Improvised Compass
- Thread starter Mistwalker
- Start date
ha ha ha southey, I would carry my compass with me for years, the old military minute one and the ranger silva one. I would use it for beelining for fun, but I noticed I never really need the darn thing. and sometimes you want to be lost, so you can be in laces where o one is. Even out west, the trail systems are so vast, it is almost hard to get lst and you can see for miles. in the tropics, the sun shadow and moon shadow is all I reallyever needed. I darn you to test this out. place a car compass on your dash board. and look at sadows of builings, sign post, trees, etc, and ask yourself what dorection are you looking at, and in a years time doing that, you will never need a compass anymore.
6-8am shadow points west
8-10 am shadow points northwest
10-11 am north by northwest
12-2pm north
1-2 pm north by northeast
3 - 4 pm northeast
4-6 pm east by northeast
6 - 9pm east
time differenceis witer to summer. but that is basically all you need to know. full moon does the same thing to carry you through the night. i promise you if you do this for a year with car dash board compass you will never need one again. just remember to test yourself at every turn in the road, and every chance you are in the car, even at night. no full moon then remember first crescent, light on right side it is in west and dropping in a couple hours so mark west.right side half moon it is going west in sky, left sided half moon rising late in east, last crescent moon, left light side, rising late and is rising east. New Moon. use the stars. but new moon nights even star light can give a shadow indeep woods, northstar is easy along wit horoscope zodiac which rises a new sign in east ever 2 hours - so if gemni is rising, 2 hours later ancer, 2 hours later leo, 2 hours later virgo. Venus Jupiter, Mars, and Saturn all follow the east overhead west pattrns as well througout the night.
6-8am shadow points west
8-10 am shadow points northwest
10-11 am north by northwest
12-2pm north
1-2 pm north by northeast
3 - 4 pm northeast
4-6 pm east by northeast
6 - 9pm east
time differenceis witer to summer. but that is basically all you need to know. full moon does the same thing to carry you through the night. i promise you if you do this for a year with car dash board compass you will never need one again. just remember to test yourself at every turn in the road, and every chance you are in the car, even at night. no full moon then remember first crescent, light on right side it is in west and dropping in a couple hours so mark west.right side half moon it is going west in sky, left sided half moon rising late in east, last crescent moon, left light side, rising late and is rising east. New Moon. use the stars. but new moon nights even star light can give a shadow indeep woods, northstar is easy along wit horoscope zodiac which rises a new sign in east ever 2 hours - so if gemni is rising, 2 hours later ancer, 2 hours later leo, 2 hours later virgo. Venus Jupiter, Mars, and Saturn all follow the east overhead west pattrns as well througout the night.
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leahcim, I would agree with you in some areas, but not parts of the UK or even Australia.
It's very common to have such a heavily overcast day that you can't locate the sun. We also have large, featureless moorlands that have gentle slopes - if it's cloudy, foggy or raining, you can't see far enough to pick out significant features like a mountain peak or a town. Visibility can be down to yards, and the ground's slope very deceptive. It's hard to tell the difference between a trail and a sheep path - and sheep go places where people shouldn't (in bad weather).
In those conditions, map and compass or GPS are the thing to use. There have been quite a few deaths in parts of the UK where people walked straight off a sharp edge and fell or were trapped (Scafell - Wastewater is particularly bad).
It's very common to have such a heavily overcast day that you can't locate the sun. We also have large, featureless moorlands that have gentle slopes - if it's cloudy, foggy or raining, you can't see far enough to pick out significant features like a mountain peak or a town. Visibility can be down to yards, and the ground's slope very deceptive. It's hard to tell the difference between a trail and a sheep path - and sheep go places where people shouldn't (in bad weather).
In those conditions, map and compass or GPS are the thing to use. There have been quite a few deaths in parts of the UK where people walked straight off a sharp edge and fell or were trapped (Scafell - Wastewater is particularly bad).
never been to Uk so I cant say, but been in rain forest of the redwoods where the same problem extist. If you place your knife on your thumbnail, on light rainy days and cloudy days, and you place point of knife on nail and turn until the shadow is paper thin, that is your direction of shadow. If t is pouring rain I assume you are batten down for the day. Maybe you are doing military stuff and with that reason findng a needle in a haystack is very important, then YES carry all means GPS,extra baterries, Compass (Minute), etc. Your Life is seriously counting on it. But in normal situtations, I never ever needed one, and most people learn the compass but forget to take readinds and write down turns, and back readings and get lost anyways. If you dont have pigeon homing skills, then you should carry GPS, but remember it can break, and in bad weather Sats can not work as good in extremely bad weather anyways. Best bet is to sit it out. but really I been living in oods for 25 years 3/4 of the year every year except 2. I never ever use the darn compass unless it was fun beelining, and if you never beelne, that is hellish walking.
