I just ordered my Cawmpess for my Get-Home-Bag.

I have watched quite a few videos on this subject and I must say, you explained it better than anyone else. This was a great video! Thank you.

I swear this is got to be the biggest outdoor skill that I always seem to make complicated until I quit thinking about it so much and let my compass work. Thanks for sharing

Great video I learned the same thing in the Air Force survival book someone needs to tell you that orientated is not a word it's oriented but your videos are great

Learned map reading in Boy Scouts and man did it help me in the Army during Viet Nam. EVERY guy that goes into the backcountry should know this! Especially the contour lines!

you explained in 2+ minutes what takes other people a whole lotta more time and still be convoluted. thanks for sharing.

Great video with easy to follow information on how to use a compass! The compass Bering's instructor in the Militarily confused 75% of the recruits when teaching how to use a map & compass over 20 years ago. lol You did a better job in 5 minutes than the entire lessons! I like simple and easy to understand and your a great teacher Dan!

Brilliantly explained, mate. thank you. I'm new to all this and been struggling to grasp this technique, but your vid has been the best to make it all click.

Great simplified video! You’re right, it is so easy to get very technical and over think with map reading. When I taught land nav I also always told the joes not to make it more complicated than it needs to be.

Great video to symplify what is often a confusing concept. People have become so dependant on GPS & electronics that map & compass land nav is becoming a lost skill. Many thanks for a really useful video .. Cheers, 😄😄😄

Thanks Dan! You’re a great teacher! Another life skill that could prove detrimental!

Well done! Keeping it simple. You are an excellent teacher!

Another good video! In the Appalachians, it is almost impossible to be lost, if you can recognize a mountain peak or two across the valley or have some idea how to use shadows to determine direction of travel. On a clear sunny day, I directed my Korean visitor to an overgrown trail head of a side trail on Mt. Rogers, using late afternoon shadows and this ex-soldier was astounded. But my skills are not adapted to flat ground, where I would be as lost as he. This video covers that deficiency very well. Thanks!

This is great stuff! Land navigation was one of the things I exceled at in the old school Army; they don't even teach these techniques anymore to most troops (I hope my old Cav Scouts still do). These skills saved my hairy but more than once!

Great videos, straight to the point, thanks for sharing.

Excellent video Dan and thank you for using the kiss approach to this. Much appreciated. If you haven’t already made a video, could you do one on Ranger beads. I can’t wrap my head around that concept.

You are a pleasure to watch Sir, your content and delivery manner are very easy to watch and understand. thanks

This man says compass weird lol

Wonderful explanation! I think it's always best to begin teaching that the compass needle only points to magnetic north, and it doesn't point to geographic true north. (unless your in the middle of America along the agonic line where magnetic declination is near zero). And when using a map and compass together - you will want your bearing to travel in referenced to true north. As you demonstrated, it's a simple adjustment to set our compass so that the direction of travel arrow is referenced to true north. It's easy to understand and to do, if people don't first convince themselves it is difficult to understand. For west magnetic declination, West is ccw from North, just turn the compass bezel ccw, by the required number of degrees. And East is cw from North, so just turn the compass bezel cw, by the required number of degrees. Do that and whether your local magnetic declination is east or west, your compass bearing will be set referenced to true north and your direction of travel arrow pointing in the correct direction. Which is especially important in areas where magnetic declination is large. Such as in the northeast or northwest corners of the continental USA where mag. declination is over 20˚, but a good idea to adjust for if it is over 5˚. After that, about all people need to remember is that they only need to adjust the compass for magnetic declination if using the compass and map together. (or if someone gave you a true bearing to follow to get to some location). If not using a map, and only keeping a record of your direction (bearing/or azimuth) and distance traveled. Mostly you can ignore magnetic declination.

Excellent presentation. Keeping it simple is key. Learning declination, azimuths and back azimuths can come later. This is where I had a problem in the Army during Basic Training Land Nav. Also, easier to use the Silva Ranger CL than a Military Linsatic Compass. Thanks.

Excellent job applying the previous video to practical Topo use!!!

Nice tutorial, Dan! Thanks for sharing.

Great info and great thing to know. "As the crow flys" is much shorter than the actual trail when ascending and descending. 👍🏼

Excellent explanation, Dan!

