Land Navigation (with sub-categories)

Discussion in 'General Survival and Preparedness' started by Brokor, Sep 13, 2015.


  1. hitchcock4

    hitchcock4 Monkey++

    Nice! Looks like I have a lot of reading (and practice) to do.

    Does it pay to get a Lensatic Compass in terms of features, etc? Would just any floating magnetic compass work?
     
  2. kellory

    kellory An unemployed Jester, is nobody's fool. Banned

    You will want the wire sight type to sight a vector. (To be as accurate as you can be.
     
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  3. TailorMadeHell

    TailorMadeHell Lurking Shadow Creature

    More to add to this, as opposed to stealing your thunder, I uploaded a file to the resources section. It is a visual representation of land nav. Might encourage others to learn if it's not so dry as most military books can be. It is in a zip file. I hope that's alright. Most of what I upload will be.
     
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  4. Brokor

    Brokor Live Free or Cry Moderator Site Supporter+++ Founding Member

    I always strive to inspire others to steal as much thunder from me as they can -it makes for great content. ;)

    Here's the resource Tailor mentioned: Maps & Geography - Visual Aid For Land Navigation | Survival Forums
     
  5. Ganado

    Ganado Monkey+++

    Compass Navigation is good to know as a skill and sometimes it's much easier to match the topography of the land to the topographic markings on the map. When in doubt match the topography [campfire]
     
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  6. TailorMadeHell

    TailorMadeHell Lurking Shadow Creature

    Just as long as you don't let the LT have the map.
     
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  7. arleigh

    arleigh Goophy monkey

    In Search and Rescue probably the greatest problem is not knowing the area and one mountain from another.
    I have been on searches that we were falsely informed and had to go to local forest service personnel to positive identify a mountain peaks .
    Mapping takes starting from absolute known points and keeping track assuming nothing.
    If you only turn to a compass when you get lost..... your still lost. period .
    Get accustomed to using a street map every day and choose different routes and fallow them .
    An education is going to cost you something, get over it.
    The better orientation one develops for the land scape they live in the better , and exploration with maps taking notes, is the best way to do it .
    I have been lost before in the high Sierras as a kid , having made assumptions about my navigational skills having lived in the mountains in southern California .
    I didn't fallow the leader to the group with a map or compass, and when a few of us ventured off did not employ the use of a compass to know how to navigate back ,and missed the camp by only a few degrees walking in a large circle around the main camp.
    I keep maps and several compass with me at all times, both for use, and to hand to kids as a learning instrument.
    The little ones you can put on a watch band are useful and too cheap to worry about. about a buck a piece.
     
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  8. Ganado

    Ganado Monkey+++

    I was taught, if you dont have a map, pick a point, an obvious land mark and walk to it, walk down hill and down stream.
     
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  9. Brokor

    Brokor Live Free or Cry Moderator Site Supporter+++ Founding Member

    Just shoot a back azimuth if you get turned around and lose your bearing. There's no reason to be lost, it's easy.
     
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  10. arleigh

    arleigh Goophy monkey

    Another valuable tool is an altimeter with which one can ascertain their position on the side of a mountain substantially more accurately.
     
  11. BTPost

    BTPost Stumpy Old Fart,Deadman Walking, Snow Monkey Moderator

    Assuming that you have some way, to compensate for local Air Pressure, on your Altimeter....
     
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  12. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    And by way of example, my home location is at about 1750 ASL. That takes roughly 1.5 inches to compensate for altitude. The takeaway is that tuning for altitude takes more than one input, local pressure AND the offset.
     
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  13. Tikka

    Tikka Monkey+++

    @Brokor
    That was really good; no wonder they let you have a B in your MOS. :)

    @TailorMadeHell
    Dry was being nice; I taught Land Nav at one of the OCS sites. OK candidates, now that I have you good and lost. Student company commander: you're in charge.

    That works, depending on the two Ts, terrain and trees.
     
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  14. arleigh

    arleigh Goophy monkey

    Most things in orienteering is ball park references, and best known points .Mountain peaks and water ways .
    Some things change ,in radical and slow erosion .
    Using things that can change like trees and water ways one heavy storm or fire and the earth is altered again.
    Another problem is getting misinformation from some one that supposedly comes from that area, and the arbitrary changing of the names of critical points by map makers.
    I thought there was a law ?
    This can really mess up your day.
    I've been on searches when the team failed to use maps and relied on two people that conflicted in their memory and it almost became a search for the rescuers.
    macho will get you in more trouble that one an imagine .
     
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  15. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    Alrighty then, now you know how to use the compass and maps, so you need a map. Was tipped to this just this morning from another site I visit. You should have no problem finding your house. (I had a problem, my place is exactly on the match line between two sheets. What are the odds?) Nat'l Geo has made standard quadrangle maps printable in 8.5X11 sheets.
    http://ngmaps.maps.arcgis.com/apps/...zoom=true&scale=false&search=true&theme=light
    Click on your location and scroll as needed.
     
  16. chelloveck

    chelloveck Diabolus Causidicus

    Back in the day, it was a rifle platoon commander's eternal prayer not to have a contact [patr] near a loc that needed the corners of 4 map sheets to plot his his position.
     
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  17. Ganado

    Ganado Monkey+++

    Digital seamless raster maps over come this issue.
     
  18. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    Could be, but it's hard to beat the price from the NG site.
     
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  19. svjoe

    svjoe Angry Monkey

    Ah, good ole' FM 3-25.26 (FM 21-26)
     
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  20. Unique

    Unique Monkey

    I use a Silva Orienteering compass that I paid a buck for at a flea market 20 years ago.

    I was artillery for 15 years. We spent a lot of time on map reading and land Nav. I get all my maps from USGS and I almost never use my compass I go by terrain association.

    ETA added link

    Finding Your Way in the Outdoors: Robert L. Mooers: 9780696110320: Amazon.com: Books
     
    Last edited: Jun 7, 2017
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  1. Brokor
  2. Asia-Off-Grid
  3. Asia-Off-Grid
  4. Asia-Off-Grid
  5. Asia-Off-Grid
  6. Asia-Off-Grid
  7. TailorMadeHell
  8. Brokor
  9. Brokor
  10. Yard Dart
  11. CATO
  12. redsoxnation32
  13. ghrit
  14. ghrit
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