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If I have a map but no compass, I do what I call Boxing myself in the terrain. I look at map and find rivers, creeks, railroad tracks, powerlines, pipleines, fencerows, major fields wood edge lines, and roads. if I box myself in that terrain, I am okay.
Example:
I park on road that T bones another road at the south, at the northern T bone of road there is a railroad track, and on the otherside there is a river. If I am walking and get lost and hit the boxed in boundary I know where I am at. If I hit the river, i know the car is behind me, if I hit another road I know I walked south and need to walk down road to get back to T Bone crossroad to get to the road my car is on. If I hit the railroad tracks, I know I walked north and I need to walk down tracks to get to road my car is on, but if I walk down tracks and hit the river, I know I walked in the wrong direction and need to turn around.
If I want to get to river, and cross it on railroad tracks, then I look at map and make a new box, if I want to keep walking more forward.
Example:
I park on road that T bones another road at the south, at the northern T bone of road there is a railroad track, and on the otherside there is a river. If I am walking and get lost and hit the boxed in boundary I know where I am at. If I hit the river, i know the car is behind me, if I hit another road I know I walked south and need to walk down road to get back to T Bone crossroad to get to the road my car is on. If I hit the railroad tracks, I know I walked north and I need to walk down tracks to get to road my car is on, but if I walk down tracks and hit the river, I know I walked in the wrong direction and need to turn around.
If I want to get to river, and cross it on railroad tracks, then I look at map and make a new box, if I want to keep walking more forward.
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England doesn't have extensive wildernesses like the USA, Canada or Australia. What it does have is small areas that people go walking in for the day.
A pretty common occurrence is a few people going for a walk up a hill, they have good boots, waterproofs. Weather seems ok. Then cloud rolls in (they are above the cloud line - sometimes only 600ft or so). Wind gets up - they are now damp from cloud, and getting windchill. They can't see more than 10ft. They try to follow the trail, then after a couple of hours realise they are lost. Then wet sleet starts falling, they are quickly getting hypothermia.
Now if they are prepared, one of the group has an emergency shelter ( a big plastic bag), and they have mobile phone reception. They can phone in, sit it out. If they aren't well prepared, the local mountain rescue end up searching for them.
If they were good with a compass or used GPS they wouldn't have gotten lost and would have walked down off the hill.
Oh and I should add that I used to do a lot of orienteering in Australia, and bushwalking and understand fully what you are saying about boxing. It doesn't work on the whaleback moorland in England, which took me a while to get used to when I came over here.
A pretty common occurrence is a few people going for a walk up a hill, they have good boots, waterproofs. Weather seems ok. Then cloud rolls in (they are above the cloud line - sometimes only 600ft or so). Wind gets up - they are now damp from cloud, and getting windchill. They can't see more than 10ft. They try to follow the trail, then after a couple of hours realise they are lost. Then wet sleet starts falling, they are quickly getting hypothermia.
Now if they are prepared, one of the group has an emergency shelter ( a big plastic bag), and they have mobile phone reception. They can phone in, sit it out. If they aren't well prepared, the local mountain rescue end up searching for them.
If they were good with a compass or used GPS they wouldn't have gotten lost and would have walked down off the hill.
Oh and I should add that I used to do a lot of orienteering in Australia, and bushwalking and understand fully what you are saying about boxing. It doesn't work on the whaleback moorland in England, which took me a while to get used to when I came over here.
your making me wnt to try out England. Sounds cool, but in reality, if you know about weather is going to be bad, and you are not prepared for it, then they deserve a living scare to better preparethemselves next time. I lived in Sonaron desert for 15 months, just got back. Trust me you better b prepared or you will die of heat by day and die by cold by night. So i am walking in desert 115 degrees, and 180 degrees on the sand. but I know to bring cold weather gear no matter what because if I am out there at night I am screwed without it. There is very little deris to make debris huts there andthe sand and riock so hard you only really have naturl wind breaks to stay warm Simple all weather breathe rain and jacket with hoody, Seal Skin Socks, sal skin gloves, and a fleece jacket wih hoody, and a turlte neck fleece neck bad that can be turn into face mask, and hat, is someting you should never leave home without anywhere including deserrt. If you uy the light weight fleece and paper thin Columbia weather gear it is so light weight but tough, you dont even know you are carrying it. But anyone who lives there and isnt prepared for the worst when they are aware the worst is almost a daily occurance isnt in my book to smart. But I would love to see what you are talking about, do youy have any pics of the land. of a video link to the area. sounds like Northern California on the coast, trust me you can seriously die for the same reasons there. Shoreline cliffs are steep there.
ged, whatever you do make sure that your yak never steals your clothes, you'd be in a whole world of trouble!You are right about the being prepared.
This is a photo (not taken by me) of the North York Moors. Gives a good sense of how featureless some of the landscape is:
http://maps.google.co.uk/?ll=54.448559,-0.993382&spn=0.132348,0.222816&t=h&z=12&layer=c&cbll=54.448559,-0.993382&cbp=12,0,,0,0&photoid=po-26346954
The deadly weather here isn't extreme cold, it's wet combined with winds.
