The SAS Guide to Tracking

About this book

Anyone who has spent even a little time outdoors has come across strange tracks left by animals or people and wondered, "What was here?" In this practical guide, former-SAS member Bob Carss shows how to track any moving thing, in any environment, and under nearly any circumstance. He begins by explaining common terms, such as a "top sign", markings left above ankle height; "pointers", signs that tell the general direction of the quarry; and a "conclusive sign", markings that confirm the quarry's presence. The difference between tracks left by quarry and false tracks are described, as well as how a pattern of signs builds into the tracking picture – the overall movement, direction, and motivation of the quarry.

Included are tips on:
- Tracking in desert, forest, jungle, marsh, and grassy areas
- Interpreting animal, human, and vehicle signs
- How to preserve night vision
- Using time frames to eliminate misleading signs
- Detecting quarry when they backtrack or circle around
- How time and weather affect signs
- How to spot intentionally misleading signs

The SAS Guide to Tracking is a remarkable guide to developing a new awareness of the outdoors and is the perfect companion for naturalists, outdoorspeople, wildlife photographers, search-and-rescue teams, and law enforcement.

Contents

Part One: The BriefingTracking today – some modern applications
1. Some definitions and explanations
2. Sign in tracking – defined and explained
3. Factors affecting sign
4. The attributes of a tracker

Part Two: The Pursuit
5. Observation indoors
6. Observation out-of-doors
7. Observation of the individual
8. The principles of stalking
9. Stalking techniques
10. Night movement
11. The track pursuit drill
12. Deception tactics
13. Judging the age of sign
14. Deductive skills
15. The lost track drill

Part Three: Advanced skills
16. Training trackers
17. Military tracking
18. Dogs and tracking
19. Map-reading
20. Human prints
21. Animal prints
22. Vehicle sign
23. Preserving prints

Part Four: The Future
24. Developments in tracking

Index

Customer Reviews

Biography

Bob Carss began his military career at age seventeen with the King's Own Scottish Borderers. He transferred to the world-famous Special Air Service (SAS), where he received training as a tracker in the jungles of New Zealand and with the Iban trackers in Brunei, desert tracking in the dunes of the Empty Quarter and the Sahara, and in all terrains in between. Both Bob Carss and Stewart Birch live in Hereford, England, where the SAS Regiment is based.