!
I`ve been thinking about something like this for a long time, thank you for doing this.
Fanks
How do I download it
Good question… I can’t see how to either
First Link under “Additional Resources“
Guns are illegal in UK. Can you suggest some other forms of defense that we can use please that are non lethal, or maybe lethal but that we can use!! 🙂
Bows and crossbows are legal to own in the UK.
Many large towns have archery clubs. So you can build your skill. It’s a great sport in its own right, but certainly a good way to tick the ‘defence box’ for when SHTF.
GUNS IS LEGAL IN UK, JESUS PEOPLE CHECK FIRST THEN WRIGHT.
Go to the sling shot channel
Thank you for the wonderful information. This was most helpful.
Not sure if it was just me, but there were a lot of links that lead to the same article. It was as if you had copied the same URL to different links. For instance, the link to “Gardening Encyclopedia: Growing, Freezing, Canning, Drying, Storing” leads to “Personal Wilderness Medical Kit”. There were several others. Just thought I would let you know!
Keep up the great work!
Your Orange link tags are pretty hard to read on white. I would change color of your tag links.
Much appreciated…thanks for all you do to help humanity
Thank you so much! I was working on my own digital library for some time. Now I will use the time to develop skills instead!
I loved these Foxfire books. I used to check them out at the local library. There was one other book I checked out, it was called Garden Sass. I don’t remember who it was by. It was in the same category.
This is excellent; thanks!
FYI, the link for Gardening Encyclopedia: Growing, Freezing, Canning, Drying, Storing opens the Personal Wilderness Medical Kit document.
This is fantastic!! Thank you so much for compiling this and offering it free!! God bless!
So here is a website I really love. It is for manuals for multiple type of things, especially vehicles…big thing to have for your vehicle(s).
https://www.manualslib.com/
bamahillbilly2@gmail.com
Hi from Australia, Thanks so much for compiling all this it will save me looking around searching for it all, it is such good info.Thanks!
Here is another link that some will find interesting: https://archive.org/details/folkscanomy_prepper?&sort=-week&page=2
City Prepping, thanks so much for this valuable resource. It is a treasure trove of information!
Is anyone else having an issue downloading the 7gb zip file? I have tried it on 2 256gb flash drives that are completely empty and I keep getting “disk full”. Thanks in advance!
Individual files on a FAT32 drive can’t be over 4 GB in size . format your flash drive using ntfs instead.
Thank you so much for consolidating all of those files in one place and then making them available to the prepping community. Sending a virtual slap-on-the-back.
Thank you so much for all this information and for sharing it freely for others. I greatly appreciate this and all your very informative videos. Thank you and God Bless.
I really like watching your video, there seems to be stuff for everyone ability. Wish someone would do something like this for the uk but I don’t think we have the same problems over here ,we’ll not yet.
Keep up the good work.
Great resource!!!
Wilderness Medicine Course (USMC) – your link is wrong; same as one above.
Should be: https://www.militarynewbie.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/2002-US-Marine-Corps-MWTC-Wilderness-Medicine-Course-375p.pdf
” is also wrong
Thank you
check your garding section links need work
Thank you for your hard work.
I appreciate your efforts here and your selflessness in putting this together. Information is and will be so valuable. “You get what you give!” This is my motto. So, I hope you are blessed in the same way or more.
You should add survivorlibrary.com/ as a resource at the bottom.
Amazing effort! I truly appreciate it man!
Thank You for sharing!
Thank you so much for this!!!
Thank you for all your hard work pulling all this together!!
repair manuals: bicycle https://docshare04.docshare.tips/files/27265/272650481.pdf
thank you
thank you for all you do.
Would it be possible to create an archive of all of the pdfs you have accumulated here (similar to the 7 GB archive, for example). That way we can download all of your library in one click… 🙂 Thank you for putting this together!
I deeply appreciate the time you spent putting this together and making it available to a newby to prepping. The volumes of information here represent lifetimes of caring people passing it on!
I would suggest a “RECENT” list say the past month of items added. As some of us already have you major list and it would be handy to get the new ones you have added.
“Gardening Encyclopedia: Growing, Freezing, Canning, Drying, Storing” opens to a wilderness medical kit
Put an ‘edited date’ at the top of the article and a ‘date added’ reference after each new link.
