Compass back bearing are not complicated, although they do require some practice. In this video we will look at the four most commonly used methods of compass back bearings.
Without doubt the best I’ve come across on the net for explaining all types of navigation . Truth is , these days a lot rely heavily on phones and gnss devices, so these videos are like refreshers as well as picking up new tips, and definitely give me the inspiration to brush up on what I learnt years ago. Thoroughly enjoying wading my way through your videos having only just discovered your channel. Thank you very much sir 👍.
Very informative video, clear and concise. FYI...Benjamin Franklin was not a president of the United States. However, he was a "Founding Father" and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Thanks for all your videos.
All the navigation videos that I watch regarding back bearings, no one ever mentions the easy 200/20rule. I learned it in flying to make the calculation easier than adding or subtracting 180°
I once heard a tank soldier being interviewed by a newscaster after their tank had been hit by friendly fire in Iraq, and the newscaster asked him how they wound up where they were hit, asking if they were lost. The soldier replied, "we're never lost, just disoriented." When navigating, I never forgot that. If you have compass skills you can always get yourself oriented. Also, as far as taking a back bearing, I find it useful for getting back to camp or my car.
As a scout, soldier never listened to any about back bearings. I've always rotated the compass ( using it backwards) this is the first time I've heard someone else talk about it. Once you have done your calculations for mag to grid, on top of compensation for year map( was in scouts ,maps always years old) why bother working out what 180 is. Plus if it s dark ,raining ,cold and your wearing gloves. Just check your dail to see if still set on orginal bearing, then use it backwards. Nice to see people still using maps. GpS and phones need batteries and signals. Maps just need a plastic bag to keep them dry. Remember you are only lost because you went one step to far from remembering how to get back to a place you knew where you was.
Actually gnss devices work off satellites - mine off 5, and phones you can download routes offline. I have a Garmin 66sr and it is incredibly accurate(less than 2m), robust, and battery life last for days or even weeks in the right mode. 100% believe in being totally confident with traditional methods first, but then equally embrace the technology. All adds up to a more enjoyable experience in the wilds :-) cheers
Great videos. I used a compass last time 30 years ago as in Polish mountains usually a map is enough - we have a lot of marked tracks. But your explanations and tricks are very interesting, so I watch whole series :-). You can use markers for whiteboards. They are not permanent. Or you can use WD-40. Should be able to clean this. And alcohol, of course.
I have to chuckle - my wife is navigationally challenged and gets very anxious about it, but I worked, lived and hiked for years in the million acre Mt. Hood National Forest and knowing my compass directions is just a habit now. When I tell her in the car "We're not *lost*, I'm just not exactly sure where we are right now" - oh, the look I get!
I'm really enjoying the information.. thank you .. when I was in the Fire Service, we had to keep Breathing Apparatus entry records for our personnel (to buildings, etc.).. being outside - it often rained.. so, we used a chinagraph pencil to write on our plastic boards (they're readily available and reasonably cheap).. its soft wax like pencil, it doesn't make as fine a line as a sharpie, but it's waterproof, fairly resistant to smudging, and easy to wipe off (we used a bit of wrag kept fir the purpose).. just an idea to try out 😊
In the US they are called grease pencils and are used for marking on glass or china. We used to use them for marking audio tape back in the day when we edited with razor blades.
