Find your way back

GPS helps hunters, anglers find their way

Even if you never need it, every outdoorsman should have a GPS unit.

Short for Global Positioning System, a GPS is a portable, compact electronic navigation unit that augments a compass. Both are important if you hunt, fish or hike in the backcountry away from roads and other orienteering landmarks.

Keep in mind that nowhere in the lower 48 states are you ever more than one mile from a road. When people who don’t have navigation aids get lost or disoriented, they compound their errors by walking in circles. A compass enables you to travel in a straight line or to maintain a directional heading by walking in a series of straight lines from one map point or landmark to another.

A GPS allows you to do the same things, but it also gives you a high altitude view of your area which enables you to plot a course of least resistance. Used in tandem with a compass, a GPS guarantees that you will reach your destination or return to your starting point.

In the backcountry areas where I hunt in the Ozark National Forest, I have learned the woods so intimately that I don’t need navigational aids. I still carry them because in the wrong conditions, I sometimes get disoriented in woods that I believe I know blindfolded.

A case in point occurred three years ago when I shot a deer at dusk as light rain and heavy mist settled over the woods. After searching for an hour, I realized that I had no idea where I was. I was in no danger because I wouldn’t have to walk far to find a cutover one direction, a main road in another direction and a fire trail in another direction. The problem was that I didn’t know where I was at that particular moment. Imagine my surprise and relief when, believing I was walking toward the main road, I found myself back at my deer stand.

One place I always use a GPS is when hunting flooded timber at any green tree reservoir. I have hunted Bayou Meto Wildlife Management Area since 1972. I know it well, but in the winter when it’s flooded, every inch of it looks the same. This especially was problematic when you could hunt all day at Bayou Meto because if you got lost at dusk, you might have to spend the night. My late father, who constantly suspected his compass of lying to him, was prone to this. The last time it happened was almost fatal.

Whenever I hunt these areas, I mark a waypoint on my GPS for my vehicle, and I mark one for my hunting spot. I also take a general compass bearing so that no matter where I wander or how far, I can always make it back to a staging area and, eventually, back to my starting point.

Over the years, my GPS has become a veritable repository of waypoints for encountering game and fish all over the country. If I encounter an especially productive smallmouth bass hole on a stream, I mark it with a waypoint. I’ve marked every place I have ever worked a wild gobbler. Other waypoints mark productive spots for speckled sea trout, snook, tarpon, crappie, walleye and river trout. I don’t really need them because I don’t forget my spots. Once there, I can always find my way back. The GPS is just an extra layer of security.

Selecting a GPS unit depends entirely on how much you want to spend, but the governing factor should be how you intend to use it. You can, for example, buy basic GPS units like the Brunton Get Back will get you back to your vehicle and little else. These units essentially map a route between two waypoints, but they are unsuitable for navigation.

After that, GPS units take a quantum leap in functionality. They all are very accurate, but as the prices increase, you get a better, more sensitive antenna and receiver and a more comprehensive base map. If you intend to use your GPS for advanced orienteering and precise waypoint storage, you will want to invest in a high-quality map SD card. Cards are available from a multitude of cartography companies, and they are much more detailed than the factory loaded base map.

Familiarize yourself with your GPS unit’s interface. I am a longtime Garmin user and an very comfortable with Garmin’s interface. Lowrance and Magellan units have different interfaces. Each has a learning curve. Knowing how to use it will ensure that it serves your purposes when you need it.

It’s also very important to update the operating system frequently. If you neglect this bit of maintenance, your unit will take increasingly longer to lock onto satellites. Eventually, it will fail to lock at all, rendering the unit useless.

Finally, remove the batteries if your GPS is in an extended period of disuse. I’ve learned the hard way that leaky batteries will ruin a GPS.

If you don’t require advanced navigation tools, a GPS is still valuable for hunting. I use mine to mark heavily used game trail crossings and to mark good trees to hang a stand. I also use it to mark good campsites deep in the interior of Hurricane Creek Wilderness Area, Caney Creek Wilderness Area and Richland Creek Wilderness Area. I can find my way back to all these spots easily, but time sometimes fogs the memory. I forget how far these places are, and if it takes longer than I expect to reach them, I might question whether I’m on the right path. My GPS eliminates doubt.

I use the Garmin GPS Map 64SX, but I still use my ancient Garmin eTrex Vista CX because it has so many waypoints. The latest Garmin GPS Map units cost about $350, but you can often get them much cheaper on sale. For about $600, you can step up to the Garmin Montana, which has a touchscreen interface instead of the GPS Map’s pushbutton interface, which is an improvement over the eTrex’s carpal tunnel-inducing pushbutton/ joystick interface.

Whichever brand you choose, it’s worth having.

Selecting a GPS unit depends entirely on how much you want to spend, but the governing factor should be how you intend to use it.