Sun Compass Shadow Stick Method

hey everybody Jeff here with Martin survival so today I'm going to show you a quick navigation tip called the shadow stick method now this was used in early primitive culture and it's still used today by lost hikers and adventures who end up getting lost in the wilderness and find themselves in a survival situation this method will help you find north east south and west stay with me and let me show you how to do this now in order for this method to work you're going to need a few natural materials you're going to need one stick about three feet long you're going to need another stick that's about three and a half feet long then you're going to need markers now you can use branches as seen here these are just pine branches that I sharpened at the end or you can use rocks and the last thing you're going to need is of course the Sun so the first thing I want to do is take the three and a half foot stick and just set it to the side here and what I've done is I took the three foot stick and just sharpened it at the tip so it's easier to work it into the soil and what I want to do is I want to take that sharpened end put it on the ground and I want this stick to be straight up and down I don't want it to be leaning to the left or right back and forth I want it straight up and I just want to hammer it in this case I just have a stone here into the ground so it's nice and tight just want to check things make sure it's nice and straight once again okay now when you do this you want to make sure it's in a nice open area to where there's no shade and you also want to make sure the dirt is nice and smooth and I'll show you why in just a second so now I have my stick that's straight up and down as you can see here and the first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to go ahead and take one of my pine branches that I went ahead and shaved off and I always start with the larger pine branch and I want to take that and I want to follow the shadow that's casting off this this little branch here and I want to mark it at the end now what that's going to do is that's going to lay my first marker for navigation so I'm going to find that and I'm just going to stick that into the ground right at the tip so as you guys can see the bigger stick casts the larger shadow and then at the tip the smaller stick also casts another shadow and one way to tell that this is aligned is it'll all look like one shadow and it'll be straight in the center and what I mean by that is a smaller sticks shadow will be straight in the center of the larger stick now everybody knows that the Sun rises from the east and sets in the west so what you're going to do is you're going to wait every 10 15 minutes and once the shadow moves you're going to mark it with another stick so your first stick since the Sun rises from the east and sets in the west your first stick is going to be your West Point and then your last stick is of course going to be your East Point so earlier I talked about having a nice flat surface and also being in the open to where there's no shade and now I'm sure you can see why and the reason why well you want that line to be very straight and if there's a lot of ripples on the floor if there's a lot of rocks that's not going to give you true east and west because that sticks shadow will be shifting and I say use these little stakes here I carved out of pine for a few different reasons well that's going to give you a precise shadow casting straight from the larger stick and that's going to be able to mark it a little bit more clear and it's also going to give you precise direction also I can use this for other things as well I can use it as a toothpick if I have something caught in my tooth I can use it as even a hunting utensil if there's a scorpion and I need to pin down its tail I have a stick here that also has an end to where I can hold that tail down and I can get a nice clear cut also if I have a fire built around me and all those charcoals are still smothering somewhat I can take this and use it as a writing utensil by smothering it in that charcoal and writing on a piece of wood or a piece of paper sending rescue which direction I went so this is very handy and I recommend keeping a few of these inside of your backpack and scouting kit all right so that'll be the last one we stake in we have one two three four five that should be good enough now this is where the three and a half foot stick comes in and this I want to place directly over it and this will be West and over here will be East now how accurate is it well let me show you all right so we have our compass here it's the Suunto MC 2g and we're going to put the dog in its house and what I mean by the dog in its house you want the top arrow to meet the bottom arrow and as you can see it is a little bit off it says West is this way in East runs that way and that's expected but in reality the sticks is true west and east because of the shadows it casted and the reason why this is a little bit off is because of the magnetic error in the magnetic compass so where is north and south well north and south is about like this so you'll have north south east and west so this compass comes very very close to true north east south and west it's just a hair off but that's no big deal I still recommend carrying at least two inside of your scouting pack as well as a bug-out bag if you're any outdoorsmen whether you're a hiker a fisherman or an adventurer or just going out and practicing wilderness survival having this very very important I have three I have two of these and I also have my watch which is also a compass but knowing this primitive method on how to find true north east south and west is very very crucial and I do recommend going out and getting the dirt time so if you don't come prepared you're second best option is a stick in the Sun well I'm Jeff with Marten survival I appreciate you joining me for this video if you guys have any questions or comments email me desert survival 87 at yahoo.com thanks for watching guys

Channel: Primitive Lifeways

Views: 692,481

Rating: 4.5144482 out of 5

Keywords: Desert Survival, Primitive Skills, Martin Survival, Sun Compass, Primitive Navigation, Wilderness Survival, Joshua tree, Joshua Tree National Park, Knives, tools, Indian, Native, Compass, Navigaton, Pathfinder, Survival Kit, Survival Knife, Cutlery Lover, Survival Skills, Woodsman, Dual Survival Season 3, Survival, Knife Review, Doomsday Preppers, Emergency Preparedness, Survival Gear, Camping, Hiking, Backpacking, Hunting, Primitive Living, Cowboy

Id: u3l49zQREcY

Length: 9min 4sec (544 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 13 2012

Reddit Comments

[u/2drawnonward5]

Aaand now I know how to make a compass out of some sticks and some free time. That's pretty damn cool.

[u/SpyMonkey3D]

Very interesting techniue, still, the guy's explaining style is a bit slow, imho.

[u/INTPClara]

"Put the dog in the house." That could mean so many things.

That is a nice compass.

[u/[deleted]]

Skipped through the video in large gaps then exited out.