Taking a Compass Bearing

Video of how to take a compass bearing and how to follow it across the hills. You can also read through the steps on my blog - http://tinyurl.com/78xp35.
Magnetic variation is not mentioned in the video. It is necessary for accurate compass bearings and will be covered in another video shortly.
Check out my Mountain Skills courses at http://www.outdoorsireland.com.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• compass
• bearing
• map
• reading
• navigation
• nathan
• kingerlee
• outdoors
• ireland
• mountain
• skills
• kerry

[benedicts11]

Thank you for the vid

Don't you need to compensate for magnetic variation?

[outdoorsireland]

@benedicts11 You do need to allow for magnetic variation, which you can work out from the info on your map. This video is just going through the basic mechanisms of taking the initial part of the bearing.

[watchrobbie]

Very useful information. If I may add something that should be remembered when taking a bearing. When you have lined up the compass housing wheel lines to the lines of longtitude on the map either write down or make a mental note of the degrees that the white line is pointing to. This white line is stationary and is in line with direction of travel arrow. What happens often and has happened to me is if you're carrying the compass in your pocket the housing may move and correct bearing is off

[outdoorsireland]

@watchrobbie great point, it's happened to me once or twice also.

[outdoorsireland]

Thanks for your comments, I really appreciate them. Still have a better camera on my shopping list, to buy soon!

[robertmartinez]

What confuses me is how do I follow a bearing when I"m following trails that meander and twist and turn and have multiple junctions of where various trails branch off?

Aside from going straight over the tops and through the valley's of hills in order to maintain a straight bearing, can a compass be used to find the correct route when you're forced to turn right & turn left by the way various trails are taking you?

[outdoorsireland]

Hi Robert,

In this case your compass will be of no use, as you can only use the compass to travel in a straight line from A to B.

This is when you'll have to navigate by measuring distances, timing, pacing and ticking off features as you progress.

[coryJ71]

It's so you can see what you look like when you are LOST!

[stemcm]

Excellent !!!!!!

[seocom]

These are good skills to have..

[robin644]

gma? idiot

[chihene]

benedicts11 asks:

"Don't you need to compensate for magnetic variation?" If you have a Sylva 515 series compass, you can set the compass for this variation.."set it and forget it".. otherwise you must know your map variation for your location and manually turn the compass taking into account the number of degrees variation..and always carry a notepad and mechanical pencil for making important notations..don't trust your memory...

[gravitygrabber]

Very articulate, good video - thanks.

[wagishwa]

hey i love your accent

[JohnnyBoy7022]

Thank you very much, very insightful :)

[194tomo]

Your gonna walk in the wrong direction because you forgot to add the grid magnetic angle.

[stak45DDS]

That's an awesome skill - I didn't know you could do that!

By the way, there was a cute chick behind you.

[PeterGratrex]

"You need to put the red thing on the red arrow but I'm not actually going to explain why. Rather than help you understand the principle first I'm going to talk about where to put your feet."

[grumpyoldgit99]

Nicely done! A straight forward, simple explanation that is easy to follow. Much appreciated.