Hi, I’m the anonymous person who put the 7 GB file together. I’ve expanded it significantly, added a readme.txt and an index.htm file to help navigate it. Check out the readme file for more information. It’s now 8.62 GB. Click “7 GB zip download file of survival docs” to pull the newest file
Thank You
that’s great and i appreciate all the work you’ve done but there’s about 70 files that won’t extract from that expanded zip download due to ‘path too long’ error message… could you please fix this somehow?…
here are the titles of most of those files [unhyphenated] if it might help:
low speed high torque direct drive permanent magnet generator wind turbines 2005
solar disinfection of drinking water and oral rehydration solutions 1984
150 gpd ro hook up for a primitive environment using a 12v pump 2012
a rain water reverse osmosis unit for use after the pole shift 2016
reverse osmosis membrane sensitivity to ozone and halogen disinfectants 1983
slow sand filtration for community water supply in deeloping countries no 9 1977
slow sand filtration for community water supply in deeloping countries no 11 1978
koernkes time is running out
north holywood shootout assesment
north holywood part 2
tombstone militia will risk arrest
marine corp guide anti terrorism force protection
fm 90-10 military operation urban terrain
national guard in crisis
plummeting morale in reserves
out of ammo in kuwait
why johhny cant shoot
if we run out of batteries 106 kb
more on navy firearms training 169 kb
air force reserves hamstrung 96.5kb
air force eeds army help now 72.5kb
art force gets cake and eats it too 173kb
defeat of task force ranger 145kb
article on marines fighting in cities 132kb
force protecion follies 76.5kb
the 82nd isnt what it used to be 61kb
the abrams weak points
us army-marines urban fighting defects 72.1kb
space operations – foolproof detection techniques 45.5kb
new mexico citizens regulated militia infiltrated 86.8kb
how to beat special forces, swat and special operations groups 70.1kb
how mobile phones and L18m bribe trapped a 911 mastermind 72.8kb
secrecy and security in the unorganized militia 84.9kb
warning signs of covert eavesdropping or bugging 143kb
how the cops listen without a warrant 190kb
how the imf & world bank undermine democracy 146kb
immigrants masters at food stamp fraud 126kb
54000 us soldiers are mexican immigrants 71.3kb
another mexican army incursion 64.7kb
essence of the guerilla by che guevera 127kb
a military assessement of the al qaeda training tapes 58.7kb
from civilain to soldier in 1 week 159kb
clearing a path through mines-booby traps 408kb
battalion or brigade matrix 128kb
company or team matrix 10.2kb
what good can a handgun do against an army 73.5kb
equipping yourself for the unorganized militia 104kb
mass draft evasion in the russian army 73.2kb
us army engineer course – plumbing I [prepare a plumbing takeoff list] en5110 1mb
us army engineer course – electricity II [install service entrance systems] en5141 0.98mb
us army engineer course – electricity vi [install convenience decices] en5145 1.74mb
us army engineer course – electricity i [prepare an electrical materials takeoff list] en5140 1.19mb
us army engineer course – cartography ii [grid construction plotting and projection graticules] en5302 3.78mb
us army engineer course – plumbing vi – clear waste system stoppages [2004 edition] en5115 475kb
us army engineer course – surveying iii [topographic and geodetic surveys] en0593 4.97mb
us army engineer course – plumbing v – repair valve and fixture control devices [2004 edition] en5114 683kb
us army engineer course – electricity v [install systems, equipment, and component grounds] en5144 1.06mb
us army engineer course – electricity vii [install circuit protective devices] en5146 434kb
us army engineer course – plumbing iv – plumbing fixtures [2004edition] en5113 1.11mb
countering shrinkage cracking in renders concrete rainwater harvesting tanks 2002 461kb
land clearance alternative techniques for removing trees bushes 1981 ilovepdf compressed 1.81mb
Did you extract to a root directory like C:\pdfs?
Thank you!
Hi, hopefully you’ll see this reply but like others have mentioned, the download isn’t working and I can’t find an alternative source. Could you reupload or create a torrent to download please? Thanks
Thank you, this is a life saver
Thank you, Life Saver
Could you add a section for new manuals. It would take forever to find new ones right now.
