Proper use of a compass

[alaninoz]

One thing that some posters have hinted at but haven't stated is the need to practice. Navigation is like any other skill - you get rusty if you don't use it. Best to find out that you're getting rusty in the local park, not when you're the woods.

[Roger Norris]

I have been brushing up on my compass skills also. I learned in the Army, and a map and comapasscan be as accurate as any GPS.

I saw some strange stuff on a partners GPS in Idaho last year. More than once a compass saved the day....

[Russ Clagett]

GPS is great for marking special waypoints, but you can also do that on a topo map...

I have had real issues in heavy woods getting a satellite signal making the GPS as useful as a moon rock...

The big problem I have with GPS is walking past my intended destination and suddenly the little arrow points behind me...and walking with your head down looking at the device instead of watching where you're going...

I have none of these issues with a compass.

[John Scifres]

It's really hard to get good and lost around most of Indiana.  But I always have a map and 2 compasses along with my GPS.  I use them for efficiency's sake more than to keep from getting lost.

Even out west, it's hard to get truly lost if you have a good idea of the lay of the land and have plenty of time     But there is no way I'd even go down a trail to take a crap without my map, compass and GPS (and bow).

[Mike Vines]

All I use when hunting is a compass and a map.

[Mike Vines]

All I use when hunting is a compass and a map.  I hate relying on something that can fail (Technology is not very good if batteries die or electronic get wet).  I also carry a back up compass for the just in case factor.

[toddster]

I served in the Marine Corps for 10 years as and infantryman and in a Recon Battalion.  I mastered the use of Land Navigation then and in jungles and deserts.  As TraditionalGuy experianced, back in 90 we got one of the first gps unit's which was big and bulky.  I would always test it's direction with my lensetic compass and found the compass to be reliable, besides the gps ate through batteries, and that's alot of weight.  I am sure the technology improved greatly.  Since 86, I have carried a lensatic compass and never been lost.  Advice, don't go cheap on the compass and stay away from liquid filled.  This is an investment of a lifetime and depending could decided how long that is.  Take you compass outside to back yard or a park, and orientate yourself to it, and get confidance it's correct (don't want to be in a thickect and have doubts, this has eliminated alot of guys from selection).  After you become confident in that it is correct, go to one of the site's that the other member's said and study land nav.  Now you don't have to be in the middle of a jungle to learn it or on a mountain top.  Most of the training takes place in an area as a park, print off a satelite map or topo of the park, then use it and compass to master the skill on small level.  Then you can stretch out and go into bigger areas.  Remember, that a compass is effected by metal, so put down weapon or metal and stand 6' away to ensure not to throw off azmith (downfall of alot of butter bars).  This is a skill you will have for a lifetime, so what you put into it like all traditional hunting is what you will get out.

[RecurveRookie]

When I'm scouting a new area of Corps land, I bring a map and compass, saves a lot of time.  I make notes and revisons to my map as I go.

  I learned navigation from flying a single engine Cessna back in 1989.  Navigating on foot is the same thing, without the crosswind corrections.
 
That GPS is convenient, but since us regular guys don't control it, it might not ALWAYS be there for us...

[ChuckC]

Just got back to my office from a road trip.  On the way back, my car GPS had a brain fart, showed my car in the middle of nothing (not even a road), the wrong map for the area, kept recycling, can't tell you how many times I heard " recalculating".  I really needed it during the next several miles as I had only a small clue as to where I was and the next turn.

They don't always work perfectly.
ChuckC

[Russ Clagett]

Plus the GPS can't tell you that you're about to walk off a cliff, or into the world's worst nasty tangled wash....but a map and compass can...