I'm out here in the California desert maybe a little overdressed but from Latin avocation I figured I needed to kind of look the part now bear with me this is a very lengthy video and maybe a little bit complicated for some people so try to bear with me and let's get into land navigation what's up my friends welcome to a brand new video in this one we're gonna be doing some land navigation so I'm all rocking the tactical kind of gear to kind of get the the mood going and everything that but we're gonna be doing a little bit of basic land nav stuff how to read a map have the tools you'll need a lot of those basic stuff but also how to actually execute it how to actually do land navigation and I got a map actually of this area that we're utilizing to kind of show you how it sort of works a little bit of how you might do it in the army like in basic training or at some of the schools or anything like that or even just how your unit but also just in general so if you want to know how to do it for basic training for your unit for just something cool to learn how to do well then hopefully this video will be able to help you out now of course if you are not subscribed to this channel well you probably should be maybe think about hitting that subscribe button even enabling that little bell so you get notified as soon as new videos go live to include the live stream so let's let's learn how to do some land navigation shall we now we're gonna start off with some of the basics the basics of how to kind of get yourself started how to plot your grids onto a map how to read a grid how to read a map all that kind of stuff but not super in-depth with reading the map part of it also kind of be aware with land navigation there are some individuals in the army that will do this a lot and there are some individuals in the army that will maybe only do this once in basic training and then maybe never again so kind of keep that in mind there are some people that are gonna be doing this all the time but you know you might be one of those people that may only do this in basic training than ever again so kind of keep that in mind but hopefully you'll have a little bit of a basic understanding of how to do some land nav and maybe even learn some cool little tips and tricks here and there from my video so I'll start off with some of the things you're gonna need obviously first one you need a map preferably a MGR S or a military grid reference system style map which is what this one is here you also need a protractor so it comes in handy to know what the scale of the map is so you know which of these to use which we'll talk about here in a little bit you need a compass so you know which way to go and be able to pull asmath from it so you need a specifically a compass that also has the degrees on the inside here of the compass you need a pencil you could use a pin I guess but preferably it's best use a pencil some kind of three by five card or something to write on or something that has a straightedge as well because you're gonna need a straightedge we also need something to pry it right with and then you're also going to need to know your pay scale which will kind of get to that a little bit later so one thing to kind of understand there are a lot of little symbols and little things on here that I'm not going to be going that in-depth with explaining like what is a valley and what is a saddle and all this stuff like that there are a lot of other videos that probably explain that really well if you want to check those out but obviously you can tell what our roads and probably what our rivers so we're gonna go with just the basics here we're looking at a grid zone designator here of what grade we're gonna be going to and a little they don't show you how to start from your grid and how to get that grid and everything first but let me kind of show you the basics of how to use the map so I'm going to use this grid here to find this point that we're gonna be going to I have 11 Sierra Lima Bravo which is just the grid designator for the area of the map the main part where you're focusing on is this 8 digit here this is an eight digit grid that would reutilizing to be able to plot the point on so we're gonna start off with these numbers here we have this 7 0 and this 3 3 this kind of tells me we're on the map to look at the top of the map is going to be this first part this 7 0 so you would find on the top of the map where that grid is located at 4 7 0 that is located right here so that tells me anything to the right of this line right here is the 7 0 grid area next is what I need to find is that 3-3 area so we're gonna find the 3 3 which would be from the left side of the map so I'm 3 3 is over here so that means I need anything above this is a 33 area so the 7 0 and the 3 3 they meet right here so that means this grid square right here is when you're working with so now I need my protractor to pay attention to which particular one to use based on this scale of the map this map is a 1 in 50,000 map so that means I have to use this one here and is labeled right there for 1 and 50 thousands it's probably better recommended to use a 1 in 25000 scale map because you get this larger kind of triangle here to be able to just see the numbers a little bit better but I'm working with what I got and this is a 1 in 50,000 scale so I have to use this guy here so the way I want to utilize this is I want to be able to match the numbers up for the grid that I'm using so I have this 70 in the 33 I'm working in that grid square right now so first I'm looking at this line you can see right here this is the 70 so I want to match up the 35 that I had inside of that little number which is right here if you want to see so have the 70 and the 35 so I need that 35 so maybe we're trying to get inside the grid square so I want to line this up do match up to 35 your scanner that gets me right about there next comes the 75 part of this grid which is in that 33 zone so I need to go up now to get s 75 so with this line still lined up on the 35 for here I need to find 75 on here and that is where I need to make my dot at and that is roughly right about there doesn't have a little point on my map that I'm going to be utilizing to try to get there now in order to get to that point I need to know where I'm at typically when you're doing land navigation in the Army they're gonna give you the grid for the start point so you know where you're starting from and you just gotta simply do the rest of the work to figure out