Back in the mid seventy's I was on a Elk hunt with a buddy just for the day. It had started to snow early morning and it got crazy heavy all day. We walked into the bush because we could hear elk bugling. Went in perhaps 800 m Bull elk everywhere. I was not worried about getting lost because we had our tracks to follow out. I passed on a couple of small elk and perhaps an hour of light left found a big one..I had to let it go because I had no idea where I was and our tracks had been covered by two feet of snow..We decided to find my truck. After walking in circles for hours we finally came on a road but which direction? I chose the hard choice going uphill. We found my truck at 9.30 at night. Exhausted from walking thru almost 3 feet of powder all day. Lucky for us it had stopped snowing and we had near a full moon. I had an great old International 4x4 with a 10,000 lb PTO winch. We needed it 4 times to get back to the highway. Never been so tired or nervous before or after that episode. In hindsight considering how much snow was falling we should have left sooner. Screaming Elk makes you loose common sense.
^^^^wow now that's crazy...now I'm assuming if you had the same scenario again, this time using a compass to know which direction your going it would mean you have a bull elk down??
Was moose hunting many moons ago with 3 partners. Was a beautiful warm day and we were all loafing around camp having returned for lunch. I headed out first and the others followed out one at a time. All in different directions. When we returned after dark the fellow who headed out last did not return. No one saw him leave and as it was so warm did not know what kind of clothing he wore when he left. WAY below freezing at night. I found him the next day and he had not panicked and had lit a fire and stayed put. He knew we would be looking for him. Kept putting warm rocks into his pockets from the fire to keep warm. He was so tired he kept falling asleep as I walked him out. Don’t know who was more scared … him or us.
Iv never been totally lost but have managed to get myself turned around pretty good a couple of times due to the GPS going rogue on me. It's a pretty gross feeling and I'd hate to actually get lost-I guess I would finally be able to justify all the random shit I carry around though.
Want to simulate going through dense bush with no landmarks to orient yourself with and no navigation device? Go into a large parking lot, best done with another person, and fix on an object across the parking lot. Then have another person blind fold you and have you walk toward the given destination. The very first time you do this will give you an accurate example of the course you will walk in the woods without a navigation device.
The best comment I have ever heard on the difference between a gps and a compass is that a gps works on technology and the compass works on God. I am lucky enough to have not had to spend a night alone in an uncontrolled environment. I have, however, had many instances where I thought I was going in a certain direction and then compass indicated I was 180 degrees off. It is a awful feeling and more than once I have followed the compass total trust that the compass was right and I was wrong. Both myself and my buddy, on different occasions, have been in a situation where the gps had went south and the compass was right. On both occasions the gps ended up on the shelf never to be taken into the woods again. It did go on one final trip from the shelf to the dumpster. Oh, and the people who use landmarks for navigation, put in a blanket of fog and you could swear you might even be on the moon.
Being totally aware that one can be in a survival situation and the contents of ones back pack can and will aid you in not becoming another statistic. It is so easy to say don't panic but I would bet a pretty penny that 99.9 percent of people in a survival situation will feel panic during some part of their ordeal, I know I would. Any one who carries a navigation device has a fear of getting lost. Others who carry no navigation devices while exploring the woods do, to some extent, go by the old saying" but for the grace of God go I".
walksalot, I have to disagree about your thick bush/parking lot comparison. I thrive on hunting the thick shit. for mulies, elk, and whitetail. when it fogs in or gets dark you loose some bearing, but not like going in blindfolded. this might change slightly if the area your hunting is completely new, but most of the places I hunt I've spent some time in scouting. my direction in the bush I would think is fairly honed, but not enough to get complacent. you always have to be focused about where you are and your destination, and even then there are still instances where you get confused. I like the idea of getting a compass, as I dont normally use a gps. its been a few years since ive lost all bearing of where I am, and that day was a fogged in mess. I just kept hunting, it was an area I was familiar with and soon enough I found a spot i could identify. had it have been an area i wasn't familiar with i would have focused more on getting out than hunting. also for the most part the road density where i hunt is fairly established. I'm not normally more than 10km from a road. I'm sure my mindset and tools would change if i hunted a more remote valley via fly in or jet boat, but for now the areas are just not remote enough to worry about.
I've had a compass compromised by a high density metallic outcropping on a couple of occasions,
but otherwise have had favourable results in navigating with one. As for becoming disoriented in
fog, cloud, or heavily snowing, a compass still works, but it can be extremely dangerous if trying
to find your way on rugged mountains or through swamps and muskeg without some sort of trail
markings or landmarks to go by. Just this fall during a bright but cloudy day I worked my way through
a nasty tangle of thickets, blowdowns, swampy sloughs, and small lakes. Even by using a compass
and trying to visualize the lay of the land, I had to backtrack many times to try another route....
I can't imagine how difficult and frustrating it would be at night or if it was foggy etc.
Iv never been totally lost but have managed to get myself turned around pretty good a couple of times due to the GPS going rogue on me. It's a pretty gross feeling and I'd hate to actually get lost-I guess I would finally be able to justify all the random shit I carry around though.
I don't own a GPS but I'm sure it could be a very useful tool..that being said, I'm sure you learned that using it as your only source of navigation is risky, a lot of people I'm sure just don't pay attention to their surrounding nearly enough when using one..glad your smart enough to pack around the other 'shite'...
I don't own a GPS but I'm sure it could be a very useful tool..that being said, I'm sure you learned that using it as your only source of navigation is risky, a lot of people I'm sure just don't pay attention to their surrounding nearly enough when using one..glad your smart enough to pack around the other 'shite'...
Foolishly the other stuff does not include a compass- the main reason I like using gps is just to upload the data to Google Earth after I get home, it's also nice to know exactly where the trail cam was set.
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Originally Posted by Wentrot