Great video Thank you for doing this channel. I've never done compass / map reading before, so your guides are very usefull. Only thing I'm worried about is being "Lost" and trying to triangulate where I am. This really worries me
I would suggest not starting with back bearings. One way of starting to learn navigation is to buy a map of a local area which you know - so you won’t be worried about being lost. I would suggest asking the shop for a 1:25,000 map, so there will be lots of details on it. Go to a place you know (e.g. Sutton Park?) and try to identify any features such as roads, tracks, rivers, bridges, building, hills, etc. Walk towards one of those - try and follow your progression on the map by looking to the left and right and see if you can see anything shown on the map - then, when you arrive, identify another feature and walk towards that. If you cannot find your location on the map at any time you can always go back to your last known position. Next, once you're happy you can follow a route on the map, try using the same map - as they tend to cover quite large areas - and go to an area which you haven’t been before and just use the map to navigate. You won’t need to use a compass to start with if you stick to tracks and lanes. Have a look at this play-list and it will start at the very beginning and work up from there. th-cam.com/play/PLtmTvvlTrlahCoV4mgSzG6s_gF4xLLUU_.html
PS I have an introductory course in the Shropshire Hills (Church Stretton) in Sept. Have a look on our website at the end of next week when all the autumn courses will be up. Bronze Level course details are here: mapreading.co.uk/
Awesome video as usual.......Question though. Why is it that when doing triangulation, resection and transits, are they referred to as "Back Bearings" ? When you're only taking a forward bearing ? Thank You.
I've never used maps and compasses, and that's why I'm here. However, we used to use Chinagraphs at Pilkingtons (pencils - not graphene though) to write on the monitors',glass, metals etc to keep track of the glass position etc. Would that be better than a permanent (Sharpie) pen? Although the nail polish may be useful for also doing your nails and lighting a fire or burning yourself.
So just a quick tip about using a permanent marker, and removing its marks. You can make a new mark directly over the one you want to remove, and wipe quickly. Why does this work? Because the pen contains the same solvent required to make the ink flow initially.
Question: Is there a reason you rotate the compass until the orientation lines match the grid lines, instead of setting the compass down so that the orientation lines match the map, and then sliding the compass down until the edge of it (or parallax line) hits the feature you're triangulating from? Thanks!
At 10:30 in the video I’ve taken a bearing and set my compass to that. When you put the compass on the map the bearing on the compass doesn’t change so you need to rotate the whole compass (without changing the dial) until the orienting lines match the eastings on the map.
Regarding the section on transits, when you take the bearing to the reservoir do you then put Fred in the shed before transferring to the map? I get very confused about this still!
When you take the bearing using your compass you point the compass’s direction arrow at the feature and rotate the dial until “red is in the shed”. When you transfer this bearing on to your map you put the edge of the compass on the map so that it’s touching the feature. (don’t move the dial whilst doing this). Keeping the edge touching the feature, rotate the whole compass until the orienting lines are point straight up the map (northwards). The edge of the compass will now be touching the feature and also running though the track that you’re on. When the edge cuts through the track - that’s your position.
The 3rd method, transit, description I found to be odd, I was never taught it probably because forests, walls, and boundaries change a lot and can differ from the map and I was taught to contour read distance hills, especially peaks, and use these (I haven't watched the entire video yet so maybe what I described I do will be the last method, "triangulate")
Now I've watched to the end and yeah, that last method I mostly use. And thinking more, I do use transit lines when on path but I always choose contour-defining points rather than "features that could change". Great video though, all methods are clearly explained and demonstrated.
It doesn't work in half of the UK (and all of it by the end of 2026). It also doesn't work in half or the world. See here for a better method (WAvES) th-cam.com/video/Tf9rrmq5Vf8/w-d-xo.htmlfeature=shared
Oddly if you you have a permanent line marked (of any age) on any surface it can be removed by drawing a line on top of it using a non permapen. After applying the line while it is still wet just rub it with a cloth and it should remove the marker pen line.
Even more oddly you can also use a permanent marker to remove the line to. Redraw the line with a permanent marker and wipe it clean just after doing so. I used a permanent marker on a white board to intentionally create a permanent grid pattern but many months later I no longer had a need for it. After trying many times to remove it unsuccessfully a friend of mine showed me the trick. It worked surprisingly well. It seems to me that it might also work on plastic map covers.
for a recection with a compass you only need 2 bearings... (the third one would be for confirmation? if it doesn't coincide with the previous ones there is something wrong.)
It's best when triangulating a bearing to make sure all three points are far apart on degrees to insure as accurate a position fix as possible. On land it is not as necessary as at sea.
