a gps and or compass

I personsally feel a compass is great if you know where you are and have maps. A GPS will tell you where you are as long as you have batteries and it is working. I carry both and use both. I learned to use a compass in the Boy Scouts and the Scout master was ex WW2 army. Cell phones where I moose hunt are of no use. As with the original poster I also have spent a night in in the bush while tracking a wounded moose. All we had were flashlights and spare battery's that went dead as well. We never found the moose but knew a power line was to the west and a river to the south so using a compass (long before GPS's) after daybreak got us back on familiar ground within an hour. If tracking today I use lots of blaze tape as well. A Bic lighter or two and safety glasses are also necessary for even those short excursions into the unknown.

Bill
 
Backroads Mapbooks from Coquitlam BC has mapbooks and can print any map you want
last I bought a few they were $15 for a 1:50000 map
https://www.backroadmapbooks.com/travel-category/brmb-products/maps/fishing-hunting-maps/
 
I want to say I don't use much of anything but situational awareness, but that's not exactly true when it comes down to it. I have a couple GPSs and sometimes they are incredible. When you are in a boat in the dark with fog so thick that you can barely see the front of the boat and your GPS is saying don't run into the island you stupid SOB you kind of think its magic. Or it puts me bang on the shoreline at exactly the same point where I had to meet a trail head that I might have been at 3 weeks ago or even worse never seen before. Then the next day it tells me that I'm in Africa and my faith in the device takes a decided down turn. Or my magic arrow tells me that I'm going the wrong direction in a area where absolutely know where I am. A reboot fixes that; but that also requires already knowing where you are to know which one to believe.

My wrist-watch makes a great compass if I can see the sun. A compass should be absolute, but I have a clearly marked compass that points south. Used it in an industrial application where it was exposed to a powerful magnet which caused the polarity to reverse. I keep it around to remind me that nothing can be trusted 100 %. A witching wire will give me true north or magnetic north, whichever I ask it for. My phone is a compass, but it also has a battery or could be lost. Ditto for losing the GPS or compass. Maps? Yeah right like I'm ever going to have a map.

So where does that leave a guy who doesn't completely trust anything? It goes back to situational awareness. In the big picture if you know that you're 2 hours walk north of the lake you have to believe that a 2 hour walk south will get you back. Or maybe you're west of the ridge or the road but one way or the other you need to know that that is one thing that is absolute and anything that lies or confuses you is bull####.
 
I started hunting in 1986, no gps back then. compass and map for me all these years, they don't need battery and they don't fail if you drop them.
 
Spent the first part of my career timber cruising and working in forestry so map and compass come as second nature to me. IF I am going into an area now, I download the map/satellite and map info for that area into google maps and use my phone as a gps, but always carry a paper map and Suunto compass, especially if i am out of cell range.
 
Short answer. Always have a GOOD orienteering compass on you on a cord around your neck, and understand how to use it.
It helps greatly to have a good idea of the major features of the territory you will be walking in. eg: rivers, roads, etc. A topographical map is really complimentary and a great asset to a compass. If you have a good map and compass and know how to use them you will have no problems being lost. I was raised in northern Ont. I always carried a good compass. My Dad taught me as a young fella how to use a compass. He gave me a compass and a decent knife, with instructions not to go in the bush without them.

About 10 yrs ago I bought a Garmin Rhino GPS. Six of us did at our then hunt camp. We were all getting older and a Garmin Rhino also has a two way radio and the ability to see where other Rhino holders are. GPS's are lovely, but they are electronic instruments that require battery power and are prone to just plain screwing up at times. That's why I never to this day never go into the bush without a compass and if no map at least an understanding of the lay of the land. I like the GPS a great device but I would never, but never totally rely on just it. I have been tramping the bush for 62 yrs, there abouts so I have I would say some basic experience.
 
I deer hunt an area I know like the back of my hand and moose hunt where you get no phone service. First I like to use my instincts to get around, that fails and the compass comes out, still disoriented, I use the phone or GPS (take extra batteries) if I have no service. I have been in the exact spot I thought I was and felt lost due to fog and everything looking different. Another time with fog in a boat I was disoriented, I pulled out the GPS and before it spooled up we saw shore and located where we were. I even got disoriented in a snowstorm a time or two, once on a little lake that I found a shoreline and headed home.
I am cheap and had buying gadgets but it’s not fun when you’re looking for someone that is lost.
 
GPS and/or compass are not necessary.

I've spent my entire life in the bush and I never really learned (or needed) how to use a compass. I actually own 2 but they hang on a hook in my basement and never leave the house.

I had a GPS that was kinda cool, that I used to mark waypoints to some really neat stuff; animal trails, kill sites etc, but eventually it died, I lost all those.

I orientate instinctively, always have. I follow game trails primarily, cuz they ALWAYS take the easiest routes through any type terrain.

But I've also learned that walking 30 miles (unless your on a mountain sheep hunt) doesn't get you game.

Knowing where the game is, where they'll travel/feed and letting them do the walking is the way to go.

GPS and/or compass are not necessary.
 
I have a question for the map/compass guys here. When I got lost in the woods this past Sept (see my post way above) The area I was lost in had REALLY high poplars everywhere (like 80+ feet) and super thick overgrowth. I climbed several hills trying to get a better idea of the layout but even on the highest hill I could find, visibility was nil. (Including my fat ass climbing about 40ft up a tree......all I could see was other too tall trees)
How would you compass/map guys navigate something like that if you cant actually see?
 
sgt.rock said:
I have a question for the map/compass guys here. When I got lost in the woods this past Sept (see my post way above) The area I was lost in had REALLY high poplars everywhere (like 80+ feet) and super thick overgrowth. I climbed several hills trying to get a better idea of the layout but even on the highest hill I could find, visibility was nil. (Including my fat ass climbing about 40ft up a tree......all I could see was other too tall trees)
How would you compass/map guys navigate something like that if you cant actually see?
Click to expand...

