How do you read the bearings on a compass?

Question

How do I use the compass to get from point A to point B on a map.

Answer 1

You want a full course in navigation or a short answer?

Short answer:

Make sure you set the map on a flat surface not near any metal, electricity or magnets.

Set the compass on the map so the edge of the compass case or the north marker lines up with the north south grid lines.

Turn the map and compass together until the compass arrow matches the magnetic north arrow on the map.

Now mark a straight line from where you are to where you are going on the map and line the compass up on that.

Read the bearing and note it. You will follow that to your destination.

If the compass has a rotating degree bezel you can rotate it so the needle matches the north mark again and avoid notes or hard readings. (you  should still write down the number just in case your bezel setting gets changed by being bumped)

Now pick up your compass and sight a distant object that is a good mark. Trees and posts are good, edges of hills are not good. (reason being you want a clean point to go to)

Go there and repeat the bearing sighting on the next point. Then go there. Keep doing this until you get where you are going.

If you just try followimg the needle as you walk you can drift sideways as you walk. Sighting on a point lets you take any course you like to that point.

You will get some sighting errors anyhow, it is not avoidable. so you should try to find a catch line to aim for.

A catch line is something like a road or river that you gan easily find becacause it is long, hopefully across your route.

So like if you were trying to get to a car parked on a road you could aim a mile or a couple of kilometers to one side of where you think the car is.

Then you would go to that point and walk the road to the car. You aim far enough of to one side to cover any mistakes or compass errors.

If you were aiming straight for the car you would not know which way to walk on the road unless you were lucky enough to hit the road within sight of the car.

You should look on the map for possible land marks because you might want to navigate in easy stages to easy targets.

These are called waypoints. When you get to a waypoint you can reset your compass and begin the next leg of your route.

I hope that helped but if it is not clear feel free to ask me to explain.

There are a lot of finer points but that is a short answer and gives a fairly simple method.