There been a couple times hunting Randolph county in West Virginia that I swore my compass was crazy but each time it brought me back. When I'm hunting new territory it's nice to get your bearings before you head out. It's a life saver when your Turkey hunting finding that roost site in the dark.

I wouldn't dream of walking away from the truck without one.

I couldn't agree with you more!

What brand is that Will?

Lensatic Compass. You can see it's been with me for a lot of years.: )

The only other item that's just as important as this, is TP!

And if you'll note, NEITHER one of them relies on a battery or a microchip to function.

Works for me!

“ There been a couple times hunting Randolph county in West Virginia that I swore my compass was crazy but each time it brought me back. ”

People have asked me why I always carry two…

And I tell them that it’s because I am ornery enough to argue with one, but not stupid enough to argue with two.

My “innate“ sense of direction is plumb awful.

The only time I don’t have mine hanging from my neck is when I’m hunting the private property I have access to. If II’m in the National Forest I have my compass on me - even if I’m in a very familiar area. Things tend to look different at night.

One of mine. I own four.

Hello Will...... I bought two identical to yours about thirty years ago. lol at the first one this last fall out deer hunting..... now I have that second one. Never go to the woods without it :)

When I hunted elk and muledeer in Colorado I had a GPS with me but I always had a compass, maps, and a protractor also. The U.S. Army taught me to use them very well.

Never without a compass unless its a small area I know well.

Yep. My iPhone GPS app etc is nice but I always carry a compass, same one I’ve used for many years. I learned long ago that if I’m sitting until dark a reliable flashlight is also a must.

compass, pocket knife, lighter of some kind, and pocket flashlight are with me at all times. EDC

Frank

How many times in land nav class did you hear...

"You determine an azmuth, not shoot it"

Deno

Do any of you use a compass to find your way back.. but without a map.

I’ve never had a map of anywhere I’ve ever hunted.....

Deno, A few times. But I'm still guilty of saying shoot an azimuth sometimes. "lol" I had basic land navigation in basic training then I had to take an advanced land navigation course when I got my E-5.

In the way this world has become it might be a good idea to leave home without it lol.”The peace of the Wilderness is my escape “

Here’s a oldie that still works. A Marbles compass.

I don't hunt any areas that I'm apt to get lost....barring sudden onset senility. I have a Rothco military lensatic compass (gift from my career Army son) that I carry to take a bearing from my tree on the last sighting of a wounded deer. It's not unusual for me to climb down and walk to the spot I visually "remembered" and find no blood because I'm well off based on the perspective from the ground. When I go back and take time to get the bearing from the base of the tree, follow it and count steps based on the yardage I estimated to that last sighting I'll pick up the blood trail in short order.

I agree , have gone out hunting and realized I didn't have my compass and went back home. Forrest

My wife bought me a Commenga compass years ago. I can't begin to count the number of deer it has helped me find after the shot.

I use a gps

Crow - I use my compass to get back without a map. A simple example would be where I park my truck on a road running North-South and I’m hunting roughly perpendicular to that. I walk in 50/100 yards and turn back facing the truck and read that angle based on north. If things somehow turn bad, I can follow that angle back to hit the road. I might be a ways up or down the road from the truck, but I’m not lost in the woods.

Never hunt unfamiliar ground without one.

Low country thanks. That confirms my way of thinking. I've never tried it cause well I'm wrong more than not.lol I sure didn't want to be wrong about using the comoass the wY I was thinking. I do have a Garmin 64s that was close to $300.

Road you park your vehicLe on runs north and south if you walk in east then head back west you will hit road again.We did this a lot partidge hunting when I had two good knees!

I guess it was my military training but I won't go into the woods/jungle without a compass. BTW, the type of compass matters little. The important thing is carrying one and knowing how to use it. Frank

Having a compass is important but so is the education on how to use it. I need to brush up on nav skills.

It's always a good time to brush up or enhance skills.

Depending solely on GPS is putting your trust and potential fate in things that you have no control over.

When GPS works, it's great, when it doesn't you better have a plan-B and maybe a C.

If it has to have a battery or a microchip to function, then you darn well better have a back up plan.

After being lost for 3 days in a snow storm in northern Idaho back in the early 80’s I carry 2 compass and and a GPS with me anytime I leave the truck.

My bad, just looked and my compass is a Cammenga...don't know where I got Rothco from.

My bad, just looked and my compass is a Cammenga...don't know where I got Rothco from.

