View Full Version : Land nav. books
Im looking for a book covering the basics of land nav and map reading and could use some suggestions.
K.L. Davis
10-13-10, 23:18
These are the books that seem to always be setting out on my desk.
FM 3-25.26
UTM: Using your GPS with the Universal Transverse Mercator Coordinate System
The Essential Wilderness Navigator: How to Find Your Way in the Great Outdoors
Wilderness Navigation: Finding Your Way Using Map, Compass, Altimeter & Gps
GPS Land Navigation (Ferguson)
Wilderness Navigation Handbook (Touche)
Land Navigation Handbook: The Sierra Club Guide to Map, Compass and GPS
Some of them are better than others, mostly just a matter of personal preference and what you are already know. Please feel free to ask any questions you have, this is a subject that I really enjoy.
Im also i need of a decent compass, maybe something in the 20 to 30 dollar range if there are any.
Other than ordering or downloading from USGS is there a good place to get topo maps from? I only own a standard size letter printer so i wouldnt be able to print myself anything that doesnt fit on 8.5x11.
Ive had my eye on the garmin 62 series for a little while, again any suggestions on consumer grade gps?
variablebinary
10-14-10, 08:45
Im also i need of a decent compass, maybe something in the 20 to 30 dollar range if there are any.
Ive had my eye on the garmin 62 series for a little while, again any suggestions on consumer grade gps?
For a compass, try the Cammenga US Military Compass. You can buy the non tritium model for like $40
Here is the gear I had during my last Land Nav:
Military protractor. Try your local Army Navy store.
Garmin Foretrex wrist GPS (Borrowed from a buddy. I was impressed)
Get a good ABC watch. I use a Highgear Altiforce Tactical. Most of my unit uses either a Casio Pathfiner or Suunto X.
The GPS was literally there just for backup, because I didn't want to be a lost dumbass. However, it contained a ton of valuable info.
The Brunton Adventure Racing Compass and the Silva Ranger are really nice(Ranger is a little bit higher $). The Ranger also has the signaling mirror that has slot cut into it for sighting. Put a set of pacing beads on it and you're gtg.
Ga Shooter
10-14-10, 11:22
Im also i need of a decent compass, maybe something in the 20 to 30 dollar range if there are any.
Other than ordering or downloading from USGS is there a good place to get topo maps from? I only own a standard size letter printer so i wouldnt be able to print myself anything that doesnt fit on 8.5x11.
Ive had my eye on the garmin 62 series for a little while, again any suggestions on consumer grade gps?
I am with you. Where can you get good topos? I have depended on a GPS for to long and need to brush up on my old skills.
I am with you. Where can you get good topos? I have depended on a GPS for to long and need to brush up on my old skills.
The Google
Get a good ABC watch. I use a Highgear Altiforce Tactical. Most of my unit uses either a Casio Pathfiner or Suunto X.
What is an "ABC watch"? ...or perhaps what features are you referring to?
Altimeter, Barometer, Compass (ABC)
None of which are precise but good enough to help with generalities.
Compasses - The orienteering compasses noted above are more user friendly and versatile than the Cammenga. I still have a Cammenga but its the old 11B in me that keeps it for nostalgia. With useage of topos and UTM the orienteering compass wins hands down. Cheap and easily carried also.
Books -
Kjellstroms "Be an expert with Map & Compass" is still a great place
to start.
Also on the shelf currently are Wilderness Navigation by Burns, The Ultimate Guide to Wilderness Navigation by Barnes, Churchill & Jacobson and Outdoor Nav with GPS by Hinch. All decent references and helpful with GPS usage.
Kifaru's website also has some great land nav articles on it. Very well written and easy to understand.
UTM grid reader - www.maptools.com great site and great prices you can get mgrs or lat/long also if that floats your boat.
Online maps - I find that the map pass ($29.95 per year) at mytopo.com works for me. For Search & Rescue my group uses the mytopo Terrain Navigator Pro, really lets you modify the maps but like I said map pass does what I need.
Consumer Grade GPS - Garmin 60CSx is the heat.
K.L. Davis
10-14-10, 15:24
You got a lot of good feedback here... I will throw in to check some of your local sporting goods and outdoor stores, some of them will have a kind of "kiosk" topo map printing station. They are spendy (like 7.00 a sheet) but you can print out exactly what you want and the size and quality of the maps are very good.
As for compasses, I use Brunton and Silva... I like to lean towards the US made stuff though. I would say you want a see-through "base plate" compass, I like the mirror but that is up to you. You for sure want one that is adjustable for declination, not just a declination scale. I hardly ever use the scale on the baseplate and rely on a seperate UTM scale. Other doo-dads like bubble levels and inclinometers are nice for advanced navigation, but most people can do just fine without them.