But not so far as they become reciprocal. 60 deg is optimum. 1deg at 1 mile is 200 yards so easy to be inaccurate in any case when taking a bearing with a baseplate. 2 or 3 degrees error at 1/2 miles is easily 300m per measurement and a cocked hat covering a whole grid square.
😊 well I’ve never been asked that before. For the past few years I have used AltBerg Kidson. They are “G fit” which means they are slightly wider than some other boots. These are good quality 3 season boots, but they are a bit expensive. www.altberg.co.uk/boots/gfit-boots/kisdon
Another excellent video! I found your explanation of the rotation method for circumnavigating an obstacle (or otherwise recovering from drifting off course) was not entirely complete. It certainly left me a little confused until I checked it in the field. What is not mentioned is that it only works if you can sight your last starting point (ie when you took your last bearing). The steps to follow are: 1. Turn your body to directly face your starting point. 2. While holding your compass in front of your body and always pointing towards your starting point, walk left or right until the black/white end of the compass needle is back in the shed. 3. Turn your body 180 degrees and put red-in-the-shed. 4. You are now back on course.
Yes you're right. Thanks for the comment. I did include the 200 + - 20 to start with but the video started to get way too long so a few sections were deleted in the final edit.
Do we really need to account for declination here in western Europe, i mean most of the time there is something in the way like a prominent feature, a tree, a wall, a fence and so on therefore we tend to spend most of our navigation time hoping from one to another. I think that as the distances we use are generaly so small that those few meters are not a problem, however I do agree that if we were in a desert and navigating to the only water source for several hundred kilometers that then it makes a real if not life life saving difference
I’ve always said, and some people may disagree, that when we’re out walking, if the declination is less than two degrees it’s not worth adjusting your compass for. Most cheap compasses aren’t that accurate anyway so they may be out by a degree or two anyway. But you also have to remember that these videos are watched by a lot of people (over a million people a month according to my YT analytics) and many (most) of them don’t live in Western Europe. In some parts of the world the declination is significant and so it’s essential to adjust the compass before setting off.
Not in the rain. To easy to accidentally run off. Grease pencil is used for this type of work all the time. And... alchohol work fine on removing sharpie.
😊 Not many Yanks follow this channel I guess. So I will have to chime in. Franklin was an American, but he was never president. Although he has been called The First American
"Sorry, no offense meant". Someone else told me he wasn't a US president. I'm not too bad with English history but other countries . . . . obviously not 😊
He literally says “I think he was americas president ” and “apologies if he wasn’t please forgive me” I don’t see the point in making your negative comment when he’s already prefaced the comment with some uncertainty.
![[Full Episode] Hell's Kitchen Thailand EP.14 | 12 พ.ค. 67](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/MNspIlqlJcc/mqdefault.jpg)
Without doubt the best I’ve come across on the net for explaining all types of navigation . Truth is , these days a lot rely heavily on phones and gnss devices, so these videos are like refreshers as well as picking up new tips, and definitely give me the inspiration to brush up on what I learnt years ago. Thoroughly enjoying wading my way through your videos having only just discovered your channel. Thank you very much sir 👍.
Very informative video, clear and concise. FYI...Benjamin Franklin was not a president of the United States. However, he was a "Founding Father" and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Thanks for all your videos.
No need to apologize. I was just responding to your statement. I appreciate all the effort that you put into your videos.
Sorry for the error - I'm not good with other country's history
@@TheMapReadingCompanyno worries, lots of my fellow Yanks also think he was a president. Maybe because he's on the $100 bill?
Good one. If you carry alcohol for an alcohol stove or for hand sanitizer, try using it to remove Sharpie marks.
Excellent revision for me since leaving the forces. You have a good manner for instruction. Cheers
All the navigation videos that I watch regarding back bearings, no one ever mentions the easy 200/20rule. I learned it in flying to make the calculation easier than adding or subtracting 180°
I once heard a tank soldier being interviewed by a newscaster after their tank had been hit by friendly fire in Iraq, and the newscaster asked him how they wound up where they were hit, asking if they were lost. The soldier replied, "we're never lost, just disoriented." When navigating, I never forgot that. If you have compass skills you can always get yourself oriented. Also, as far as taking a back bearing, I find it useful for getting back to camp or my car.
