How do you navigate while hunting?

[DDShooter]

I am new to hunting and wonder how people navigate so they don't get lost in the woods. Do we rely on the GPS on our smartphone -- not sure if we can always get good cell phone signal in the woods and mountains? Is it necessary to buy an actual GPS, campass, and/or map?

 

[lawrencewendall]

Old school topographic map and compass. Learn terrain features. Don't trust electronics/signals when they're needed most.

 

[Bullfrog]

I am new to hunting and wonder how people navigate so they don't get lost in the woods. Do we rely on the GPS on our smartphone -- not sure if we can always get good cell phone signal in the woods and mountains? Is it necessary to buy an actual GPS, campass, and/or map?

GPS doesn't need a cell connection, it's recieve only.

You can set up google maps to download your local area so the maps are available even when you don't have a signal.

I believe there are downloadable maps from other sources too, but I haven't looked into that for a while. Openstreetmap used to be one.

 

[Inigoes]

Old school topographic map and compass. Learn terrain features. Don't trust electronics/signals when they're needed most.

^This

All day long. Murphy's law et al.

 

[mpollan1]

On a somewhat related note, I compared the compass app readings on my Moto G and iPhone 8 the other night. Both "well calibrated". Man oh man were the readings different by ~ 20 degrees.

 

[camo556]

Depends where you are hunting. In Central Maryland, its hard to get lost in the woods. Its so bright some nights I dont even need a light.

 

[dagmars]

I have only hunted in Colorado and that was while I lived their. I was always lost and wandering around until I see something familiar, for that moment I was not lost. Then next I would be lost and wandering around again. FUN FUN

 

[Melnic]

When I public land hunted I used phone but had backup methods
#1, I scouted before the season during the day.
#2, I had printed map
#3, I did use Phone to navigate normally, but I also put pin on reflectors onto trees at the corners so I could work my way back to my vehicle. In some cases, Other people had already done that and I just put mine at a different height on the tree.
#4, I had reflective ribbon material to mark my way through brush if I was following a blood trail in the dark
#5, I did have a compass and did use it once during the day of scouting just to make sure I could use it.

Deepest I ever walked to hunt was 2 miles. Flat terrain and I would take a plastic sheet sled for the deer.

One place was super marshy and if I had not scouted it in the day, I'd not have known the higher points to walk cause it was NOT in a straight line up the power lines.

 

[RRomig]

I use onx hunt, garmin gps, compass and maps. Depending on where I’m hunting how much of that I need. But compass and basic survival stuff is always on me no matter where I’m at.

 

[lawrencewendall]

Learn hilltops, saddles, spurs, valleys, ravines, ridges.... Basic land navigation (https://www.armystudyguide.com/cont...n_map_reading/identify-major-minor-terr.shtml) Climb the tallest tree (without your weapon) if you need to, to see what's around you.

 

[RRomig]

Learn hilltops, saddles, spurs, valleys, ravines, ridges.... Basic land navigation (https://www.armystudyguide.com/cont...n_map_reading/identify-major-minor-terr.shtml) Climb the tallest tree (without your weapon) if you need to, to see what's around you.

Good advice when possible but when your on property for the first time you can’t learn it and it’s dark climbing a tree is not going to yield much. A guide got us lost in NM and of course it was night and I’d never been there. Luckily I knew which side of the mountain the park road was on and after humoring the guide for a couple hours while he tried to find his truck I picked my exit route. He didn’t want to but he followed me off the mountain.

 

[Bountied]

I follow the trail I marked I'm only going a half mile in so it's not that complicated. Where are you hunting, Wyoming? It's hard to get lost for too long in MD before you find a road or something.

 

[webb297]

I don't hunt but I hike a lot. I wear a Garman Fenix 7S and have found the GPS to be quite good in high sensitivity mode. The regular maps that come with it are pretty good, but the detailed ones you can buy and download can be excellent. I always have a topo map and compass as a back up when I hit the woods.

 

[Doctor_M]

Hunt the same spot for 40 years... even I can get lost anymore.

 

[Biggfoot44]

Leastways in Maryland adjacent areas , general sense of direction for actual hunting .

More generally for backcountry hiking or 4x4'ing , good maps . Handheld GPS mainly used for monitoring distance travelled , average speed etc , but if needed or curious can use actual Lat/ Long to pinpoint a location to cross reference .

 

[pre64hunter]

Just a good Compass, 2 of them.

I've hunted big woods in PA for 45 plus years, 10 miles in one direction no roads. I only use a compass, one in my pocket, one pinned to my jacket. You need two because there's times when you won't believe them and find streams with water running up hill.
You're not going to hunt the whole big woods or a swamp in a day. You'll only hunt an area. Over the years you'll learn certain areas good and explore new areas. You'll get lost in the fog, and snow. Everything will look different
I take a reading BEFORE getting off the trail or road, point the compass north then set the moveable pointer pointing home, towards a trail, road or stream. I hunt all day watching my pin-on compass and when it's time to come home I follow the pointer. It's hard to get lost on a sunny day because I just follow my shadow. Keep the sun on your back, side, whatever, but remember to adjust as the sun moves.
I tried GPS but they only seem to work when I was walking and kept recalibrating pointing me in the wrong direction. My phone let me down a few times with the battery going dead and/or no signal. I find my fishing and crabbing spots on the water in the fog just using a compass.

 

[teratos]

I follow BrowningGuy....

 

[John from MD]

Sun, moon, stars and GPS when I get lost.

 

[GuitarmanNick]

Never enter the woods without a knife, a way to make fire, and a lensatic compass. Electronic devices can helpful, but can also fail. Topographical maps are highly recommended for areas with which you are unfamiliar.

 

[Pale Ryder]

Compass, two if entirely new area, and map if I have one. At the parking spot I take an azimuth reading of the intended direction of travel. Then figure my back azimuth (180*) reverse direction. End of the day as long as I didn’t stray to far off my direction I follow the reverse azimuth back to car. I use the HuntStand app on my phone too, but not for navigating that much.