what you're going to so save you the extra stuff of showing you plotting my known location as if I was given it like you would in the Army I'm gonna show you a little bit of an extra little tip as far as one way that you can probably figure out maybe where you're at if you don't know where you're at so in order for me to figure out where the heck I'm at if that was the situation I need my compass so I'm gonna teach you a little bit about the compass but basically it's a compass hopefully you know how to use a compass but additionally on this compass it has the degrees on the inside which I really need as well you get a little kind of magnifying glass here with a little line right there so you can kind of close it up and kind of be able to to see this is the style compass you part of you use light utilize in in the army we're going to be doing different methods to do it if sums like the little methods like this we're holding it down here and kind of trying to get lined up before the asmath or for that grid or the degrees that you're trying to get or another way is holding up to your cheek and looking through that little magnifying glass to kind of line it up that way I actually like that way because you see a little bit better but usually personal preference also a little bit of a tip they usually recommend if you have a lot of gear like maybe a weapon and other metal objects they can kind of interfere with that compass so it's best to download that stuff when you're trying to maybe shoot an asthma they're trying to you know get your exact location for where you're going to and all that stuff otherwise they can kind of throw it off a little bit but I'm not wear anything too crazy so I'm everything worried about that so in this scenario we're saying that I don't know where my current grid is that I don't know where I'm currently located at but I can see some actual known locations out in my surroundings that I can find on the map something like maybe a road or a mountain something along those lines you can easily identify exact location so we use the example of I can see some roads that intersect in my area and that's what I'm going to do is I'm gonna shoot an azmuth to those roads and azmuth is the degrees inside the compass so I'm gonna basically be looking through my compass and I'm going to try to find that road that intersects that I can see and see what the degrees is to that road so I'm gonna take note of those degrees and write that down that is my first known location but I need a second one that I'm gonna need to utilize so I can see another road that intersects out there some eschewed azmuth do that one look inside my compass see what degrees that road is from me and write that one down so once I have those degrees those Asmus written down on a piece of paper I need to do what is called a back azmuth to be able to figure out the triangulation I guess of where I'm at eclis this is called resection officially so I'm going to try to figure out where I'm at based on where those lines cross so I have my two degrees I have 30 degrees and 320 degrees for those two different intersections that I can see from my location but in order to utilize these on a map which is grid North I need to convert these from magnetic north because these are magnetic north type of degrees and I needed to convert them into grid North degrees in order to do that I needed to look at the declination diagram on the map that is located right here on this map hey so jumping in here as I'm editing this video I realized I didn't do a very good job of explaining this next step and I even made a mistake so I want to kind of correct that here so you guys aren't all jacked up with this like I was when I shot this video so let's talk about that declination diagram that you would have on the map so so you locate it either on the bottom of the map or maybe even the right side of the map where it's going to have this little object here that kind of shows the true north which is basically which way the North Star is grid north which is what the north and south lines on the map are representing for which way north is and in magnetic north which is what your compass would bring up so on this chart show me the difference between grid north which is the map to magnetic north which is the compass is 13 degrees now if I'm converting from magnetic north to grid north then I need to add the GM angle if I'm going to go from grid north to magnetic north I need to subtract the GM angle so the best way you can kind of look at it is kind of as if M is for major and G for general so in the military a major to a general is a promotion so you're adding but if you were doing a general to a major that would be a demotion so you're subtracting that's kind of a good way to kind of remember it now in the video I got it all backwards and I ended up subtracting the GM angle instead but just kind of bear with me I'm gonna show you the example but remember that if you're going from magnetic to grid add great to magnetic subtract alright so I make the mistake in here just use it as demonstration purposes what not to do but also the general concept of the adding that subtracting kind of portion of it it's just that part that I kind of screwed up of the conversion from the magnetic north to grid north the other parts are okay so that means this is going to become 17 degrees and this is going to become 307 degrees but I need to convert those grids now to a back azmuth now if my number is between 0 and 180 degrees that I need to add 180 degrees but my number is between 180 degrees and 360 degrees that I need to subtract 180 so that means this one becomes 197 and this one is going to become 127 and that is my back asmath so it may be hard to see on the map from this angle but just kind of keep this in mind for demonstration purposes anyways because it's not gonna be exact this is really kind of demonstrate the method anyways so that first intersection is a back azimuth of 197 so I need to find that intersection on the map and locate it inside this little small little dot that's at the center of my protractor once I find that intersection I place the center of that right there and then I take this straight edge that's where you need the straight edge to come in handy and I need to find 197 degrees also key thing make sure the zero is at the top of the map for North so I locate the 197 on the inside here for the degrees line up the other part of this card with that circle so I get a straight line to location I'm just