Very educational thank you for sharing.
Good to see you in my neck of woods around Rivington
Great video! Many thanks
Glad you liked it!
Permanent marker... Use whiteboard markers. They just run off.
Enjoyed this. Need to try it in practice. Thanks.
As a scout, soldier never listened to any about back bearings.
I've always rotated the compass ( using it backwards) this is the first time I've heard someone else talk about it.
Once you have done your calculations for mag to grid, on top of compensation for year map( was in scouts ,maps always years old) why bother working out what 180 is. Plus if it s dark ,raining ,cold and your wearing gloves. Just check your dail to see if still set on orginal bearing, then use it backwards.
Nice to see people still using maps. GpS and phones need batteries and signals. Maps just need a plastic bag to keep them dry.
Remember you are only lost because you went one step to far from remembering how to get back to a place you knew where you was.
Actually gnss devices work off satellites - mine off 5, and phones you can download routes offline. I have a Garmin 66sr and it is incredibly accurate(less than 2m), robust, and battery life last for days or even weeks in the right mode. 100% believe in being totally confident with traditional methods first, but then equally embrace the technology. All adds up to a more enjoyable experience in the wilds :-) cheers
I use Dry Erase Marker it works great and it's not permanent. Thanks for the videos
How thick are your lines? You must have cocked hats many 100s of m across.
Great videos. I used a compass last time 30 years ago as in Polish mountains usually a map is enough - we have a lot of marked tracks. But your explanations and tricks are very interesting, so I watch whole series :-).
You can use markers for whiteboards. They are not permanent. Or you can use WD-40. Should be able to clean this. And alcohol, of course.
I have heard the dry erase markers will work so I bought a couple each of four colors. Thank you for letting me know I did the right thing.
I have to chuckle - my wife is navigationally challenged and gets very anxious about it, but I worked, lived and hiked for years in the million acre Mt. Hood National Forest and knowing my compass directions is just a habit now. When I tell her in the car "We're not *lost*, I'm just not exactly sure where we are right now" - oh, the look I get!
I'm really enjoying the information.. thank you .. when I was in the Fire Service, we had to keep Breathing Apparatus entry records for our personnel (to buildings, etc.).. being outside - it often rained.. so, we used a chinagraph pencil to write on our plastic boards (they're readily available and reasonably cheap).. its soft wax like pencil, it doesn't make as fine a line as a sharpie, but it's waterproof, fairly resistant to smudging, and easy to wipe off (we used a bit of wrag kept fir the purpose).. just an idea to try out 😊
In the US they are called grease pencils and are used for marking on glass or china. We used to use them for marking audio tape back in the day when we edited with razor blades.
Great info.. thank you. We did wonder, at times, why they were called Chinagraph pencils 🙂👍
Great video
Thank you for doing this channel. I've never done compass / map reading before, so your guides are very usefull.
Only thing I'm worried about is being "Lost" and trying to triangulate where I am. This really worries me
I would suggest not starting with back bearings. One way of starting to learn navigation is to buy a map of a local area which you know - so you won’t be worried about being lost. I would suggest asking the shop for a 1:25,000 map, so there will be lots of details on it.
Go to a place you know (e.g. Sutton Park?) and try to identify any features such as roads, tracks, rivers, bridges, building, hills, etc. Walk towards one of those - try and follow your progression on the map by looking to the left and right and see if you can see anything shown on the map - then, when you arrive, identify another feature and walk towards that. If you cannot find your location on the map at any time you can always go back to your last known position.
Next, once you're happy you can follow a route on the map, try using the same map - as they tend to cover quite large areas - and go to an area which you haven’t been before and just use the map to navigate. You won’t need to use a compass to start with if you stick to tracks and lanes.
Have a look at this play-list and it will start at the very beginning and work up from there.
th-cam.com/play/PLtmTvvlTrlahCoV4mgSzG6s_gF4xLLUU_.html
PS I have an introductory course in the Shropshire Hills (Church Stretton) in Sept.
