Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Stunning revelation today while discussing navigation with a compass

Years ago a buddy of mine and myself were going elk hunting in Idaho. We were going to share one guide and do the cooking. One day prior to the trip and during our prep time, he showed me a nice new compass he had bought for the trip. I looked it over and asked him if he knew how to use it. His grin immediately changed to a frown. I knew the answer.

know what you mean, tried explaining my old slide rules to some kids.
what do they teach them today. (number line etc) is the same on a calculator or computer. I guess its different when you stretch it out.

When I was in the army in the '70's, I was pretty good with a compass. Since then, though, I've got more than a little rusty. I can slog my way through it if I need to. Part of the reason is that I hunt this open country and can see about everything that I need to see. I always have a compass with me in case I get caught in the dark or fog, but so far it's never happened.
No doubt, though, that punching the 'go to' button on my GPS is a whole lot easier.

Years ago, my dad launched his small boat in Puget Sound. An hour later a dense fog rolled in. He'd taken a bearing when he left the dock so he just laid his compass on the seat next to him and followed it back. He came back within 100 yds of the dock. He was an old Navy man with a lot of experience navigating.

Met up with my hunting bud and got a topo map out of the area we were going to be in. Five minutes into the discussion realized he had NO idea of what the squiggly lines meant.

Son in law on his first trip to elk country tried to tell me his compass was broken. Funny it showed north as well as mine did. Meeting him in a parking lot with a clear view of the mountains, couldn't tell me which way was south. If my grandson wasn't in the development stage would have advised my kid to call off the wedding.

My sense of direction is so bad I'll argue with a compass...

Me speaking to my wife years ago, "That can't be a correct reading... there must be a huge iron ore deposit here screwing the compass up!". Wife to me, "You can go that way if you want but I'm following this heading...".

She was right... the truck was only a few hundred yards away...That was 20 years ago... In matters re direction finding I've pretty much just said "Yes dear" since then....

Could someone post a link to a refresher on using the compass?

I love my GPS but won't hunt unfamiliar territory without a map and a couple of compasses. GPS's can break or get no signal due to steep timbered terrain, weather etc. Many times I travel out west to hunt new areas solo but I plan ahead and hunt areas that have a road that goes more or less in one direction for a long ways. Even if I don't know exactly where I am at, it is easy to head south if I am north of the road or vice versa. Might not come out by the truck but by golly I'm on the road. Either I'll find the truck or someone will drive by eventually. Also, if I am solo I wear a referee's whistle around my neck. If I were to fall and break my leg I can blow that whistle a lot louder and longer than I could yell.

At the risk of being beaten up verbally by CF members, I am going to tell this story.
I am a Reg. Master Maine Guide and was asked to help with a night exercise with 2 Maine Game Wardens and 12 fellows who aspired to become guides.
The exercise was Lost Person Scenario at night for 1-1/2 miles thru the woods in an unknown area.
We gathered, with one warden, the other warden was the lost person. Unknown location.
The group was a very diverse bunch from 18 to 64 at the time. We were paired up, spread out with just a flashlight, compass and map. The other warden fired 2 shots with a rifle 1-1/2 miles away, to simulate the lost hunter, we all dropped and oriented the map to the compass, got what we thought was a proper bearing to find the lost hunter.
Two of the fellows were USNavy Seals, they ask the wardens if they could use their night vision goggles, at first the wardens said "no", then agreed it would be different and granted permission to use them.
We all had the bearing we thought we should follow and of we went. I was paired with the 18 yr. old. Long story short, we were the first to step out on a powerline 1-1/2 miles thru the woods, in the pitch black, and a fellow whistled from behind the closest power line pole, we were less than 40yds. To qualify you had to be within 100yds. Within about 40 mins. one group at a time emerged, some qualified some did not.
An hour went by and the only two fellows that were still in the woods were the Navy Seals. We were driven back to the staging area and the Wardens went looking for the Seals.
Just the facts, don't beat me up, not picking on anyone I was in the Navy, Nuclear powered submarines.
They were using too much tech. not enough Compass.

My dad wasn't a SEAL but he was in the navy in WWII when every man on a boat could drive it home if he could figure out the clutch and gear shift. They got trained.

Like many others here, I was blessed to learn navigation in the Boy Scouts and to enhance my skills in the Army. I feel naked in the woods without the compass and preferably a good map too, to augment the GPS and inherited natural sense of direction. Map skills are just as lacking as compass skills in today's world.

Pretty much.

This generation has it's own set of challenges, and a compass isn't one of them.

Learned basic map and compass in the Boy Scouts and refreshed my skills instructing Boy Scouts as a leader when my son was involved.

The skills served me well navigating on a canoe trip through the Boundry Waters several years ago. From drop off to pick up with several lakes and portages in between.

Could probably use some brush up before another such adventure.

I seldom use a magnetic compass, but you gotta know a little about it to get your captain's license. It gets even more complicated when you're going long distances without landmarks. Fascinating stuff though when , you start dealing with variations, deviation etc.

Interesting comments - some nice stuff. I did not begin to shoot or hunt until moving to the West in 1961 - and then jumped in with all 4 feet. Given much of the terrain and vegetation, immediately realized that I needed to be able to use a compass well - so learned and never since have gone hunting, fishing or exploring without one.

As the grandkids started coming here to the forest every summer and as soon as they could trek at all, each of the 6 received a compass and gained lots of related learning. (we do not use any GPS).

In recent years, I take care to lay out several lengthy and sometimes complicated courses in the forest before they get here. For part of almost every day they set off with compasses to find their way through a course. They do very well, and motivation can matter. Always there is a goody prize at the end - sometimes they have to shoot/separate a string to get the goodies down from up in a tree, or they have to dig it up.

If summer happens here this year, the plan is a blindfolded drive out to "somewhere" those three younger ones have not yet been (that will take some effort). Turned loose, they will have a set of headings/distances, and a few described landmarks to look for - and the goody will be dinner at home. I do take precautions. They will have a radio - just in case - but very unlikely that they will use it.

So, they all know how. How likely will it be for them to use that knowledge in the ensuing 70 or 80 years?

You would be suprised, How many illegals we have pickid up that are carrying a compass, but are still lost. Rio7

No. He just has a bad latitude.

A compass was good enough for Lindbergh to find Paris....and maybe Doolittle to find Tokyo.

Well I'm stunned that didn't know that private and commercial ocean vessel operators are compass savvy.

and stunned that you didn't know that private and commercial aircraft pilots are compass savvy.

One thing the general public doesn't really know is the difference between (or existence of)
TRUE north vs MAGNETIC north.

Saw recently that the Naval Academy is teaching celestial navigation again after a hiatus (I don't know when they stopped). All I remember from a couple semesters of it is "Only stars have VD". Or was it "Stars don't have VD"?

I'm not as good as a lot of folks, but I understand this. If you don't calibrate your compass or know how to compensate for the difference you're screwed.