If you came over here, I think you'd like some of the landscape, but would be distressed by the inability to get away from the orange glow of artificial light. It's always there on the horizon.
This is a photo (not taken by me) of the North York Moors. Gives a good sense of how featureless some of the landscape is:
http://maps.google.co.uk/?ll=54.448559,-0.993382&spn=0.132348,0.222816&t=h&z=12&layer=c&cbll=54.448559,-0.993382&cbp=12,0,,0,0&photoid=po-26346954
The deadly weather here isn't extreme cold, it's wet combined with winds.
If you came over here, I think you'd like some of the landscape, but would be distressed by the inability to get away from the orange glow of artificial light. It's always there on the horizon.
Oh I freaking love that terrian, lot of california can be like that in the northern part. I remember this area that some famous scottish out law hid out there back in like 1600's - 1700's. I remeber a movie about that area. the high mountains of Arizona can look like this as well reaching 9,000 ft. I would love trying that area out. heck if I get lost, and follow the sheep, then I guess they will be giving me the balls ******** to eat for supper. lol. anyone for fried rocky mountain oysters?
Well, I didn't take into account the magnetic field in the UK and what the differences there may be, and that may have been a bad thing. However if your general population is anything like the general population here I'm pretty sure your search and rescue guys will still be in business for many years to come regardless of anything I posted. So there's really no need for thanking me.
haha sorry Matey it was in referance to leahcims post,
Ps love the new knife Dude!!
Ah, lol, sorry man, I didn't catch that one. That one is an example of my liking durable knives that will take my abuse, and at the same time being influenced into working with smaller knives. I see it as sort of a survival/bushcraft knife.
Or, are you talking about the one in my avatar?
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Good thread Brian 
Food for thought 
As an aside; what about the things we have on us, not just the fishing kits (I don't fish, the damned stuff is toxic to me) or survival kits.
I've got long hair, I pin it up out of the way usually, and every pocket, bag, whatever ends up with kirby grips in it. Or earrings, the ones with fishhook wires.....what about those lads with piercings, would the barettes work ? Most seem to be stainless steel but a lot are titanium, gold and silver. Specs ? a zipper tab ? an aiglet from the end of a boot or shoe lace? or does one of the metal ring pulls work ? a rolled up tinfoil biscuit wrapper ?
I know that a fire can realign the surrounding soil to the Earth's magnetic at the time of the burn. It's one of the ways we can find hearths in archaeology; but what happens to a bit of metal when we heat it, does it gain/lose or just realign ? and is there someway to be certain as one does so, which way is North ?
cheers,
Toddy
Food for thought As an aside; what about the things we have on us, not just the fishing kits (I don't fish, the damned stuff is toxic to me) or survival kits.
I've got long hair, I pin it up out of the way usually, and every pocket, bag, whatever ends up with kirby grips in it. Or earrings, the ones with fishhook wires.....what about those lads with piercings, would the barettes work ? Most seem to be stainless steel but a lot are titanium, gold and silver. Specs ? a zipper tab ? an aiglet from the end of a boot or shoe lace? or does one of the metal ring pulls work ? a rolled up tinfoil biscuit wrapper ?
I know that a fire can realign the surrounding soil to the Earth's magnetic at the time of the burn. It's one of the ways we can find hearths in archaeology; but what happens to a bit of metal when we heat it, does it gain/lose or just realign ? and is there someway to be certain as one does so, which way is North ?
cheers,
Toddy
Good thread Brian
As an aside; what about the things we have on us, not just the fishing kits (I don't fish, the damned stuff is toxic to me) or survival kits.
I've got long hair, I pin it up out of the way usually, and every pocket, bag, whatever ends up with kirby grips in it. Or earrings, the ones with fishhook wires.....what about those lads with piercings, would the barettes work ? Most seem to be stainless steel but a lot are titanium, gold and silver. Specs ? a zipper tab ? an aiglet from the end of a boot or shoe lace? or does one of the metal ring pulls work ? a rolled up tinfoil biscuit wrapper ?
I know that a fire can realign the surrounding soil to the Earth's magnetic at the time of the burn. It's one of the ways we can find hearths in archaeology; but what happens to a bit of metal when we heat it, does it gain/lose or just realign ? and is there someway to be certain as one does so, which way is North ?
cheers,
Toddy
Thanks for more food for thought Toddy. I know some needles in sewing kits will work, I think it is something that happens in the sharpening process. The scraping on the hook may not make it magnetic but remove the coating so that more metal is exposed for better magnetism. Lisa has several piercings I may have to experiment some with those and with other items.
I know some companies use large magnets to realign grain structure in steel while it is red hot but I have no ideas yet on natural magnetism when heating. I'll have to play with that too.
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