I learned to use a Lensatic Military Compass in my youth. I misplaced mine somewhere and 20 years ago bought about ten which I gave to my hunting friends. Kept a couple for myself. Have no idea where they are (if u saw the basement you would understand).

Anyhoo, I hold few strong opinions on equipment. But, I must say the only compass I would own is the Lensatic. Lowcountry is correct about a simple safe return to the road you are parked on and that is the way I usually use a compass in all honesty. But, if you want to walk directly to a given objective in the distance (landmark) and directly back to your vehicle, or use a compass in conjunction with a map, LENSATIC! I also like the added security of a metal body vs. plastic, hence military style.

That’s what I like about this vintage Marbles compass. You pin it on your hunting jacket. You can’t forget to bring it then.

BTW, a very painful/anxiety invoking lesson learned years ago in big country with no landmarks whatsoever- ONLY pin a compass to a protected interior jacket or garment. I had been walking for 8 hrs. in unfamiliar country when I looked down on my jacket to discover my compass had been ripped off the outer chest area by brush. Pre cell phones, forced to follow a river until I encountered someone.

Good point cobra. If you lose something it is no good to you.

For sure will tell. I get this out and read it occasionally. The flat ones like this one in picture freeze and loose fluid or change poles. Two are better than one in the big woods.

I do not leave the vehicle with out two compasses. One on my bow, one in my pocket. Uncle Sam taught me how to use them, and I have lost many an argument with them. They do not lie.

“ I’ve never had a map of anywhere I’ve ever hunted.....”

Dude. You need to get out more.

The last time I went into a large or unfamiliar area without one, I was up in far northern MN years ago and wandered off into the thick stuff chasing a grouse, and soon realized that with the cloud cover, I was SOL for direction.

And the only problem with that was that I knew that to the south of me was a forest service road that ran fairly straight for dozens of miles; to the north of me… Eventually… lay Canada.

One glimpse of the sun would probably have been enough to get me headed back down tour of the road… I was probably a half mile in? So I had a minimum of 180° worth of options which could leave me walking for days before I would find anyone or anything likely to help me find my way back to the truck. And there were probably another 40 or so degrees worth of directions I could travel that could have resulted in my walking for quite some distance before I would bump across that road where I was parked… Not that I would necessarily know which direction to turn once I got back to it.

So I did the only sensible thing and stopped and listened for any sounds of traffic along that road. Never did hear a vehicle, but I did eventually hear a. outboard engine, which had to be on a lake on the other side of the road which was quite close to where I had parked.

That’s how I got out of that one. It was about all the fun and adventure I needed for one day.

Crow asked about finding your way back to camp without a map… I am a big believer in a good topo map, because if you simply know the direction back to camp, you don’t know what you’re getting into along that line. One time I allowed a friend of mine to talk us into taking a straight line from where we were to a knoll that we could pick out which we knew would put us on a flat which we knew well enough that once there, we could easily get back to where we were going. I had argued for going back around the way we came, but as I said, I allowed myself to be overruled and we went to straight line. Which was an absolutely hellish mile or so of steep side-hill, and we all still refer to that hunt as the Bataan death march...

Could’a been worse… We could’ve walked off a cliff in the dark. Or we could have bumbled into a marsh and gotten ourselves all wet right as the temperatures start to fall.

I'll pass.

Maybe your right......Been in different woods either hunting or hiking...... may look over a topo map before I ever go to understand the general layout of things but as far as taking a map along..... nope.

As my dad always told me. "never doubt the compass". And I never enter the woods without one.

I'm surprised no one has pointed right out along about now that there's a big difference in the skill level needed to use one for true land navigation and just knowing where N,E,S and W lie. If the sun's out you can get that info from a shadow stick in about 15 mins. There are orienteering clubs/events to hone the needed skills not the least of which include topo map reading, azimuth determination and declination calculation to correct between magnetic north and true north(unless you're lucky enough to live where it's 0 deg., lol). Not to discount the value of having one, even if you can't do these things. If you have a general familiarity of the "lay of the land" it can get you "out of the woods" (pardon the pun) by just knowing where directions lie or by following a bearing from a known line of sight reference from a high, clear vantage point through terrain where you can't see squat. Just don't think you're going to retrace Lewis and Clark's footsteps to the west coast just because you bought a compass. Anybody use Ranger beads and follow the same/opposite bearing going in and out?

Mostly use the compass app on my phone, but always have my Marbles compass in my pack as backup.

