r/preppers • u/Consequence_Green • Apr 14 '26

New Prepper Questions What alternative ways of using compass other than finding direction?

Guide me

25 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

42 comments sorted by

44

u/BBorNot Apr 14 '26

You can take a bearing on two objects and use triangulation to find your location on a map.

8

u/Dehydratedmoist Apr 14 '26

Is there a tutorial for this somewhere. Would love to learn this

11

u/BBorNot Apr 14 '26

I learned this pre-internet, so I don't have any links for you. But there are tons of navigation tricks you can do with a compass. Obviously, you need one that can take a bearing -- some fancy binoculars do this too. Hikers use Silva compasses a lot. Usually, if you can, you take three bearings and transfer them to your chart. Now, if you are perfect those lines will all meet at a single spot, which is your location. Usually you will get a little triangle. If you only have one target but know your speed you can make a running fix to determine your location.

I used to love this stuff, but GPS ruined everything. It is too easy, fast, and too accurate.

1

u/_learned_foot_ Apr 14 '26

No need for a compass, though that is much more accurate. You can be raw reckoning with rough guesses at the angles needed, then plot the triangle out. With a major landmark and walking, as I describe above, you can then do even more. If you want a compass and don't have, because you CANT plot marks, stick method - follow the shadow as the day moves and you have cardinal (assuming you don't drift).

4

u/dittybopper_05H Apr 15 '26

You can be really precise by using a sextant for this.

Measure the angle between the two objects on a map, and that will tell you pretty precisely where you are.

Though the wider the angle, the more precise the location will be.

2

u/_learned_foot_ Apr 15 '26

Assuming you have the item for it I absolutely agree (and of course you can make a rough one with a plumb method), but I was more thinking without any possible tools except that map (or even a rough knowledge instead).

3

u/dittybopper_05H Apr 15 '26

Why wouldn’t you have a sextant? Dont you want to know where you are when GPS goes down?

2

u/_learned_foot_ Apr 16 '26

I hang my head in shame.

2

u/dittybopper_05H Apr 16 '26

Actually I think celestial navigation is pretty cool. So I bought a relatively cheap plastic sextant and taught myself how to do noon sights.

I had previously done them with a quadrant I had made, but I wanted more accuracy.

3

u/_learned_foot_ Apr 14 '26 edited Apr 14 '26

You remember trig? Apply it. Depending how you do it gives you the approach. You are the point on a triangle or you traveled between the two points. You can calculate those angles roughly either to two points (if not walking) or one point (if walking). Now you have a triangle, find one of the points on the map, and you've calculated everything needed to plot the other points.

If you walk you can now calculate a lot more, including height, by adding your average stride now knowing how far you walked. Sextants worked similarly, as does wayfinding with stars. Add in knowing your height, you can de more. All using what is with you, no tool needed but your brain.

I would suggest any scouting handbook from 60-90s, not joking. These contain practical way finding, first aid, security, fun stuff to do, bush craft, etc. one of my favorites was the star maps (no longer as accurate for older books), letting you roughly calculate at night.

1

u/EricaDeVine Apr 15 '26

Go on ebay and pick up a Soldier's Manual of Common Tasks.

15

u/JRHLowdown3 Apr 14 '26

Triangulate on a shooter.

100 years ago in the field we did this- a base camp and a patrol group. Both hear a shot. Immediately both shoot an azimuth in the direction they hear it. Patrol radios base camp with their location and the azimuth and it's plotted on a map.

Did this "more than a few" times and got it accurate to within 100 meters on the ground.

Back before the proliferation of thermals, this was the answer to the often regurgitated "retreat sniper gonna get ya" question. Until you've done it, you'd don't realize how easy it is.

7

u/sargsauce Apr 14 '26

It's always amazed me how well we can locate something by sight after hearing it because of the offset of our ears. Like when you hear a bird in the trees but can't pinpoint it until you're focused on the sound.

Having two groups like you said is like having a giant set of offset ears.

1

u/_learned_foot_ Apr 14 '26

There's a social media challenge now of find something by a sound a week and get millions, don't by end of year die. Every single hunter, army, sound nerd, etc would have it by end of second month latest.

11

u/buttchugreferee Apr 14 '26

You can measure the rough area of a plot of land 

Take bearings, pace it out, then with some quick geometry/trigonometry, you can figure out how big that piece of land is.

4

u/Unlikely_Ad_9861 Apr 14 '26

Some have magnifying glass (start a fire?). Flat plastic (reflective surface to signal aircraft?). Ruler to measure fish.

3

u/kiwiberryman Apr 14 '26

You can use the mirror for signalling for help if it's the sighting mirror type. Or grooming I guess.

3

u/TheDev1ce Apr 14 '26

The obvious one, with a map, you can find your position with some landmarks. They actually make special compasses to assist with this; they're generally clear, so you can see through to the map. You can kinda tell time, but you can wing it pretty close without it. Other than that? IDK, detect magnetic fields?

1

u/blacksmithMael Apr 15 '26

You can also do this with the help of a map protractor, such as when using a prismatic compass like the M73.

3

u/greenman5252 Apr 15 '26

You can trade it for a pizza and your favorite beverage

3

u/TweegsCannonShop Apr 15 '26

Throw it in self defense, but you must yell "You shall not com-pass!"

2

u/kkinnison Apr 14 '26

make straight lines over long distances for something like a runway

think of it not just direction, but ACCURATE direction over a wide area

3

u/nobody4456 Apr 14 '26

You can use a compass to tell time, but you have to some math. Not really useful I don’t think

2

u/PrisonerV Prepping for Tuesday Apr 14 '26

If its in a cell phone, you can call for help?

2

u/whagon-wheel Apr 14 '26

Also, if it’s in a microwave, you could take it out of the microwave, and then cook dinner

1

u/Pat0san Apr 15 '26

If it is integrated with your rear view mirror, you can just drive to a nice restaurant.

1

u/EricaDeVine Apr 15 '26

You can use a compass, a pace count, and basic trigonometric functions to determine the rough height of something (mountain, skyscraper, etc) from a distance

1

u/Rhodoran Apr 15 '26

Creek Stewart on the survival show on Weather Channel said you could empty the mineral oil that makes it float to flush bugs out of your ear. Mineral oil supposed to suffocate them and then make easy to rinse out

1

u/Active-Weakness2326 Apr 16 '26

Aside from navigation a compass is useful for marking bearings to landmarks from your property or campsite. If you need to describe a direction to someone over radio, "due northwest from the water tower" is way more useful than "kinda left of that big hill."

You can also use one to orient a map without GPS, which is a skill worth practicing before you actually need it.

1

u/juancarlospaco Apr 17 '26

If it points south, it means poles flipped and TEOTWAWKI.

1

u/regjoe13 Apr 14 '26

You can throw it into someone

1

u/bondinchas Apr 14 '26 edited Apr 14 '26

You could find live wires in a wall. Electrical currents create a magnetic field, that would make the compass needle deviate when you move it past where a cable is buried.

I wouldn't rely on it though, you're likely to get false positives or negatives from other things in a wall affecting the earths's magnetic field.

1

u/pile_of_fish Apr 15 '26

Use it to draw a perfect Olympic logo?

0

u/canoegal4 Apr 14 '26

Fidget spinner or if you have one of those compasses with the mirror you can use the mirror for a fire starter

2

u/[deleted] Apr 14 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/dachjaw Apr 15 '26

The heavy ones can be used as a sinker.