I’ve sent the link to this site to heaps of people, thank you so much for doing this, you truly are saving lives
Where are the top states handling this event? Covid, 5G, Google and Microsoft surveillance, IBM and Microsoft artificial intelligence idk what to say what good is it to move when it’s the technology systems that is taking us over
I’ve followed your YouTube channel for a while bit never visited here. I just followed a link to this pdf vault from a private discord. WOW. Thank you. I’ve been trying to curate info on my own and wishing for a better way. This is extremely valuable.
Check the link for Gardening Encyclopedia: Growing, Freezing, Canning, Drying, Storing.
Thank you for all the resources! 🙂
Thank you for sharing this information. I’m grateful for it.
May want to move Fermenting Guide & Recipe Book
as it is currently at the bottom of the Nuclear Threats section.
Nice compilation of documents. Thank you!
Free books available at Free eBooks | Project Gutenberg – both non-fiction and fiction. The world after the SHTF will still need the classics – maybe even to a greater degree.
7gb download link is broken
Why am do i keep getting a 404 error code on the majority of the pages when i try to download them
I am having the same issue.
May want to verify links in “Medicine” and “Food Production…” Several are links to the same doc, not the ones listed. Some appear blank when I open them. Is this part of what I paid for?
Need a big download button right on the screen. This app is confusing.
Agreed, all of it should fit onto a larger capacity CD, right?
Can you please do a download all button
Hi there, Just FYI, I went herehttps://www.indianapolisunderground.com/Download/AllPDFs.zip under “additional resources” for the 7GB zip, and got a cloudflare error 522 connection timed out. It’s possible others may be having the problem too.
On firefox you can enable altclick save as. Doesn’t work on everything but it’s better than doing it manually
Thank you for putting this together. Even if there are errors, it is a treasure.
Dividing the 7GB zip into chunks would be helpful, too. Getting 522 error on every try.
Same
It’d be a good idea to review links, many are non existent or dead. Example – 7 GB download is offline.
Same here. Getting a 522 on both links. Host server lacking resources.
Links are still offline, would love the 7gb file
7 gb file is still offline. I had downloaded it a while ago, but my phone bit the dust. I would like to DL it again if possible. thx
Thank you for all your hard work. Would love to have this entire library in one, downloadable zip file instead of dozens of links we have to click through.
Thanks for the Documents however your link for the 7GB zip download is broken and with the individual links there was a few that are not what they are labeled as and are actually duplicates of other links for example bushcraft & indigenous knowledge is actually how to build a debris hut you might want to looking into this. but thank you for the work you put in.
Try Right-Clicking on the link and choose “save as”. That will allow you to choose where to save it and then click save. Either they fixed the link or you just straight clicked on the link.
Never mind. It just looked like it started downloading, but it quickly failed with a server problem. Sorry about that!
documents are restricted. must ask permission through gmail. this is useless please revise or remove.
Baby Prepper here. Thanks for this!!! A great start to my SHTF Binder!
A BIG THANK YOU I have been looking for pdf files for days and not very much luck!. I wanted to load pdf files on a old laptop and toss it in my faraday trash can just incase SHTF. thanks again it’s a HUGE HELP!!
By the way I love your content and channel 👍
Thanks great list and info.
Thank you so much for sharing!!
The content is fabulous and I’ve gratefully shared with my prepper group. Love your videos, calm, logical, informative and high quality films. Thanks again, love from Canada!❤️🇨🇦
Wealth of information! Thank you!
The 7 GB links are not working for me.
Several links aren’t working, then the first Food link (Gardening Encyclopedia: Growing, Freezing, Canning, Drying, Storing) just routes you back to the Wilderness Medicinal Course (the previous link before it) I think that got copied and pasted accidentally. Maybe its time to update? Course if you don’t get this or aren’t keeping up with it, who knows?
The 7 GB link does not work unfortunately… 🙁
Several links are broken including the the 7GB file stating, “This site can’t be reached: ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT”
Downloads don’t work?
This is a great source of invaluable information. Unfortunately probably over half the links no longer work. Recommend an update.
Hello!! Thanks for doing this. With as shi++y as the world is going I think everyone should know this stuff. Get prepped people. Our govt is screwing us over and there’s no telling what’s coming!!!!
Half the links are broken for me, any idea why?
Everytime I try clicking on the 7zip a bunch of security ads pop up trying to take over my computer??
The link now goes to a game site
Thanks
I’m often looking for HOW TO manuals for building simple machines, or re creating basic chemicals and materials. Those are harder manuals and info to find.