I was a little more minimalistic in my compass use. I just learned that way, and I preferred keeping my hands empty, so that I could hold a walking stick, or my weapon.
I used a Tekna wrist compass, and later, one made by some other company that I cannot remember now. That is all that I used. I had a military-issue compass on my web gear, and sometimes I hung it around my neck, and stuffed the compass into a chest pocket....or tied it off on my belt, and stuffed the compass into a chest pocket....but I got to a point where I pretty much used just the wrist compass, and my map.
My feeling is, only someone who wants to suffer the most twisted fate that Murphy can devise goes to the woods with just one compass. Always have a backup. Always.
Needless to say, this way of working with a compass means that you are terrain associating, not merely walking distance and pace count.
I guess that one reason why I preferred working this way is because it helped free me from focusing on the compass. It helped me learn to keep my head up, which is always a good thing in the woods, and it helped me really LOOK at the terrain, and really see it.
With time, I learned to move with just the map in my hand, (in a plastic bag and tied down to my body, of course), folded to just the "lane" that I was working in, with left and right boundaries and a limit of advance. After I got practiced, developed a feel for the terrain, and felt synchronized and confident in my map recon, I put the map away entirely, and just remembered my general direction of travel, and the terrain features that I would be using to remain oriented.
As I hit significant points, or took a water break, I would break the map out and confirm location, recon my route ahead, and then put it away again.
Over time, it got to a point where I was able to walk through the woods for extended distances only occasionally consulting my wrist compass.
Troy Trek really, really refined my skills. I loved that freakin' event. It was one of the coolest things that I ever did in the military.
I wish that I could go back and run it again.