going to make a little mark right here so I can be able to draw a straight line so I'll move the protractor out of the way make sure that this part is still on that intersection and we're gonna draw a straight line to that little line that I made and that is our first back azimuth now I need to do the other intersection so for demonstration purposes let's say that over here is where that other intersection is that I need to do an azmuth of 127 so I find 127 now so 127 is right there I line it up with the circle in the middle and make a little mark right here move my protractor out of the way make sure it's still lined up with the intersection and the mark that I made I draw a straight line and if everything was done completed properly where those lines intersect is where I currently am located at again for demonstration purposes it's probably really hard to see on camera where those lines are kind of intersecting and I also have some extra lines in there too from earlier but ideally this is the method you would use is doing those two lines and where those lines intersect at is going to be where you are located at on the map so now that I know where I'm at like I said when you're doing this probably the army you're given the axes active grid to where you're located out you're just plotting on the map like you did with that other point that I did earlier but now that I know where I'm at now I can try to plot how to get there okay so we now have our two points we have our starting location which is over here and then we have where we need to go to right there so what I want to do is I want to draw a straight line from my starting location to the point that I want to go to draw that straight line sometimes it's good to go a little bit past it because you need a little bit extra line here to be able to read it on your protractor to figure out the degrees that you need to head in placing your start point on the center of that protractor making sure the zero is north you can even make sure to line up the lines with like the grid lines to make sure that it's straight and you're looking at that line that you just drew and what degrees it goes to so I can see from that line that it lines up with 280 degrees so that is the degrees I need to go to but that is true north for the map I need to convert that still so I'll take note of the 280° and that GM angle is 13 so that means I need to add 13 to my 280 degrees so it gives us a 293 for azmuth now I need to know how far is it from my location to the location I need to go so the first thing that I want to do is I want to draw a little tick mark from where I'm starting from to where I'm going to so I line up just to edge this piece of paper and make a little mark on here for the distance from my location to where I'm going to and I'm gonna use this to reference with a diagram that is on the map to figure out distance so here on a map is the diagram for the distance it is going to be in meters so we're gonna be using the meters part and I line it up with my piece of paper and I can see it lines up exactly 21.5 each of these little marks here is a thousand meters Watchi this is 500 meters then a thousand meters then 1500 meters so that is how this kind of gets read so 1500 meters is the distance that I will need to travel now this is where you now need to know your pace count I talked about this kind of real briefly earlier but you may need to know now what that pace count is essentially your pace count is how many steps it'll take you to get 100 meters to find this out usually your unit you have something measured out maybe you have it 50 meters out and you're walking 50 meters to get your 50 meter pace count you just double it to get your 100 meter pace count which is the pace count that you need or maybe you haven't even measured all the way out 200 meters and you're walking 100 meters to get your 100 meter pace count how that does count it is your stepping off with your left foot so that starts off with 1 when you take your right step you don't count that one you count every left foot touching the ground so you end up with something like 1 2 3 and so on and so forth until you could do that Vickey meter mark or the hundred meter mark whatever it is you going out to there are some individuals like do a running pace count maybe you're in a hurry to do this line avocation course so they'll run it to figure out what their running pace count might be but train can really mess that up even trying to really mess up your walking pace count but it's really up to your scenario of if you need a running pace count if you need both walking and running or just need a walking pace count so mine is 63 so that means I need to take 63 steps before I get 100 meters now for this example here we need to go 1500 meters so that means I need to keep track of every time I reach 100 meters so I can kind of you know take away from that distance to get an idea of how much farther I still need to go there's a lot of different methods that people utilize to keep track of their pace count some may pick up pebbles or drop pebbles to you know represent every 100 meters they go so if you have to go 600 meters maybe you pick up 6 rocks and then ever 800 meters once you reach that pace count for this example 63 once I reached 63 steps I dropped one pebble and then if I have five left that means I still have to go 500 meters or the opposite way maybe to pick up pebbles or maybe they move one pebble from one pocket to the other pocket whatever you want to do that's another method that you might utilize some people like to utilize what is called the Ranger beads that you have hanging on your uniform and moving a beat up or down for every time they get to the pace count to represent 100 meters however utilize it writing it down picking up rocks whatever you got to keep track of how many meters you've gone and so you know how many more you still need to get to so now that I know how far I need to go now I need to know which way which direction to head in for that distance that's where this asmath comes into play that we did earlier where we had to convert it from true north to magnetic north so I have that azimuth of 293 degrees so I can use whatever method I want for holding the compass but I need to find on that compass 290 degrees once I've found it I can kind of line it up with this little line that's here on this compass or just kind of look straight ahead with a little notches at the top maybe try to find something to kind of aim for something to