doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Nebraska Nomads.

Keith, given I learned maritime navigation before the advent of GPS, I'm well familiar with the use of compasses as well as the ease with which we come to rely on electronics......which will fail one way or another. I wouldn't think of venturing onto big water without a compass, no matter how well equipped the boat was. But on a boat, I can keep the other's within viewing distance. In the Sandhills, not so much.

In truth, besides Mike losing the GPS, he did very well this trip. Perhaps the threat of an e-collar is what did it but he appeared to make a point of staying within visual range and not going on walkabouts. LOL

Was a great trip....more later today. Just got in late last night and lots to do now.

Yes.

Good suggestions everyone- I did have two compasses with me as back up, one of them in my vest at all times.

My main turkey hunting buddy decades ago was a former USAF navigator on the old Shakey C-124. He used to give me grief about my carrying a compass until a fog bank covered him up turkey hunting. I carry two compasses; one on each wrist. The old Suunto Wrist which works best in daylight as the glow in the dark technology is obsolete compared with Tritium illumination. For dark work, the little Cammenga wrist compass is unequaled in size and utility and has Tritium illumination. I carry it on my wrist band with my watch. The watch is a Luminox, but that is another story. The Suunto has a rotating bezel and sighting port for shooting and holding azimuths. I recommend both for turkey hunting. I lock in on a bird's azimuth in the tree and keep moving. I slightly fall off the azimuth to keep from bumping him which can happen on an exact azimuth. It has paid off many times on shut mouths or infrequent gobbling. I learned this trick from an old Charlie Elliot book and is worth repeating.



If you notice on the Suunto, the bearings appear to be reversed, mirror image and north/south. That's because when you use the sighting port you are reading the bearing of the heading on the opposite side of view port. Suppose I hear a bird in the tree. I have the compass on my right wrist outside the ghillie jacket. I hold my wrist at right angle to the bird. I rotate the bezel until the bezel's N or point matches the needle's point or N. With bezel red lines paralleling the black needle, the window will reveal the azimuth's degrees in the window. As long as I am heading in the direction indicated by centering the arrow with the bezel and right angle to my wrist, I am on course. To find the back azimuth or return direction, I don't touch the bezel but turn the compass until the point of the compass is exactly reversed in the red arrow's lines of the bezel. There are no mathematics involved. The mathematics come in determining annual deviation from true and magnetic north. That's not a factor I need to mess with here in the low country and for turkey hunting it's not important.
Here's a trick with a watch to navigate. The watch must be analog (okay, think Mickey Mouse hands) such as the Luminox in the photo. With the sun visible, point the hour hand at the sun. With a line half way between 12 on the dial and the hour hand and with the line extending through the center of the dial, the line is due south. For example, at high noon, the sun is at its zenith (highest point in the sky) That is directly south. This also coincides with the hour hand being on 12. There are slight differences between daylight and standard time, but this is enough for you to find your bearings. Also, the sun in Georgia is in the Southern Sky. Using this watch trick can be the difference between lost and not lost. Gil

Wonderful dogs, I had the pleasure of judging the hunt tests at the AWS National Specialty one year.

My grandpa always told me to carry a mirror with me, it wouldn't help me find my way but it would show me who's lost.

The first year after my cataract surgery I thought it was so cool to be able to hunt without having to wear glasses. My surgery corrected my nearsightedness but I still had to wear reader. Not thinking about having to read anything I went hunting without the readers and got thoroughly lost in the fog and when I pulled out my compass(old and worn) couldn't determine which was N or S on it. I was starting to look for a dead tree to spend the night by(fire wood) when I heard the fans from a potato barn out in the distance start and was able to get my directions in the fog.

Knowing the cane-breaks GLS frequents I understand his compass use. On the other hand, a compass seems like overkill when I can usually see the car from wherever I am...Geo

Brent,

Valentine National Wildlife Refuge and McKelvie National Forest in the Sandhills of North Central Nebraska. Be careful with seasons and species: ducks can only be hunted in certain areas of Valentine, and snipe cannot be hunted on state managed areas. All of Valentine is notox. Lead ok in McKelvie, but of course not for waterfowl.

Mike

ps- if my propensity to lose my bearings helps anyone, especially the good info shared by Gil, the ribbing is worth it. Putting the vehicle where you can see it is great, but not always possible in the Sandhills. Perhaps brother Voss, who hunted them for half a century, can tell about the time the fog rolled in there.

Warning to all those who believe the compass unfailing-there are huge expanses of northern Minnesota with iron and nickel deposits that will leave a compass completely befuddled.Nickle isn�t magnetic, but, a good sized deposit alters how a compass reads true north.
My Mom had an American Water spaniel. He couldn�t swim, or, hunt, but he was a sweet dog.

Best,
Ted

She loves to do both, except if it's a bath

Great pictures Mike. James, congrats on your quail. Looks like a fantastic hunt.

Before I packed a compass, I got myself lost to the extent that a buddy and I walked for hours only to come back to a familiar spot. Not uncommon to do as humans tend to walk in a circle because of a dominant leg. We had gone to shoot woodies in an afternoon spot and we marked the difficult part of the trail going in. We couldn't find it in the dark. We thought we could hear highway noise and we walked towards it. Wind through the trees is what we heard. We were chasing the wind. We stopped, built a fire and waited for dawn. Finally at 5 am we heard shots and walked towards them. Our wives had called friends who knew where we were and found the car. Jimmy's wife had called the sheriff and was asked two questions: Has he done this before and does he play cards?