I know!! But compass batteries are getting soooooo expensive these days. And don't get me started on trying to find someplace to plug it in.

I always have a clip on and two spares in the pack even when in areas I'm totally familiar with. Once got caught in a whiteout and had no idea which direction to go without one. Also have topo maps of all areas we hunt.

But be aware some items and forces can affect how they work.

I carry two pin on ball compasses. One is clipped to my Dawgware quiver and one is clipped to the left sleeve of my shaggy suit just above the elbow. They have helped me a few times when it gets foggy or snowy.

I have a cheap liquid filled compass (with growing bubble) stashed in my pack. I've never used it in an emergency. It's a 'just in case' compass.

I do frequently use the compass and map in my phone.

Like 99.9% of society, I carry a phone with me at all times, just as I do my wallet. I keep it charged, all the time. I have Hunt OnX installed on it. I don't EVER want to repeat the experience of being lost. With Hunt OnX that will never happen.

I should have added that effect above is just the compasses being moved closer together.

I have a few compasses that I use. However I like a small one that I can keep on a zipper, pin on, etc. also. I had tried the Cammenga but they seem to have gooten sticky. I really like the Tru-Nord 150c on a zipper pull just as a back up for hikes, and such in unfamiliar places--they require no batteries, and have always worked. The Cammenga tritium kinda disappointed me. There is nothing wrong with a electronic GPS unit, but I too feel oe should always have backup methods for navigation.

I have seen a gun with one in the but stock and a bow with one in the riser. Have any of you seen such thing? I may get one on my next bow , I think.

“ With Hunt OnX that will never happen.”

At least not ‘til the batteries croak.

My sense of direction is so poor that I once stumbled across a “new” meadow off to the right-hand side of a flat.... which was actually a meadow that I traveled through EVERY SINGLE TIME I went up the hill.... and is off to the left of the flat, as viewed from whence I came.

I don’t know about All Y’All, but it’s just plain Stoooooopid for me to travel the backcountry without at least 2.

“ I have seen a gun with one in the but stock and a bow with one in the riser. ”

That’s kind of a Bear thing. Not a bad idea at all.

I was stationed in Central America and worked all of Central and South American jungles. Trust me when I say you use a compass there and you use it often! Can't see above the canopy, cannot see the horizon. You'll either have learned advanced land nav or wish that you had. Im never without a compass

Been a interesting thread and I do believe I’m gonna pick up a second ball compass to keep in my pack as well. I keep seeing “two” and can’t argue with that logic. While I do carry a phone I don’t place much trust in technology so don’t count on it.....

GPS and compass out here in Nevada. I get out of truck, mark gps. Take note of terrain-not a lot of trees up here. I do put a dollar solar light from walmart on the truck. When coming back that beacon can save miles of walking. I too thank the military trying for compass lessons, but like any other, must be practiced from time to timer

I always carry two along with a GPS.

I carry a GPS & a Silva polaris as back up.

I walked into unfamiliar woods squirrel hunting about 36 years ago, I crossed several hollows when all of the sudden the sun disappeared, the sky clouded up and it began to rain. It got as dark as night very early before normal sunset.

I started back to my car and hit a stream I hadn't crossed going in so I went the opposite direction. Pretty soon it was too dark to see the ground, I didn't have a flashlight or compass.

I stumbled around in the dark and hit that stream again, I was walking in circles. At this point I was tripping over unseen things in the dark and decided to sit down against a tree and wait for daylight.

It was a miserable night, mosquitoes descended on me in swarms, coyotes were barking within 20 yards of me.

At daylight I found I had stopped within several feet of a dry rock overhang that would have made my night much more enjoyable, I couldn't see it when I stopped because it was so dark.

At daylight I followed the stream until I hit a logging road. I followed the logging road in the direction I thought I needed to go but topped a ridge and heard traffic from a state road and knew I had gone in the opposite direction from my car. I reversed direction and actually came out of the woods within sight of my car.

Turns out I the stream I crossed that turned me around started out of the ground about 100 yards down the hollow from where I walked in.

Before I got lost I had and exceptional homing instinct which I completely lost after the incident, I could loose my bearings 50 yards off a road, very scary. It took about 3 years for my homing instinct to come back.

A flashlight with fresh batteries and a compass plus a spare are always with me now when I hit the woods now.

I see a lot of people here rely on a pin on compass. Not me, mine is around my neck with strong lanyard. I carry a Silva compass it might not be the best but I don't put much faith in a small or bubble type compass.

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