Got GPS? Paper maps are still solid

The #1 community for Gun Owners of the Northeast

Member Benefits:

  • No ad networks!
  • Discuss all aspects of firearm ownership
  • Discuss anti-gun legislation
  • Buy, sell, and trade in the classified section
  • Chat with Local gun shops, ranges, trainers & other businesses
  • Discover free outdoor shooting areas
  • View up to date on firearm-related events
  • Share photos & video with other members
  • ...and so much more!
  • dblas

    Past President, MSI
    MDS Supporter
    Apr 6, 2011
    13,087
    Who has, values, wants, needs or uses paper maps?

    Yep

    What scale?

    Several

    How many?

    Enough to cover getting me from here to there, and few other places.


    Paper is forever

    The age of the atlas is far from over.

    Sure it is....

    What about land nav or orienteering?

    Boy Scouts, US AARMY, taught it in both.

    How about celestial constellations? I’m a fan of Orion...right now in the Western morning sky. Maybe Big Dipper and the North Star?

    Never really got into those, but I am a fan of tracking the sun.

    Anybody collecting hiking maps? Those trails just might save some steps or your life...

    Maybe..

    Navigation is always an important skill. Your phone and or vehicle nav app might not always be there.

    and a perishable one as well. What nav app???

    Anybody subscribe to following railroads and or rivers? Why would you do that?

    Utility rights of way...

    Lots of folks couldn’t find their own arse with both hands and a trained team of sherpas. Some skills never lose their value.

    It's always fun to build a 12 point orienteering course all within a 100 yards.

    Besides, we need healthy and constructive distractions this year...

    Yes, yes we do.
     

    JoeRinMD

    Rifleman
    Jul 18, 2008
    2,014
    AA County
    Who has, values, wants, needs or uses paper maps?

    What scale?

    How many?

    Why?

    The age of the atlas is far from over.

    What about land nav or orienteering?

    How about celestial constellations? I’m a fan of Orion...right now in the Western morning sky. Maybe Big Dipper and the North Star?

    Anybody collecting hiking maps? Those trails just might save some steps or your life...

    Navigation is always an important skill. Your phone and or vehicle nav app might not always be there.

    Anybody subscribe to following railroads and or rivers? Why would you do that?

    Lots of folks couldn’t find their own arse with both hands and a trained team of sherpas. Some skills never lose their value.

    Besides, we need healthy and constructive distractions this year...

    I'm a sailor and a couple years ago went through the process to get a Coast Guard Captains License. I've always enjoyed both nautical charts and land maps, but I really LOVED doing the charting and plotting parts of the prep course and test. During summers in college, I worked as an engineering aide/draftsman at the Washington Navy Yard. The CG prep course was a great refresher to first principles of drafting for things like a running fix and accounting for set and drift.

    While I have full electronic nav suite on my boat, I also have paper charts of the entirety Chesapeake Bay, plus hand-bearing compass, dividers and parallel plotter. I'm planning to go offshore next year to New England. I'll have paper charts for those waters as well. In my cars, I still have a maps for most of the states on the Eastern Seaboard in the map pockets.

    I think there's a difference in how our brains take in information between a screen and a large chart. The GPS chartplotter on my boat is very good, but the "Field of view" is very small. It's like looking through a drinking straw. To get a good sense of the big-picture, it's much easier to use a paper chart, at least to me.

    As an aside, I've mentored a lot of people who want to get involved with sailing. Most of them seem to be focused on the mechanics of sailing. But I always tell them the really challenging part of being captain, isn't how to make a sailboat move, but understanding and executing good Piloting and Navigation skills. When you're coming into a new harbor and only have red and green buoys plus a depth-sounder, you need to figure it out very quickly.

    JoeR
     

    ted76

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Jan 20, 2013
    3,151
    Frederick
    I prefer to use a paper or online map to GPS, to often I have had GPS want to take me down a one way street, the wrong way or a longer route, than a shorter route that I know exists.
     

    CanDoEZ

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Oct 23, 2008
    2,592
    SoMD
    I was lucky to have learned at a young age with Boy Scouts, which helped give me a leg up when I was in the Corps. Do scouts even teach it anymore?

