Navigate to a Corner

Tip: Keep moving for a moment when you first open navigation. GPS bearing calculations require a small amount of movement to establish direction.

Final approach technique. The pointer is most reliable from about 100 ft down to 25 ft. Inside 25 ft, GPS bearing noise can exceed the actual signal — the pointer may wander even if you're standing still. At that point, shift your attention from the pointer to the distance number. Walk slowly, pause for a few seconds, and watch the number settle. When it reads 3–5 feet and stops changing, you're at the corner — mark it, probe for the pin, or flag it. Don't keep chasing the pointer once you're that close.

With an external GPS receiver like the XGPS160, the pointer stays reliable down to about 5 feet, significantly narrowing the "use distance only" zone.

Read the confidence ring before you conclude anything. The ring around the compass and the engraved “±ft” are color-coded — green is trustworthy, amber/red means wait. If it's Fair or Low, the reading is unreliable, not necessarily the boundary. And if the distance counts down while you stand still, the receiver is simply settling. Resist the urge to "fix" a short reading by tapping I'm at this corner: on an already-placed corner that slides the entire boundary onto a fix you already have reason to distrust. See Accuracy & Anchoring.

If the whole parcel plots rotated — near corners fit but far ones drift — the deed's bearing basis probably differs from true north (common on older magnetic-north deeds). Set it under ⋯ → Bearing Basis (True, Grid, Magnetic, or Assumed; for Magnetic, tap "Use compass"). Or, to fix it from the ground, anchor two known corners, then in that same sheet tap Solve rotation from these corners — an optional manual step for a genuinely rotated deed. If corners already land on the stakes from one anchor, leave it alone. See Understanding Survey Systems.