How to Use a Compass • Magnetic Declination

Description

Krik of Black Owl Outdoors explains the phenomenon of magnetic declination.

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Tags: black owl outdoors,nature,camping,hiking,backpacking,survival,bushcraft,wilderness,forest,backcountry,magnetic declination,navigation,compass,map,tutorial

Video Transcription

hey what's up Turtles its Creek here with black outdoors and today I wanted to do a video explaining what magnetic declination is and how to actually adjust that and use it on a compass and which prompted me to do this video is I've had a few questions about it on a video I've already done Tompa sand navigation tutorial if you want to reference that look at it you can do that as well well like I said what prompted me to do this add some questions and I left that video sort of sort of simplified and I didn't go in a declination because it's a little bit more advanced it takes a little bit more you know more abstract thought if you will to use that so I have a I have a little diagram here that I've drawn to help explain what magnetic declination really is and you can see I have this is I have the earth drawn here I don't have any land on it but just imagine this is the earth the South Pole here have a little bit of CAP patron here to help show in the North Pole here when Santa Claus lives the other tab here and what that means this north-south line that I'm tracing right here is you know True North or grid North as the earth would sit but where a declination comes into play is that's not where our compass points are the compass needle is magnetized to the Earth's magnetic poles which I have expressed with this line here that's off access with a north-south line of True North and grid north so for a sake of this drawing this is magnetic north pole growing down here is a excuse me magnetic pole in the south and declination is literally the distance but is it as expressed in a degree in an angle is the distance between this north-south line here in the magnetic north south line here this little pie cut here that's declination and how you adjust that depends only on the compass and I have my silver range or 515 which has adjustable declination which means I can adjust it once and I'm too worried about it again until I maybe I move on to a different map for a different place because there's lines it's really easy to find your declination you can type in online for where you're specifically going to be if you have a USGS topo map it'll actually have your declination I want it kind of expressed in that angle I've shown on here but I'm going to get the compass out and really show you what that what that what that looks like and what it means on the compass so this is the silver Ranger 515 CL that I've done review one I've used this in my other compass video let me get this off my head make a little bit easier but I have the actual declination already changed on this I'm going to set it back to zero but you can see this black this black line here is it picking it up and you can you see the numbers this is the actual the declination is there's a east to here has declination here in West and there's a zero down here there's a zero line that runs in the US but like I said if you want to find where your declination is you can just type in your location there's websites that I'll show you tell you exactly what your degree is but they change the declination on this I'm going to use this little piece of metal here and there's a little flathead screw in here I'm going to put this in it's going to it's going to change this line I'm going to get it back to zero for the sake of the start of this video get that to zero looks about good okay so now if I wanted to go north with the way this is set I'm going to take the north on the bevel right here at the end and the take and put it up to this little index right up here and that's north and to get the north try get the angle I'm going to line up the magnetic needle which is pointing in one direction here I'm going to get it inside the red outline underneath it and that's how you determine where north is now to compensate for declination where I know where I it or I know excuse me where I am in Pennsylvania right now it's 11 degrees east so to change this to 11 degrees east I'm going to go back and adjust the declination to 11 degrees east keep going there's 10 between 10 and 12 there's 11 now what that did is change this red outline arrow here before it was pointing with a straight North and South line and now it's off 11 degrees you can see if your imaginary line between this North and South here on the bevel running straight you can see that that the red outline arrow and the black one down here it's off a little bit and that's literally what I've sort of compensated for using this what that basically done is this is my north-south on my compass on the bevel and changing the declination it moved this inside the bevel to it to adjust and compensate for it so now what I want to if I want to go to North I can keep it on here line the arrow up inside of that inside of it and using the sliding here and there's North where I am specifically this is pointing to map in grid north the North Pole with being adjusted for declination now if I didn't have a compass that like this that had adjustable declination it's really paying the butt to try to navigate with this so I'm going to turn it back to zero and show you what you would do if you had a cheaper compass that didn't have adjustable declination and I don't recommend using a compass like that if you actually do want to navigate using a map you want to orient and all that stuff get yourself a compass with adjustable declination will keep things much easier and straighter in your head so I changed this back to zero my north-south line on the on going to excuse me the bevel lines up with the inside of that red outline arrow on the black here they're all lined up now if I point this to North like I did before this is going to appoint me to magnetic north it's not going to take me to grid north or which which obviously you want using a map that has it has the earth on it in the grid so to compensate for that I'd have to actually using it gets a little confusing but since mine's 11 degree East I'm going to take it back and move the actual actual bezel 11 degrees and that's north now now I know you know the North is to the right of this pointer index but to get to grid North using this without adjustable declination this is what you'd have to do now and now this will give me accurate grid north but on that you can see on the bevel the bezel excuse me it's not to the north so that's really some abstract thinking you have to compensate every single time if you're trying to take a bearing if you do not have adjustable declination you're going to have to do something like this which I guess I do not recommend I do not recommend at all if you want to Oregon and that's pretty much the ins and outs of declination you know I hope I hope I've explained it well to really be able to orient you have to sort of put yourself outside of yourself if you're looking at a map you have to sort of build this three-dimensional construct by having yourself be a little dot on the map

and sort of pulling your perspective out of you and getting a bird's eye view to really understand worth the angles and what all that means to you on the ground if you're looking out in the forest I'm looking at a map pulling my perspective away from me on the ground and looking up and be able to visualize what's ahead of me you know from a bird's eye view and that's what really you know I really separates the great people who can orient and use a map and compass is being able to pull their perspective outside of themselves and help get a bird's-eye view and help visualize what's what's in front of them around them where they've been and how that looks on the ground too so if you have any questions I didn't explain anything in depth or if you want to ask me you know to help you if you have a trip coming up please leave comments ask me I'm more than willing you know try to respond as quick as I can all that good stuff

this is crick signing out with blak outdoors later turtles