Nice and easy is how I like it, thanks Dan

excellent easy to follow instructions thank you, makes sense for beginners

That was a very good explanation, thank you

Simple and effective. I know a number of people that take a map or a compass but not both and don't know how to read or use neither.

I can't say as ever I was lost, but I was bewildered once for three days.As quoted in Daniel Boone: The Life and Legend of an American Pioneer (1993) by John Mack Faragher p. 65 Maybe ole Daniel should have subscribed to you channel! LOL

Enjoyed the video. Great job

This is great! Thanks!

Thanks my brother... Great video!

You made it easy to understand. 👍🏻

Great videos!

Right on man, great video.

Thanks for the video!

Excellent job! It seems to me that this process would work using any kind of map...

you have made this so easy for me.

I loved your video it was really good, and I started getting back into land nav a few weeks ago, I just wanted to share a personal story of why yo should always carry a map and compass, i know GPS is reliable , but this mistake almost got me killed whilst hiki0ng in the Austrian Apls, i relied on my GPS and phone, and because of how cold it was, they malfunctioned kilometers

Nice, simple and easy to understand.

Good info, thanks!

wow its so easy ? thank you for explaining i watched like 10 vid but yours is so easy to understand, happy new year

Hmm. Not sure I understand completely with you turning the compass around so much. I'll watch again and see if I can figure out what you are doing there. This is so important. Thank you for making this video. I have always wanted to know how to navigate this way.

Great video!

Keep up the good job!

Love these two nav videos. My eyes always just glaze over when I try to get this info from a book. Do you think you can do a vid on how to find your location using topo map and compass?

Thank you! This saved me today in the field. New skill in my pocket. Can you offer any advice on how to figure out where you have parked so you can begin navigating from a specific spot?

Even watching this, I have trouble understanding to the point of applying it. I wish I had someone Hands-On explain this to me growing up, what a fun skill to know

You have perfectly explained how to use a compass that DOES NOT have adjustable declination. Wished I found this video sooner, would have saved me from buying a compass at twice the price of the one I didn’t understand how to use. Thank you 😊

Great info, new sub

Thanks buddy 👍🏻

Using a compass with magnetic declination. Do you set declination before orienting the map north or do you orient the map then set compass declination?

Well done .. thanks

Permanent marker! A little piece of me died inside lol.

Thank you!!!!

I would gather that if you did the Declination adjustment at the start ( like you did) you could go right into finding a bearing using the Silva 1-2-3 method which employs the meridian lines. This way we don’t have to orientate the map, which can be a pain, when you’re out on the trail.

Thank you bro

Great video! A quick question...don't you use the north/south orienting lines when transferring a bearing to a map? You show it as lining it up with the orienteering needle? Which is right? Thanks!

You don’t have to orientate the map north to get the direction between waypoints on a map. Simply align the orienteering lines in the compass dial to the longitude lines on the map. When you start navigating then you have to use the direction and magnetic needle. And then you adjust for true/magnetic north by 10 degrees west ;-)

Thanks. Maybe next time I camp there I will run into you there.

Dan, first- thank you for the simple explanation! I have a question though! What if there are no trails along the way of my planned route? Or I run into an obstacle?

Question, please. We use declination ONLY ONCE to orient our map; then once the map is in the proper position and unmoved, we can find our direction/s with out further regard to declination. Did I understand correctly? Thank you.

Ty, sweet an simple......

Very good thank you

Thanks so much. My sons and I love your vids and want to do this very thing. Could you tell us what brand compass you use? Thanks

How about a short video on triangulation? So if you don't know where you are on the map but can see two different distinct location, you can take to reading off those two points and draw them on the map and you will be where the lines intersect.

Once you lined up your north arrow with the “shed” didn’t that mess up your magnetic declination? Or does that not matter since you already orientated your map and compass to the 10 degree declination ?

I'm preparing myself for the apocalypse. I'm gonna need this skill because the internet's not gonna work, and I would need to learn to read a map and plot routes because a GPS won't work during the apocalypse. This'll be a part of my personal survival guide for it. This is a really simple video. Thanks for making it. This could help a lot of people.