Have a look on our website at the end of next week when all the autumn courses will be up.
Bronze Level course details are here:
mapreading.co.uk/
@@TheMapReadingCompany thank you so much. I'll do that with places I know and practice
Also, I'll have a look into your course too
Awesome video as usual.......Question though. Why is it that when doing triangulation, resection and transits, are they referred to as "Back Bearings" ? When you're only taking a forward bearing ?
Thank You.
i dont even own a map or compass but this was interesting to see
It will stay on for a while but you can get different color tapes too so whatever call you would like you could use
Thanks
I've never used maps and compasses, and that's why I'm here. However, we used to use Chinagraphs at Pilkingtons (pencils - not graphene though) to write on the monitors',glass, metals etc to keep track of the glass position etc. Would that be better than a permanent (Sharpie) pen? Although the nail polish may be useful for also doing your nails and lighting a fire or burning yourself.
Thanks.
You could also use a thin piece of tape temporarily on your map case
So just a quick tip about using a permanent marker, and removing its marks. You can make a new mark directly over the one you want to remove, and wipe quickly. Why does this work? Because the pen contains the same solvent required to make the ink flow initially.
Thanks John, I'll give that a try.
I found this video very interesting
Glad you enjoyed it
Question: Is there a reason you rotate the compass until the orientation lines match the grid lines, instead of setting the compass down so that the orientation lines match the map, and then sliding the compass down until the edge of it (or parallax line) hits the feature you're triangulating from? Thanks!
At 10:30 in the video I’ve taken a bearing and set my compass to that. When you put the compass on the map the bearing on the compass doesn’t change so you need to rotate the whole compass (without changing the dial) until the orienting lines match the eastings on the map.
Regarding the section on transits, when you take the bearing to the reservoir do you then put Fred in the shed before transferring to the map? I get very confused about this still!
When you take the bearing using your compass you point the compass’s direction arrow at the feature and rotate the dial until “red is in the shed”.
When you transfer this bearing on to your map you put the edge of the compass on the map so that it’s touching the feature. (don’t move the dial whilst doing this). Keeping the edge touching the feature, rotate the whole compass until the orienting lines are point straight up the map (northwards).
The edge of the compass will now be touching the feature and also running though the track that you’re on. When the edge cuts through the track - that’s your position.
The 3rd method, transit, description I found to be odd, I was never taught it probably because forests, walls, and boundaries change a lot and can differ from the map and I was taught to contour read distance hills, especially peaks, and use these (I haven't watched the entire video yet so maybe what I described I do will be the last method, "triangulate")
Now I've watched to the end and yeah, that last method I mostly use. And thinking more, I do use transit lines when on path but I always choose contour-defining points rather than "features that could change". Great video though, all methods are clearly explained and demonstrated.
Isopropyl alcohol will nicely remove Sharpie- less caustic!
I was taught Mag to grid get rid
Grid to mag add 😊
It doesn't work in half of the UK (and all of it by the end of 2026). It also doesn't work in half or the world.
See here for a better method (WAvES)
th-cam.com/video/Tf9rrmq5Vf8/w-d-xo.htmlfeature=shared
Oddly if you you have a permanent line marked (of any age) on any surface it can be removed by drawing a line on top of it using a non permapen. After applying the line while it is still wet just rub it with a cloth and it should remove the marker pen line.
Even more oddly you can also use a permanent marker to remove the line to. Redraw the line with a permanent marker and wipe it clean just after doing so. I used a permanent marker on a white board to intentionally create a permanent grid pattern but many months later I no longer had a need for it. After trying many times to remove it unsuccessfully a friend of mine showed me the trick. It worked surprisingly well. It seems to me that it might also work on plastic map covers.
for a recection with a compass you only need 2 bearings... (the third one would be for confirmation? if it doesn't coincide with the previous ones there is something wrong.)
True. Only 2 are needed for a 2D environment (like a flat map) and 3 needed for a 3D environment.
