Woodsmanship

[mcgroundstalker]

I've been hunting the same general area of The Catskill Mountains for almost 40 years and keep a compass and map with me, always... Not into the new-fangled-stuff...

... mike ...

[RkyMtn Joe]

I'm a compass guy too.  This next season I will be taking a cell phone into the woods for the first time. As I will soon be 72 and am a multiple by-pass survivor, my kids think it is a good idea, and to make them feel better about my roaming the countryside all alone, I agreed to take it.  It will be turned off always until and unless an emergency occurs.  

I love my compass.

Joe

[old_goat2]

I carry compass as last r resort backup. Have a good GPS that gets turned on at truck to mark its location, then turned off. I use a navigation system in my smart phone that has topo and satellite photos pre downloaded so I can use it without cell signal, it is what I use primarily. Then too top it all off , I have one of those SPOT devices. I can generally get in and out without any of it, but I hunt alone in the mountains a lot and it gives all my mother hens( sister, wife, sisters friends etc.) a lot of comfort and keeps them off my back . Plus,I can hit one of the buttons on the SPOT unit and it will tell my buddies where to come help pack out the elk I shot if I ever get one again;-)

[stujay]

Neither, I hunt well areas I already know well.

[lt-m-grow]

The question has nothing to do with woodsmanship.  It is like saying if you use a calculator you cannot be a mathematician.

And yes, I can and do use a compass and always carry maps when I in the mountains.  But I am willing to bet you I spend more time cover ground hunting with a GPS than the just the map and compass guys.  Because at some point in time, when you hunt, you look up and say "where the heck am I?".  That answer comes much faster with a GPS!  Then I am back at it.

I can use a slide-rule, too, but I get a lot more calculations done with a calculator.  I get a lot more bowhunting done with a GPS (in big timber or mountains).

[Glunt]

Know how to use a compass, but I love using the GPS and maps.  I hunt some really big country full of dark timber and the GPS makes finding known wallows, old stand locations, water crossings, etc. easy to do even in the dark.  When I get back to camp I can share the locations with other guys and they can hike right to a specific spot before the sun rises in the morning.  If we kill an elk 2-3 miles from camp, I can text the location and by the time its ready to haul there can be a couple other sets of legs already showing up.

I also enjoy heading out with just my bow and a knife, but in big country where lots of miles and hunting dark to dark is normal, a GPS is is in my pocket.

[longbowray]

I hunt alone a lot . As my wife got me a gps and when I get to my hunting spot I text her with the the # so if idont show back up , they know were to look . Hunting out west you can walk for mile and it look the same . I all carry a map and compass and that what I use . The gps make the wife happy and you know what they say happy wife happy life .

[Widow's Son]

Compass and map for me. The U.S. Army hammered its use into my head.