You need to know before you head out into the woods .... where you will be with respect to major landmarks .... or civilization ... for example a road ... or a lake or a mountain or a stream.

If I know that I will be hunting east of a major road .... and I really get lost .... then I will just head west till I reach that road.
(And yes you need a compass for this .... or you would have to wait for a day where the sun is shining again.)

I normally study the maps and memorize major landmarks and before heading out .... I roughly know where the major landmarks are .... south, west, or north ... and I know the general direction where I would find civilization ....

I don't always have a topo map with me ..... but a map helps to determine your "precise" position based on landmarks .... and to determine more accurately distances and directions to travel ...

But I always have a compass with me .... something to make a fire ... and an empty stainless bottle to boil water ....
 
Last edited:
When I was a boy and my dad and I used to go to his family's "woodlot" as they called it, my dad told me that if I got lost, go downhill towards the creek, follow the creek upstream to the road. That's the sort of plan a person should have when they enter confusing terrain. Some idea of what borders the property, and a plan how to use those features to find your way out.
 
Grizzlypeg said:
When I was a boy and my dad and I used to go to his family's "woodlot" as they called it, my dad told me that if I got lost, go downhill towards the creek, follow the creek upstream to the road. That's the sort of plan a person should have when they enter confusing terrain. Some idea of what borders the property, and a plan how to use those features to find your way out.
Click to expand...

This!!

Know the boundaries (land features) of where you will be .... and know how to use those land features to get back to civilization ...
(and have at least a compass in your pack)
 
Last edited:
Demonical said:
GPS and/or compass are not necessary.

I've spent my entire life in the bush and I never really learned (or needed) how to use a compass. I actually own 2 but they hang on a hook in my basement and never leave the house.

I had a GPS that was kinda cool, that I used to mark waypoints to some really neat stuff; animal trails, kill sites etc, but eventually it died, I lost all those.

I orientate instinctively, always have. I follow game trails primarily, cuz they ALWAYS take the easiest routes through any type terrain.

But I've also learned that walking 30 miles (unless your on a mountain sheep hunt) doesn't get you game.

Knowing where the game is, where they'll travel/feed and letting them do the walking is the way to go.

GPS and/or compass are not necessary.
Click to expand...

That kind of "advice" could prove fatal to somebody.

Some of us are not such marvelous heroic self-taught Grizzly Adams type natural masters of bushcraft as others and choose to use such modern appliances as the compass ( used for land navigation by the mid-11th century during the Song dynasty (960–1279 AD) so that a nice day in the woods doesn't turn into a struggle for survival.
 
sgt.rock said:
I have a question for the map/compass guys here. When I got lost in the woods this past Sept (see my post way above) The area I was lost in had REALLY high poplars everywhere (like 80+ feet) and super thick overgrowth. I climbed several hills trying to get a better idea of the layout but even on the highest hill I could find, visibility was nil. (Including my fat ass climbing about 40ft up a tree......all I could see was other too tall trees)
How would you compass/map guys navigate something like that if you cant actually see?
Click to expand...

My father taught me to make note of the direction you are going into the bush from the road so that you can follow the opposite direction out.

That said, I had a short but frightening moment some years ago now when we drove for two days from the lower mainland to moose country. We still hadn;t got to our destination just before dark, so pulled off a side road off the logging road and parked at a wide spot for the night.

I had to have a dump in the worst way and walked a bit up the road, then up another side road an dinto the trees,. They were all identical 2nd growth pine trees about 8 feet tall. I stepped into the trees and looked for a soft spot and a stick to scrape a little trench. When I was done, I wnt to leave the woods and I didn't know what direction to go any more to get out.

It was getting dark, I had nothing with me but a roll of toilet paper and I nealry panicked. I yeled out one of the other guy's name a couple times, but the trees absorbed the sound I guess. I walked in an ever wider circle looking for the little side road I'd come up and found it, but boy, I was really scared for a minute or so. My heart was hammering in my chest. I suppose the guys would have noticed me missing eventually, but it was unsettling.
 
Demonical said:
GPS and/or compass are not necessary.

I've spent my entire life in the bush and I never really learned (or needed) how to use a compass. I actually own 2 but they hang on a hook in my basement and never leave the house.

I had a GPS that was kinda cool, that I used to mark waypoints to some really neat stuff; animal trails, kill sites etc, but eventually it died, I lost all those.

I orientate instinctively, always have. I follow game trails primarily, cuz they ALWAYS take the easiest routes through any type terrain.

But I've also learned that walking 30 miles (unless your on a mountain sheep hunt) doesn't get you game.

Knowing where the game is, where they'll travel/feed and letting them do the walking is the way to go.

GPS and/or compass are not necessary.
Click to expand...

Very bad advice and I hope no one reading this takes you seriously.

In every conversation like this there's always one who figures he's related to Daniel Boone. He's not, but he thinks he is and tries to convince others to neglect prudence and caution to their determent.

You want to be foolish - be foolish but don't try to convince others. Anyone can get lost or at least turned around, sometimes for hours.

You need to spend a unplanned night in the bush to get that hubris simmered down.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom