A straight walk through real woods shows how far a simple baseplate compass can take you when your phone dies and the map is all you’ve got. This episode breaks down the gear, the method, and the honest limits so anyone can move through timber with confidence.
In this Fundamental Friday, Chris takes a baseplate compass and a USGS topo map into the Mississippi woods and walks a full mile to test how accurate a simple bearing can be in real terrain. You’ll hear how the compass works, how contour lines tell the truth about the land, how to judge distance, and why old tools still matter when batteries fail.
Referenced links
USGS Topo Maps
https://www.usgs.gov/products/maps/topographic-maps
Primitive Camping and Bushcraft Book
https://www.primitive-camping.com/product-page/primitive-camping-bushcraft
how to use a compass article: How to Use a Compass: The Ultimate Guide to Navigation
(upbeat music)
Welcome back to the Primitive Camping
and Bushcraft Podcast.
Today is Fundamental Fridays,
and we use this time to
go over fundamental skills
that you can use to make
your primitive camping trips
better, more fun, and more interesting.
So hang tight, pull up a
chair, and let's get to it.
All right, so I wanna
test a theory today,
and what I've done is
I've marked the directions
on my compass using my map,
and I'm gonna walk
through the woods a mile
through the woods to a
location looking for a camera,
something like that.
And I am going to see
how far off target I am
just by following just the compass.
Now the compass has seen various upgrades
in over 2,000 years,
but its function remains the same
to tell you what
direction you're traveling.
Now in the front of the
compass, you have a travel arrow.
Now this is basically gonna give you
the direction of which you're traveling.
Now different brands use
different styles of travel arrows,
but they all work similarly
by pointing in the direction
that you're gonna walk.
Now your compass should
have a magnetized needle.
No matter which way
you turn your compass,
that needle is always
gonna face to magnetic north.
Now the orienting arrow right here
shows you where magnetic north is in
relation to true north,
and it's used to orient your compass.
Now the azimuth ring is
the ring around your compass,
which basically has
measurements from zero
all the way around to 360 degrees.
On most modern compasses,
this ring will freely turn
and allows you to box your needle
and take a bearing simultaneously.
What we'll be doing is hold
your compass level, obviously,
put it in the box right here,
and that arrow is which way
we need to go straight through there.
So we'll follow this trail as best we can
and see how it's taking us.
Now this compass also has a little
magnifying area here,
so you can actually see a
little bit better on there.
You could probably actually use that
to start a fire on a sunny day.
Now every compass is gonna be different,
but this particular
one has different units
of measurement on the sides.
You got inches over here, you got
centimeters over here.
Now inside here, you
have different scales
for different scales on your map,
like a 1 1 50,000th
right here, the 1 2 24,000th,
and that's what we're gonna use to orient
with this map right here.
And then over here,
you have 1 2 20,000ths
and then 1 2 25,000ths.
Now in this particular compass,
there's a tool on the lanyard,
and that tool works with this little
screw hole right here
and allows you to help
set your declination.
And we're not gonna go
too deep in declination
in these tutorials,
but I'm gonna show you
how to set this compass up with this map.
Now my book, Primitive
Camping in Bushcraft,
I go over how to use the compass
and using this exact
compass, how to set it up
and also how to use a topographical map.
Now, let's do the disclaimer here
that this is just giving you a
generalized direction
of travel.
This is not giving you
a, it's not like a GPS.
It's not like you just throw
it in there on your compass
and it'll bring you to
right where you're going.
So you have to pay
attention to your landmarks.
You have to know something about the area
or you have to pay attention to the map
to know the landmarks
that you're walking through.
It's not, you can still end up lost
with a compass and a map.
If you don't know how to use it,
you don't know where you're at.
Now topographical maps show a 3D
landscape on 2D paper.
So essentially what's happening
is by using these contour lines here,
you're getting a top-down perspective.
So right here, this is
the top of a little hill.
Down here is the bottom of a bottom.
So you're slowly going downhill here.
So what happens is when
the lines are close together,
the landscape is steep.
So right here is real
steep in between here.
And when they're farther apart,
it is more of a
gradual increase or decrease,
depending if you're
going downhill or uphill.
All right, coming up
on the dry creek bed.
You know what's funny is that,
right here on this wildlife area,
all the dry creek beds, let's say,
this one here is real deep
compared to the rest of them.
All right.
All right.
And that's the
duration that we gotta walk.
So we gotta cross this
creek and go straight ahead.
Every fifth contour
line is darker and thicker.
So these lines are called the index line.
And there's a number on these lines.
See that 250 and that 200 right there?
Now these numbers on these lines
designate the elevation change.
And if you were to draw a line
on the map from here to here,
you would know that you're
going from 250 feet to 200 feet.
So you're going down 50 feet.
Now, dependent on the
scale and brand of your map,
the contour lines will have an interval
of 10 to 80 feet between them.
USGS maps, which this is
from the USGS websites,
typically have a 10
foot contour interval,
meaning that each line
is 10 foot elevation lower
or higher than the previous one.
Now the map scale is
determined by the publisher.
And if you look at
the bottom of your map,
like right here, it'll
typically have a ratio
of either one 24,000 or one in 26,000.
Now some maps may vary,
but the one is a one inch.
All right.
So the one in this ratio is one inch
and the 24,000 is
24,000 inches in real life.
So if you go one inch
from this line to here,
that is 24,000 inches
right there in real life.
Now larger scales right
here are going to show
less detail on the map
than a smaller scale map.
So the smaller the scale,
the better idea of the terrain
that you're going to be in.
So the compass is off a
touch compared to the GPS,
but that is just
going off on the eyeball.
We didn't do anything
for like strip measurements
or anything like that.
So, all right, let me get to the camera
and then we'll turn around
and head back to the truck.
All right, there we are right there.
There's the camera.
And here is the area.
I got this tree, last year there was rugs
or rugs and scrapes all the way around
this tree right here.
And I still get the occasional deer
coming through here,
more so coming through here.
So I'm thinking about
changing the direction.
Majority of all this
right here, believe it or not,
is a bunch of turkey
traffic, tons of turkeys.
So, and all right, so now
I'm going to plot a course
back from this camera, back to my truck.
For me, fortunately, I know these woods,
the majority of these woods anyhow,
and I could get to where I want to go.
So I came out here with just the map
to show you guys how to
get to where I'm going.
I've never walked to that camera with
just a compass before.
And so it's reassuring
in the event that your GPS
or your phone want to die.
Realistically, are
you going into the woods
without your phone?
No, you're not.
Most people are not.
But what happens is the battery will die.
Now, let's do the disclaimer here,
that this is just
giving you a generalized
direction of travel.
This is not giving you
a, this is not like a GPS.
It's not like you just throw
it in there on your compass
and it'll bring you to
right where you're going.
So you have to pay
attention to your landmarks.
You have to know something about the area
or you have to pay attention to the map
to know the landmarks
that you're walking through.
It's not, you can still end up lost
with a compass and a map.
If you don't know how to use it,
you don't know where you're at.
Thanks for sitting
around the fire with me today.
If this episode gave you
something to think about,
if it helped you feel a
little bit more prepared
or it even stirred your faith a tiny bit,
go ahead and share it with someone else
who might need it as well.
We don't go camping
to run away from life.
We come out here to
slow down and recharge.
So grab another log, throw it on the fire
and remember this, in all
your ways, acknowledge him
and he will direct your path.
I'll see you next time.
God bless you.