    I keep paper 1:25k and 1:50k topos of certain key areas. Always check you mag declination which has shifted quite a bit over the years. I have a couple key websites bookmarked on my laptop that I’ll post when I can hobble that far.

    Land Nav, especially terrain association, and having a solid pace count is a perishable skill like so many others. Get out and walk the earth in your local AOs, if you have kids get them involved in the fun.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
     

    Blacksmith101

    Grumpy Old Man
    Jun 22, 2012
    22,163
    The National Guard and ROTC and others (?) teach land nav and run their students around Fair Hill NMRA (5,600 acres) several times a year. We see the poor lost souls with map in one hand and compass in the other wandering bewildered around in circles and occasionally the organizers have to send out search teams to find them.

    Good skills to acquire because when the SHTF and you need it is not the time to start learning.

    Here is an annotated map of Fair Hill Natural Resources Management Area
    https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tw...zjZlzy8pNdUTIHuSw2a-FJyGLfW8_L3GSKbxaDB9xJSmM

    And an Excell spreadsheet of what the dots represent
    https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...iGnEWqqiqFHkaN2CusA7wgLtrlJ4CvT3-LKfOnk#gid=0

    PS - There is another 3,000+ acres of adjacent Pennsylvania public land across the northern border the other side of the state line.
     

    Alea Jacta Est

    Extinguished member
    MDS Supporter
    ^^^^^This would be a superb excuse/opportunity for an MDS get together. You could turn it into a campfire and maybe partake of the grape if you could find a good space.

    Remember....if the world wasn’t flat, then why are all the maps n charts only two dimensional?
     

    Jed195

    Ultimate Member
    Oct 19, 2011
    3,901
    MD.
    I was lucky to have learned at a young age with Boy Scouts, which helped give me a leg up when I was in the Corps. Do scouts even teach it anymore?

    I keep paper 1:25k and 1:50k topos of certain key areas. Always check you mag declination which has shifted quite a bit over the years. I have a couple key websites bookmarked on my laptop that I’ll post when I can hobble that far.

    Land Nav, especially terrain association, and having a solid pace count is a perishable skill like so many others. Get out and walk the earth in your local AOs, if you have kids get them involved in the fun.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

    I remember doing a few land navigation exercises in SOI...at night and they made us hand over our batteries and any unauthorized light devices. Just your eyes getting used to the dark. Walking through swamp, streams and woods so thick you made your own path. Looking for mailboxes with numbers on them in moonlit Carolina forest. Found all of mine and a dead guy too...walked up on what I thought was a dude sleeping by the river bank...nope revolver in hand big hole in head.
     

    GUNSnROTORS

    nude member
    MDS Supporter
    Jun 7, 2013
    3,620
    hic sunt dracones
    Downloaded complete electronic files of MD, VA, and WV (1:24K USGS Topo).

    Printed files from work to home and made an Ausie-fold book (kept in my ghb).
     

    GUNSnROTORS

    nude member
    MDS Supporter
    Jun 7, 2013
    3,620
    hic sunt dracones
    Smart man!

    That's not what Mrs. GnR says!

    Thanks, you're too kind.

    My cut and paste (old-school definition) skills were learned in kindergarten. Learned to make map books in the Army. Turns out, you can go pretty far with just kindergarten and Army training - who knew? :D
     

    Pinecone

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Feb 4, 2013
    28,175
    More than 180, subtract 180. Less than 180, add 180.

    Easier mentally to add or subtract 200, then subtract or add 20.

    So, 090. Add 200 = 290, subtract 20 = 270.

    045 + 200 = 245- 20 = 225.

    284 - 200 = 084 + 20 = 104
     

    Pinecone

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Feb 4, 2013
    28,175
    We have paper maps of all the lower 48 states and Canada, when the big one hits or a solar flair takes out satellites we will be good to go. The Navy stopped teaching Celestial Navigation the Coast Guard still Teaches it. When at war and a ship get hit by by electronics. We rely too much on our electronic gismos, take for example when a computer go out in a Walmart or any business they shut down. They can't count money back, figure out % Tax or even add up prices.

    FYI Naval Academy saw the light and put it back in the curriculum.
     

    Users who are viewing this thread

    Forum statistics

    Threads
    274,930
    Messages
    7,259,487
    Members
    33,350
    Latest member
    Rotorboater

    Latest threads

    Top Bottom