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Trailblazer Deliverables Basic Compass Use

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http://www.selfrelianceoutfitters.com

http://astore.amazon.com/davecante-20

Dave Canterbury, David Canterbury, The Pathfinder School,Bush Craft ,Survival skills, Historical Lore, Primitive Skills, Archery, Hunting, Trapping, Fishing, Navigation, Knives, Axes, Fire, Water, Shelter, Search and Rescue

Tags: Bushcraft,Survival,David Canterbury,Dave Canterbury,Pathfinder,The Pathfinder School,Archery,Hunting,Fishing,Camping,Primitive Skills,Fire,Water,Shelter,Navigation,First Aid,Search and Rescue,Signaling,Prepper,Preparedness,Self Reliance,Survivability,The 10 C's,Knives,Axes,Saws,Bow Drill,Ferrocerium Rod,Ferro Rod,Tarp,Hammock,Canteen,Cooking,Longhunter,Trapping

Video Transcription

okay let's talk about compasses this morning and this is the trek noir baseplate compass and this compass retails for about $10 it's an oil filled compass some compasses are oil filled and summer water filled the oil flow winds will have less tendency to bounce around on you when you're moving the needle won't bounce around as much and they also are less likely to get bubbles in the liquid in my opinion than the water problems are so that's the first thing the second thing we need to look at is the pieces of parts of this compass we have a base plate that she used to be laid on top of a map so that we can do things like set a travel bearing with a map and things that we'll do in the future but for now what we really need to know is that this arrow is pointing to the front of the compass and then that is our direction of travel we always have that compass in front of us centered on our body with that arrow pointed at their direction of travel this ring is called a bezel ring and it moves in a circle and it starts at 360 degrees and goes all the way around just like this there zero and then all the way back around is 360 degrees just like a normal circle alright the needle on our compass has two ends it has a black end and has a red end the red end is the end that always points towards magnetic north on the bottom of this compass inside this bezel one you can see as I move it around there's a red arrow right here

and that red arrow will refer to as a dog house so anytime we are wanting to travel in a certain direction if we put the compass add the object we want to travel to and we turn the needle or turn the bezel excuse me until the needle rests inside that doghouse we have now set a travel bearing to travel to the desired object and as long as we don't move left or right and that arrow doesn't leave the doghouse we are now walking in a straight line and that's really one of the keys to having a compass is being able to walk a straight line and not our experience what's called lateral drift moving off to the left or off to the right over distance because you've lost sight of an object if you can see something in the distance and not lose sight of it you can walk a straight line to that object because you have binocular vision if you lose sight of that object while you're walking you will veer off to the left or to the right for a multitude of reasons that's called lateral drift and that's what causes people over long distance to walk in circles so to circumvent that we use a compass and we'll talk more about leapfrogging and things like that in future segments and as we get more advanced in our training but for the Trailblazer phase you need to understand how to set the travel bearing which means I point my compass at the object I want to travel to and put the needle in the doghouse and the number that's at the top of our compass then becomes our travel bearing the other thing we want to understand is how to orientate ourselves all right and that's very easy what we can do is let's say we want to travel in an easterly direction if we put our easterly direction at the top of our compass remembering that that is our travel bearing so we're going to put east right at the very top of our compass just like this all right then we would simply rotate our body until the needle rest and the dog outs and once we have that needle resting in the doghouse we are then facing with our compass directly east and if we walk straight we'll be walking straight east if we want to go west we would take this and turn the West bearing to the top of the compass just like this at 270 and then we would move again until the needles in the doghouse and then we will be traveling a westerly direction and that's how you orientate yourself with the compass those are the two basic tasks that we need to understand first in the Trailblazer phase of this program

About the Author

wildernessoutfitters

wildernessoutfitters

From the lore of bushcraft to all things related to self-sustainability, the Pathfinder vision is to pass on the knowledge of outdoor self-reliance. Providing basic to advanced self-reliance training and survival gear, our goal is to offer both practical knowledge and survival gear that will stand the test of time. From emergency preparedness to sustainability, the Pathfinder way is to share and educate.

Here you can explore the world of survival knives, survival kits and simple tips on outdoor self-reliance. We are always learning and enjoy passing on the knowledge we acquire.

There is no substitute for having a plan in the event of the unexpected.

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