Just an update on Declination. The Declination listed for Ohio is 6 degrees Mag, the 7 degrees on Electronics comes from 1 degree of added Declination from True North making a total of 7 degrees so the My Topo map is correct in the diagram

I’m still amazed that this man gives out the wealth of knowledge he has to all of us for free when he also runs a business that teaches people these same skills. He could very easily make all of us pay for the courses he teaches and not give away this info for free. Bravo Dave!

This is a very good series. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and time. It is much appreciated.

Again, great series Dave and thank you for your time and information.

YES, Outstanding series Thanks for passing on the knowledge

Great I found again Dave. I never worried about declination except when I was in an army class where I had to show I knew how to do it. At all other times I oriented my map to my compass. I also passed that knowledge on to my troops because most had a hard time learning to consistently get declination correct.

LARS, left add-right subtract, is an easy way to handle declination also. If magnetic north is left of grid north in the chart in the margin add the number of degrees. If it is right subtract. This is when going from a compass reading to the map and do the opposite when going from map to real world.

Thanks Dave. Appreciate the education. Living in Scotland I have no real use for declination being almost on the prime meridian but it’s a must know skill. Have a blessed day

Brilliant! 'Comprehensive'!... Downloading the full series, and of course other videos from Daves chanel. I love the one on how to find natural water seeps by observing the lay of the land. (Will you need to know how to map an area for that if you don't have one?... It's gonna get cold at night if you can't find your way back to camp.) Exceptional Dave. (Don't forget to check and update the declination on your older maps regularly, and check again b4 your adventure with the maps you're gonna need... On the websites or your GPS as seen here.) P.S. sometimes governments leave out things, even disused roads or tracks on newer maps... Ergo, 'don't' discard your older maps, but If you learn what Dave is teaching here you won't have a problem anyway. Cheers buddy! Honour and respect. Universal Sovereign Citizen

Knowing the declination off Australian topo maps is hard due to the age of the information, I have never thought about using the map itself to work out the declination. This video is also very timely as I'm currently teaching my scout group how to navigate off a map. Thanks again for your videos and knowledge.

Really good series! I only wonder why there is no mention of declination changing through the years? Many maps have the declination diagram for the year the map was printed, but also a correction table that gives info like +2 degrees west per year for these 3 years, +3 degrees west per year for the next 2 years. It depends on where on earth you are if declination is a big thing or not. Currently in the Netherlands, declination Is about 1 degree west, but it will change throughout the years, so make sure to check if your map is still valid.

Great explanation of declination and a great solution to that problem. Kudos to you for giving credit where credit is due. Other channels should take note of that

You seriously ROCK!

I obviously need a new map & compass! I'm so glad you did this video... It forced me to check what I've got, and it's simply NOT good enough. I'm used to Nautical maps, but land maps are MUCH more difficult for me. Thanks Dave!

Another great class!

Thanks Dave

Dave is the King

Good info!

Thanks again!

Well you made navigation easy for me in my area, because according to the declination map at the first of this video, i live right on the 0 declination line.

Thank you .

Cool video

I put an apple on your desk Mr Canterbury

Great series Dave. What GPS app were you showing? Appreciate all you do.

I am blown away that I actually understood how to find declination and adjust for it. I won’t remember it probably but this was a very informative video. Just curious, what app were you using on your phone for GPS?

I enjoy your channel. Loads of content. At the 9'30" you show orienting a map to Magnetic North to eliminate declination. You must continue to use the north magnetic needle and red shed while taking an azmith on the map. If you go on to use the compass as a protractor your azimuth will be out 6 degrees. The use of the needle on a map has been replaced with the Silva 123 technique. It eliminates magnetic interference but complicates bearing. On my last course the table legs were creating magnetic interference. Placing a map on the ground or snow is not the best technique. You show other techniques that are more reliable. I also prefer to not set my declination as it affects other techniques such as boxing an obstacle. Thanks for the new video content.

Thanks a lot for the great video series. Quick question though as I try to wrap my head around the whole subject: I could „cheat“ and orient the map to North everytime. So what is the practical use of adjusting for declination? Say I set my declination does that mean that I would not have to orient the map to North all the time?

6 or 7 might depend on rounding but should not make much difference when our compasses are graded to +/- 1-2 degree accuracy or resolution

Being in wisconsin, I love not worrying about declination.

Could that difference in magnetic declination between the 6 and 7 degrees be attributed to the changing of magnetic north? It looks like it is shifting in a Northwest direction. Maybe the maps are still being printed using old data and the phone is using the most current data.

While I understand modifying/aligning the map to the compass the problem is for us folks on the 0°- 3° degree line. You're not changing the map and you don't get the practice of taking declination into account. (If I'm ever in the pnw or Alaska i'm in trouble.)

So by adding declination lines to your map, you would not set declination on your compass, is that correct?

I have the K&R Alpin compass, and that thing seems to be fairly confusing to use declination. I need help understanding that compass.

I have always left declination alone and oriented the map to magnetic north.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but the method of simply turning the map to face magnetic north makes no sense to me. Lets say, for example, I wanted to head to a point exactly 0 degrees Grid North of myself, for simplicity's sake. I orient my map to magnetic north, as demonstrated, and measure my azimuth. Of course, I get 0 degrees on my compass. However, if I now follow that bearing, I'm heading 0 degrees Magnetic North, which is 6-7 degree off from Grid North. I'm not heading in the right direction at all. Turning the map doesn't seem to work for me because I'm moving the terrain features with the grid. The grid is lined up to magnetic north when you turn the map, but all your terrain features are off by 6-7 degrees. You'd have to move the grid independently from the terrain features, like he did when he drew new grid lines on the map. Even the demonstration at the end comparing the protractor/modified grid lines and turning the map with the compass doesn't make any sense. The protractor's "North" was lined up with the declinated grid lines while the compass north was lined up with the regular grid lines. With 2 distinct lines of reference 6-7 degrees apart, they should not be giving the same azimuth at all, unless the compass was already adjusted for declination.

One thing I get confused with is how to actually set the declination and which way on the baseplate compass

Funny enough topo maps in europ are mostly 1/50000 with no markings of declination. In my country topo maps are 1/20000 with declination markings, bar with cm to km conversion, and also inches to km and miles. However in my country declination in my opinion doesn't make any sense hence the country is 55miles long and 35 miles across at its largest points

Where and HOW do I find my map for my location sir? Next video topic please!

Dave just keeps giving. Notice he doesn't even ask you to click anything like most content creators?

The magnetic pole slowly drifts. Its a gigantic iron deposit

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