Photo Marcin Mikita, CC BY-SA 3.0
Aiming off and catching features
Missing your target on purpose so you know which way to turn, and picking a line on the map that tells you when you have gone too far.
The words
- Aiming off: taking a bearing a little to one side of your target on purpose
- Handrail: a long feature you can follow, like a brook, a shoreline, a fence or a power line
- Catching feature: something big past your target that stops you if you overshoot, like a pond, a river or a road
- Attack point: something easy to find close to your target, where you start a short, careful bearing
How
- Say your target is a camp or a canoe on a brook, and you are coming at the brook through the woods. A bearing straight at it will be off a little. When you hit the brook, you will not know if it is up or down stream.
- So aim off. Set the bearing a little to one side, say to the left of the target.
- Walk the bearing until you hit the brook.
- Now you know the target is to your right. Turn right and follow the brook to it.
- Before you set out, find a catching feature on the map past the target. If you reach it, you have gone too far. Turn back.
- For a small target, like a cache or a small pond, walk to an attack point first, then take a short bearing and count your paces from there.
Do and don't
Do
- Aim off by enough to be sure. A few degrees on a short walk, more on a long one.
- Count your paces and keep a rough idea of how far you have come.
- Use handrails whenever you can. Following a shore is easier than walking a bearing through thick woods.
Don't
- Do not trust that you walked a perfect bearing. Nobody does.
- Do not keep going past your catching feature and hope.
- Do not pick a handrail you might not notice, like a small brook that dries up in August.
Watch for
Danger
- In fog or snow, a pond or a barren can look like the one you want. Check the shape on the map before you turn.
- Brooks and shorelines in bog country can be hard to follow and easy to lose. Stay on the firm side and check the map often.
- If nothing matches the map, stop. See When you are lost.
Notes
Aiming off is the trick that turns a hard target into an easy one. You swap a small point you might miss for a long line you cannot miss.
Put it together with Walking a bearing and Reading a topo map. Plan your handrails, your attack point and your catching feature at home, with the map on the table.
Updated 2026-09-27
Related
Pacing and judging distance
Navigation
Knowing how far you have walked by counting your steps and watching the clock, so the map and the ground stay matched.
Taking and walking a bearing
Navigation
Map and compass to a place you cannot see from where you stand.
Navigating without a compass
Navigation
Holding a direction with the sun, the land and the water.
Reading a topo map
Navigation
Seeing hills, valleys and bogs in the brown lines, and knowing how far a centimetre really is.