Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Whats the point of a compass

Boy scouts, actually.

My wife related some of the orienteering lessons she had in girls scouts back in the day--they were less concerned about PC then and actually learned something of value.

When the ground water is frozen, puddles are scarce...

We have been spanked by Lake Superior one or two times and storms coming off of her can be exciting. But fortunately, knowing the wind rotation of an approaching low pressure area can give a guy a pretty good clue. That was mine as I failed to cut my backtrail.

Compass is very useful for hiking out in the dark.

If you need a gps, you also need a compass, and maybe a paper map to boot.

Was exploring a small WMA a couple years back and wanted to compare what my brain told me with what the gps thought. The gps in my "smart" phone said I was standing in the Shenandoah River, which was about a mile away.

The little Backtrackers Bushnell makes are cheap and, if you remember to set them before you leave your starting point, will get you back there. So far, knock on wood, mine has been spot on. It also works as an electronic compass, but I still carry a real one.

Years ago when I first started making some overnight hikes, I decided to learn how to use a map and compass. This was before GPS was common. I read and studied a book entitled "Be Expert with Map and Compass" by Bjorn Kjellstrom. I purchased the book from the old CampMor catalog. Anyone else remember the old CampMor catalogs that were illustrated on phone book-type paper? The end of each chapter includes quizzes and exercises just like a school text book to ensure that you can apply what you've just read.

After studying this book and doing the exercises, I was pretty confident that I could navigate successfully in just about any conditions so long as I had a good compass and a topo map. I used the knowledge while backpacking, and it works. Unfortunately, after many years of using a GPS and not nearly as much time off the beaten path in recent years, I forgot a lot of the skills I had learned.

One example of where a compass would come in handy as opposed to just looking at the sky to navigate is in a situation where intentionally "aiming off" your intended objective can save lots of confusion. Let's say you're headed for a unfamiliar river crossing located on a map and need to make it to a bridge to get across. Rather than taking a bearing directly to the bridge, it would be wise to aim off either above or below the bridge. Chances are when you navigate to a specific location miles away without a GPS, you will end up missing the objective by some margin. So if you arrive at the river without the bridge in sight, how would you determine whether you should head upstream or downstream to get to the bridge (or vehicle, or camp, etc.)? However, if you used your compass to intentionally aim off either above or below the bridge by some degree, you would know which way to turn to find it.

It's comforting to be able to look at a topo map in unfamiliar territory and with a compass be able to pretty much know where you are and where you are going at all times without electronic aids.

Here is another simple example showing the usefulness of a compass. In this illustration from another book I have, one can take a bearing on a well-defined landmark and hike for hours away from camp. In order to get back to camp, you just navigate until you sight the landmark at the same bearing. Then, add 180* to the bearing (i.e. turn around) and follow your compass back to camp. Aiming off about 5* would be useful in unfamiliar territory.

Why guess when it can be so much easier? Also, if you had taken a second bearing to triangulate your starting point, you would have some idea how far away you were on the route back. As in the illustration, the bearing to the mountain top is 50*. Let's say you took another bearing to a big pine on a far away hilltop that was 120* from camp. As you're walking back to camp following a 230* back bearing from the mountain top (50* + 180*), the closer your bearing gets to 120* from the big pine as you walk, the closer you are getting to camp. Camp should be located where 50* to the mountaintop and 120* to the big pine intersect.





Once I started using a GPS, I bought a third book explaining how to navigate with a topo map using UTM grid lines. The book came with a UTM measuring tool (like a square protractor) for drawing UTM lines on maps. UTM makes using a GPS with a topo map much easier than using latitude/longitude, IMO.

I print my own maps, with grid lines. Any good program has that option. I know a lot of guys like UTM but I never made the switch. Six of one, half dozen of the other at least for my purposes.

Good point. Back when I got the UTM book and tool, a "good program" wasn't really an option, lol. It was before I or anyone I knew had access to a real computer. I had printed forms and used to order topo maps by mail from the USGS. Lat/Long is more confusing to me with its use of degrees/minutes/seconds needed to account for the fact that the earth is round. UTM essentially assumes the earth is flat, which works well when computing measurements in such small increments like the area of a topo map.

Curvature of the earth is of little concern on such a small area. UTM is just meters. You can look at two distinct UTM coordinates and know how far they are from each other and in which direction just by finding the difference between the numbers, calculated in meters. It's easier for my simple mind to grasp.

Fog. Clouds. Whiteout. Blizzard/snow, on flat tundra or thick cover. Far out on water, or sea ice.

I've been where the sun don't shine...and had GPS crap out on me. Twice.

IBut I have followed that lying bastard compass to safety more than once!

"Flat out useless" is true with compass or GPS. If you don't know how to use it. As pointed out, a compass has only one working part, the pivot. Unlike GPS with high-tech chit...

But compass is not exactly "always know your location". Not in my case. There is lost, Lost, and LOST!. A compass has sure prevented me in the first two from the last (sit down, build a fire - good luck in much of the Arctic - and wait for rescue!). For me, "lost" has become a comfort zone- I don't know where I am, but I know how to get out of there - with my compass!

"Lost", capital L- means I try a little creative navigation to get to "lost", or better. Once, maybe twice if time permits. Then if it doesn't work, it goes to "LOST". So far it hasn't.

And that advise....."Don't Panic"? Good advice. Excellent advice!!

When it starts worming up from the belly, easier said than done.

BTDT. If you haven't been there, you can't understand.

Amen to that, Las.

Particularly in big country where they may not find you...ever...or perhaps, if your wife hopes they won't...:)

Like a lot of people here, I would not go hunting without one. Why experience. As a ExMarine and been to a land navigation course taught me how to use it to precision. Of all time he crap one has in there pack what does a compas weight ?

Does a good one weight more than an 'all time he crap one'?

Be aware that you don't want to carry your compass in the same pocket with a cell phone, turned on or not. Phones have a strong magnet in the speaker. If it's in the right position next to the compass, the magnet has been known to reverse the polarity of the needle.
In the very rare event that it should happen, the compass is still fully functional as long as you don't head off at 180 degrees.

Depends on what he's been eatin.'

If that should happen, you can just google how to reverse it.

Using your phone.

Probably not Alaska but he could have put a dent in Vancouver Island or one of the San Juans

It sounds like a question by your typical soft, slender-fingered millenial who thinks that everything that's important in the world is contained in a dumb-dumb phone.

It looks like you all got trolled hardcore.

Is a Map basically useless in really thick, flat land? I know a lot of woods in the Northeast are so thick that you can't really get a long distance bearing. Do any experienced navigators use a Map in really thick woods?