Customer Reviews

Map Reading and Land Navigation

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While the Alaskan woodsman may find this useful--I would warn any civilian that this manual is meant for the military. I came by it looking for information on the lensatic compass, which is a compass primarily used by the military. This manual is useful for using military maps and other military oriented subjects (e.g., UTM map coordinates). On the other hand, this isn't what the average civvy user will be using. You will probably be out there in the field with a silva (or suunto or brunton) compass if not a GPS and a USGS or ordinance survey map and not too terribly worried about what platoon (or artillery battery, etc.) is out there: in fact, you would know enough to avoid going near those areas. This means that most civilian map reading and land nav skills are fairly basic and don't require the specialisation found in this manual. On the other hand, you would be well advised to read this if you are either going to have military experience, or need the specialised land nav skills that are discussed in this book (i.e., using a lensatic compass). It's more a curiousity than a necessity for the average person on civvy street who wants to learn land nav.

I spend a great deal of time in the woods, and have read many books on land navigation (orienteering). There are better and worse, but this one is the best I have read so far and is really on the money. It seems that most of the navigation books are written by people who spend more time learning to write than to navigate. Nothing wrong with that, since I know I don't write the best, but I do know how to navigate. I haven't been lost more than two or three times in about the last five years, and when I was, I just followed the basic rules (find a creek and follow it downstream, or a powerline, etc.) and got out in a couple days. This is the best book on navigation.

all you need as a military man for mapping skills are on this book .
but , the pictures are in black and white and some are not clear without color . and about the GPS subject there is nothing just an old summery .

There are newer editions than this one.You need a magnify glass to read the print,it's so small.....