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THIS is how to use a compass - very simple

1.9M views · Aug 11, 2023 · Education

The Map Reading Company

203K subscribers

Comments · 844

@TheMapReadingCompany · 2 weeks ago · pinned
If you’d like to support The Map Reading Channel, please consider buying one of our weatherproof notebooks — the same notebooks we provide to participants on our navigation courses. Each notebook costs £12 plus postage and can be shipped worldwide.   Postage, along with any import taxes, tariffs, or fees imposed by your government, is handled through eBay’s International Shipping Programme. The total cost is calculated automatically at checkout. To find the notebook <a href="http://ebay.co.uk/">EBay.co.uk</a> (UK only) <a href="https://ebay.io/m/U4eual">https://ebay.io/m/U4eual </a> <a href="http://ebay.com/">EBay.com</a> (most other places)  <a href="https://ebay.io/m/KWNMwH">https://ebay.io/m/KWNMwH </a> Thanks,  Wayne.
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@normanedwards7220 · 1 year ago
14 years , army reconnaissance,  map reading instructor,  good video , full of useful information , I would have called it magnetic variation,  but , that just me , once you have learned to use a map and compass , there might be a time when your brain / instinct  tells you to go one way , and the compass tells you another way , it happened to me  ONCE I was convinced that the compass was wrong , ...that I was right , I sat down , thought about it , and against my instinct I followed my compass , I arrived at my destination after a few miles through thick forest , ....it was not a life or death situation,  but it taught me to believe what my compass told me , ( it was only a exercise)  but it taught me that a simple magnetic compass knew better than I did , ......p.s. I was the only one to finish the course
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@MrNikolidas · 2 years ago (edited)
A quick little tip from my time in the cadets - if you're following a bearing and need to cross a bridge or other obstacle at a specific point, then you should deviate either left or right by a small but significant amount. When you reach the river, you now know exactly which direction to walk to find the bridge - if the original bearing was off by a degree or two and you'd been walking for miles, you otherwise might not know the direction to walk when you reach the river and find no bridge. This advice has stuck with me for 20 years for some reason.
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@Paul_SD · 6 months ago (edited)
As a welder with 73 years experience in map drawing and a further 29 years in pizza delivery reconnaissance, I commend this video.
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@zakdupre9382 · 3 years ago
Wow, I have never been able to understand the compass. So many people have tried to show me but I've never understood . I couldn't sleep last night so I came down stairs I put YouTube on to learn something and I stumbled on your video explaining what's on a compass. Then I watched your next video how to read a compass, when I woke up this morning. I am so inspired by you and I'm so grateful, thank you so much. I have sent your videos to my friends this morning to teach their children.
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@plunder1956 · 3 years ago (edited)
I'll have to watch that again twice to get it really clear in my head. It's a very clear but information rich video. Thanks
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@devinbraun1852 · 2 years ago
Great tutorial.  Even though I am very proficient in this skill (24 yr career as a reconnaissance scout in the Army), I was curious how you instructed the subject so I watched it all the way through.  Clear and concise intro to some of the basic skills of using a map & compass.   While hikers/backpackers are always told they need to have a paper map and compass, most don’t and if they did, very few have a clue how to use them.  I commend the poster for efforts to educate.   Hopefully people first learn to: 1) read a topographical map - understand and envision the contour and elevation of the terrain depicted on the map 2) orient the map to the ground 3) identify where you and your destination are on the map 4)  select a route and navigate using terrain association (following a straight azimuth is rarely the preferred way to get somewhere in the wilderness) If you can’t do the above, you should not venture off trail and probably only limit yourself to well marked day hikes. These can provide good opportunities to practice map reading and navigation skills but with mitigated risk of becoming lost.
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@grannydeen1586 · 2 years ago
When I was 16 I got a job marking boundary lines for my county here in New York state. It was a job set aside for retired men as a summer fill-in called the Green Thumb. There wasn't anyone to fill the position so, since I had previously cut brush along the roads  for our town the previous two years, they hired me for the job. They bought me a compass just like the fifth one you layed out. They gave me bucket of paint, a brush and a map for each parcel I had to mark. I never used a compass before but I figured it out fairly quickly. Apparently I did a good job because I didn't get a reprimand and got a new parcel when the last one was done. This lasted all summer until school started again. Now I'm a retired old man but not working for Green Thumb but if they call on me again I still have the compass.
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@kurtjensen7264 · 2 years ago
It is imperative to note where you are. So that you can use the compass to get back to where you were. I learned that in the Boy Scouts. Where you want to go secondary.
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@allieandmaria · 2 years ago
Another little tip - don't hold your compass to your chest.  Metal zips, mobile phones etc. can interfere, as can metallic ore in rocks!
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@jacksyoungest5194 · 3 years ago
As old Army map reading instructor it was nice to review and go over old lessons again....Great presentation
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@Resist.Tyranny · 2 years ago
Best compass/map tutorial I have seen. Liked it. Makes me want to go out hiking and practice.
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