👍👍
👍
It's best when triangulating a bearing to make sure all three points are far apart on degrees to insure as accurate a position fix as possible. On land it is not as necessary as at sea.
But not so far as they become reciprocal. 60 deg is optimum. 1deg at 1 mile is 200 yards so easy to be inaccurate in any case when taking a bearing with a baseplate. 2 or 3 degrees error at 1/2 miles is easily 300m per measurement and a cocked hat covering a whole grid square.
You can also over-write the permanent marker with a washable marker and then simply wipe off with a tissue.
Can I ask what hiking boots you use please
😊 well I’ve never been asked that before. For the past few years I have used AltBerg Kidson. They are “G fit” which means they are slightly wider than some other boots. These are good quality 3 season boots, but they are a bit expensive.
www.altberg.co.uk/boots/gfit-boots/kisdon
have you tried using a dry erase marker? You can run the dry erase marker over your permanent marker line, then use the dry erase both marks.
Won't hold up in rain. Grease pencil (what they are called in the US) works well. Or use alcohol to remove sharpie.
A sharpy will reactivate a sharpy. So draw a new fresh line over the old line and quickly rub it off.
Thanks, I'll give that a try. Sounds like a good idea.
Another excellent video!
I found your explanation of the rotation method for circumnavigating an obstacle (or otherwise recovering from drifting off course) was not entirely complete. It certainly left me a little confused until I checked it in the field. What is not mentioned is that it only works if you can sight your last starting point (ie when you took your last bearing). The steps to follow are:
1. Turn your body to directly face your starting point.
2. While holding your compass in front of your body and always pointing towards your starting point, walk left or right until the black/white end of the compass needle is back in the shed.
3. Turn your body 180 degrees and put red-in-the-shed.
4. You are now back on course.
He mentioned that.
+ or -- 200 then - or + 20 gets the back azimuth quick.
Yes you're right. Thanks for the comment.
I did include the 200 + - 20 to start with but the video started to get way too long so a few sections were deleted in the final edit.
Denatured alcohol will remove almost all types of sharpies, except textile markers.
In the UK it's called Methylated Spirit. Nail polish remover is cheaper 😉
Uups... Quite the opposite here 😆
Rubbing alcohol works fine, too.
Ben Franklin wasn't a President. He was the inaugural winner of MasterChef the Pioneer Days.
Do we really need to account for declination here in western Europe, i mean most of the time there is something in the way like a prominent feature, a tree, a wall, a fence and so on therefore we tend to spend most of our navigation time hoping from one to another. I think that as the distances we use are generaly so small that those few meters are not a problem, however I do agree that if we were in a desert and navigating to the only water source for several hundred kilometers that then it makes a real if not life life saving difference
I’ve always said, and some people may disagree, that when we’re out walking, if the declination is less than two degrees it’s not worth adjusting your compass for. Most cheap compasses aren’t that accurate anyway so they may be out by a degree or two anyway.
But you also have to remember that these videos are watched by a lot of people (over a million people a month according to my YT analytics) and many (most) of them don’t live in Western Europe. In some parts of the world the declination is significant and so it’s essential to adjust the compass before setting off.
I may have missed something. Would you please clarify: in order to do the triangulation method did you undo the declination?
Alchohol removes sharpie. We do it everyday.
whiteboard markers might be better those will just rub off
Not in the rain. To easy to accidentally run off. Grease pencil is used for this type of work all the time. And... alchohol work fine on removing sharpie.
Never Lost. Just disoriented
"Its important to remember a famous saying from the American President Benjamin Franklin" ... *laughs*
"If he wasn't American, I apologize"
Whoa.
😊 Not many Yanks follow this channel I guess. So I will have to chime in. Franklin was an American, but he was never president. Although he has been called The First American
American President? Bruh
"Sorry, no offense meant". Someone else told me he wasn't a US president. I'm not too bad with English history but other countries . . . . obviously not 😊
He literally says “I think he was americas president ” and “apologies if he wasn’t please forgive me” I don’t see the point in making your negative comment when he’s already prefaced the comment with some uncertainty.