With no experience at topo maps and compass travel. Say I went in that general direction for a few clicks and was off by a few degrees. Then followed the compass for the proper degree. How far from the water tower would I wind up?

Well explained

Nice vid bud

I only have the $5 lensatic compass, no straight edge, only center marks and the wire. Can it be used on maps?

Hobut!! I’ve been searching for good topo maps of central PA and can’t find any. Do you have a source on where to find them?? All I can seem to find is ones of specific areas like state parks and stuff.

I've got a compass I really like, but I'd like another one. Suggestions? Something simple like yours that does well in cold weather.

Thank you

Good information Daddy Dan

That's the method for the lensatic compass applied to a modern compass, it works but it is more complicated than needed as you can set the compass without looking at the magnetic needle.

Love the concept of keeping it simple. Is orienting the map really necessary? Does the 123 method leave out anything? I don’t get it.

Locust lake! I didn't know you were in PA

Thanks.

How do you know when you get to a target if there are no landmarks you know of?

Helpful

I believe you turned the bezel in the wrong direction because the declination denotes the position of magnetic north so therefore if the declination is 10W that means magnetic north is 10W of true north so you would actually turn the bezel clockwise by 10

Should we orientate the map to north every time before shooting a new bearing, or only once in the beginning?

Because of the coming micronova, declination is moving much farther, and much faster and so declination information is likely incorrect but there is still a way to recalibrate magnetic declination using the shadow of sticks recording the path of the sun---rotation of the earth has not yet changed. First stick will show East. Mark it with a sharp stick pushed in. After a few minutes you can mark sun shadow travel where the shadow has moved - Push another stick in to mark West. Lay a straight stick from the E mark to the W mark. Geographic north or True North is 90 degrees from the E-W line. With your compass pointing toward True North, note how far off your compass is now. That is your true up-to-date declination. My up-to-date declination is 30 degrees, 15 degrees off from the official declination for my area. More on micronova in my 2nd book, Surviving the Micronova: This Train Is on the Tracks is now available

I got a map from the USGS, and evidently grid north (mercator projection) is not the same as true north on this map. It's showing Magnetic north at a 10 degree west declination from true north, and grid north 1 degree east of true north. Does that mean when I adjust the declination on my compass I have to subtract the 1 degree difference of grid to true from the 10 degree magnetic declination (so in other words adjust the declination on the compass only 9 degrees west), in order to be able to use the vertical grid lines as "north", and have it actually correspond with an accurate compass reading? I don't understand why they would give the magnetic declination on the map from true north if it differs from the gridlines. To me that means when I route plan from map, the angles are going to be off the difference between grid and true north.

How about the black arrow what is it for

STELLAR! Thanks!

When converting a bearing from map to compass (or vice versa) you need to take into account the magnetic declination/variation.......I don't think you mentioned that.

Looks easy enough

You have to move the bezel to match the north line on the map first, then find the bearing. After that you put the needle into the doghouse.

Why wouldn’t adjust the declination on that compass as it’s an adjustable baseplate compass?

when they say your magnetic declination is negative 6 degrees west, thats a curve ball, lol. what s that mean?? ty

What do you do if you dont have anything flat to lay your map on, and can you use a compass without that movable ring mine just has a arrow that does not move.

What if you come across an obstacle and you have to travel around and not in a perfectly straight line?

I just can't get over how you say "cawpuss". (says the guy from Tennessee, who does not have an accent haha) Seriously, great explantation.

Hello sir! I have some problems with the UTM coordinates. May you help me?

I tgink I got it. Must practice.

Wait, wait, wait-is this which follows correct? 1.) orient the map north using the straight lines and “N” marking on bezel. 2.) ROTATE THE ENTIRE MAP until red is in the shed. 3.) lay the compass between where you are and where you want to go. 4.) put red in the shed using the bezel. 5.) the direction of travel arrow or marking now shows the bearing you want to take to get to the next chosen point. 6.) turn your whole body until red is in the shed. 7.) follow a straight line using the direction of travel arrows, to your next point of destination.

You manually adjusted you declination when you oriented the map but did not make the adjustment when you were plotting your coarse . The mc2 has an option to set the declination with a too,l so you don’t have to do the calculations in the field.