I've found that you can download topos for free from the usgs site. I will just put them on a cd and have them printed at a kinkos at the appropriate size.
As of today I've found that one of my coworkers teaches land nav classes. He suggested I start learning with a lensatic compass.
K.L. Davis
10-14-10, 19:24
I highly recommend the store.usgs.gov site... I print maps from there often - note that there is a little work needed to seam maps but it is not bad. While you are there get the TerraGo download, it makes working with your maps a lot simpler.
One thing to keep in mind about the military lensatic compass, is that most of them are card compasses... they are probably easier to learn to use, but they are different than needle compasses - I tend to start people out on a modern baseplate design.
If you are just starting out (my .02 for land based nav would be) to spend very little time on projections and traditional lat-long, and then learn USNG, from there it is easy to pick up MGRS and ultimately learn UTM - even UPS will makes sense at that point.
This is the compass im looking at. Ive found it for about 30 bucks online.
http://www.brunton.com/product.php?id=421
Im also gonna go with Wilderness navigation as my first book. Its got the highest reviews on amazon.
Is there a significant difference in military nav vs civilian nav?
K.L. Davis
10-14-10, 21:16
This is the compass im looking at. Ive found it for about 30 bucks online.
http://www.brunton.com/product.php?id=421
Good compass, actually great for the price - I really like the Circle-Over-Circle system that Brunton uses.
Im also gonna go with Wilderness navigation as my first book. Its got the highest reviews on amazon.
Excellent book...
Is there a significant difference in military nav vs civilian nav?
The biggest difference is what motivates you to do it... what I posted earlier about the lensatic compass is that they are generally a "card" compass, whereas most all of the commercial compasses, and the books and stuff out there, are based on a needle compass - there is a little difference in how you use them, but the data and information you get from them is used the same way, regardless of which type of compass you use.
Ga Shooter
10-15-10, 11:22
This is the compass im looking at. Ive found it for about 30 bucks online.
http://www.brunton.com/product.php?id=421
Im also gonna go with Wilderness navigation as my first book. Its got the highest reviews on amazon.
Is there a significant difference in military nav vs civilian nav?
Me too. I like the looks of that compass.
Book I am going with is Wilderness Navigation: Finding Your Way Using Maps, etc.
I realized at looking at this thread that my previous experience was just with a local map and compass of areas that I was very familiar with.
I want to get into hiking and camping again. I think this will be great.
Ga Shooter
10-17-10, 11:48
I went ot the local Bass Pro Shop yeasterday and they had the compass that we are looking at. It does look nice and versatile. They wanted $80.00 which is almost $30.00 above retail so I did not buy it from them, but I think it will be a good choice especially since K.L. Davis put his stamp of approval on it.
sandsunsurf
10-17-10, 14:25
I second the recommendation for GPS Land Navigation (Ferguson). Great book, covers a lot of good material.
I also agree not to spend too much time with angular coordinate systems- I say after you have the basics figured out, jump right in to using UTMs. If you can get your hands on real USGS maps, you can use a commercial UTM tool and you'll be able to plot very accurately. If you print your own maps, you may find that the scale is off, or the scale won't match any standards, i.e. 1:24,000. You can make an improvised tool for any scale and still get good precision, but...
Von Rheydt
10-17-10, 19:02
I highly recommend the store.usgs.gov site... I print maps from there often - note that there is a little work needed to seam maps but it is not bad. While you are there get the TerraGo download, it makes working with your maps a lot simpler.
USGS is an excellent reference and source. I did a Masters and some Doctoral work in Geographic Information Systems some years ago and had a fair bit of contact with them. If you take the time to google around some of the better Universities there are many, many, free resources out there for mapping, map based navigation and also a couple of satelite image resources beyond bing.
I still prefer my Silva Military 4 compass, marked in degrees and mils.
http://www.outdoorgb.com/p/Silva_Military_Compass_4_Militaire_6400_360/?utm_source=froogle&utm_medium=directory&utm_content=USA¤cy=USD&country=USA&SelectedBundle=169116
Links:
http://www.princeton.edu/~oa/manual/mapcompass.shtml
http://www.archive.org/details/militarysketchin00grie
http://www.lib.utk.edu/cic/gpsintro/gpslink.htm
http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~dbertuca/maps/e-maps-examples.html
http://library.buffalo.edu/asl/guides/geography.html#5
http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/education/pdf/Mapreadingmadeeasy.pdf
If you're still looking for a good book look for a copy of the Land Navigation MCI (Marine Corps Institute class) that goes from the basic use of a mil style compass, to using a map, to finding non-linear distances, when I took the course (all MCIs are correspondence) it came with a topo map and a protractor for the test portion...
Overall it does its job very very well.
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