walk towards that is at that degrees you can either do it that way or you can probably sit here and just hold it at 290 degrees and just start walking out of direction whichever prabha you it's probably little bit of a pain to kind of walk like this so it's better to kind of find an object that hopefully it lines up with and just try to head in a straight line direction that way another thing to kind of take note of is you need to kind of be rechecking your azmuth quite often because if you're right-handed you may tend to drift to your right a little bit if you're left-handed drifted left a little bit you know that kind of thing can happen for individuals so it's good to try to maybe recheck your azmuth periodically so you're not drifting off to the left or to the right so once I have that azmuth set I'm ready to step off and head towards my point while I'm moving to that point I'll keep retracting my pace count so every time my left foot is the ground I'm counting one two three keeping track all the way up until I get to my pace count which in this example was 63 and I know that once I get to 63 I've got 100 meters but again periodically throughout that step I need to be able to recheck my azmuth to make sure I'm still headed in the right direction I haven't drift to the left or the right now along the way let's say that we run into an obstacle maybe I got this hill back behind me that's actually much larger than obstacle than it really is here and I need to navigate around that obstacle now there might be some times where you can just simply go through the obstacle and may throw off your pace down a little bit here or there some options where you just have to actually go through the obstacle and you can't go around it so I feel like you'd be doing sfas or maybe even Ranger training but in this example let me show you how to navigate around an obstacle if you need to do that so maintaining my azmuth I'm going to be coming all the way up to that obstacle once I've reached the obstacle I need to kind of take note of what my current pace count was when I stopped at this point because I now need to navigate around that obstacle so let's say just for example for Everest is I left off at 10 at this point so I'm gonna be doing a left face from that point because that is the easiest way to get around this obstacle and I'm going to go left in this direction this is where it's good to maybe have a piece of papers I'm gonna ride on wherever because I need to take note of 10 being my pace count that left off on but I also need to take note of how many steps this way I'm going to make so I'm gonna start walking this way until I can clear this obstacle now let's say that cleared obstacle so I need to keep track of how many steps that was will say for this example that was 100 steps now I'm able to head back in that direction so what I'm gonna do is well I have to keep track of that first off that 10 that I started off with for my actual pace count also keeping track of the 100 steps that had to take to clear the obstacle but leaving off from that 10 that I had I can start counting again heading in that direction so we're gonna start counting again from 10 so I would step off with my left foot 11 12 13 and I would continue that until I have cleared the obstacle and I can head back 100 steps to get me back on track so keeping track of that pace counts still continuing it if I'm now at maybe let's say 30 now in my pace counting because now I've cleared this obstacle then I need to keep track of that this is still adding towards that distance that I'm actually trying to get to to get to my point but I need to get back on my correct asmath and in order to do so because I did 100 steps this way from that obstacle I need to go back in 100 steps to reshoot my azmuth so I need to now go back this way 100 steps 1 2 99 100 so once I've gotten back 100 steps from where I needed to be now I can just reshoot my azmuth to the original Asma that I had and continue my pace count from where I left off when I was trying to clear that obstacle so if I left off and let's say 50 well we continue from there 51 52 now eventually once you've reached your pace count for the amount of meters you're supposed to be going whether it's a thousand five hundred six hundred whatever the meters are you should be roughly at your location it may not be exact where your boom the last step is right there ever you need to be but you should be in that vicinity and you should be able to see whatever it is you're looking for a lot of times you an army land nav it's a sign it's an ammo can it's something physical that you can kind of see in some cases you might be lucky enough that the back of the sign actually has the grid so you can actually check to make sure you're at the right one and in a lot of other cases you won't have anything but maybe a letter designator or a phrase or something like that then maybe you have to take note of here's also another little tip for you if you have to go from now this point to another point some individuals may go ahead and plot that point from where they're at from that point they first got to to the next point the problem with that is if you're not very good at land nav just yet and that first point was wrong well all your points from there on out is gonna be wrong because you were going to plot it from what you believe is the correct point and if you're not at that correct point your azmuth is not going to match up properly to where you need to go to and you're not going to end up getting to the right location so the right way to do it a little tedious but if you are not very you know proficient in land navigation you need go back to the start point and plot from the start point that you know is correct to your next point so ideally you're going from start point to your first point back to your start point plot your second point go to your second point come back to the start point to go to your third point and so on and so forth if you are experiencing you've gotten really good at doing land navigation and you're pretty confident at that point that you've gotten to is the correct point then sure go for it you go ahead and you plot your next point from that location shoot the azimuth from that location and move on just be aware if any of those points are off it's probably gonna throw you off on getting to your next point so hopefully this video isn't too confusing hopefully it's you know explaining it enough to give you a general understanding of land nap maybe even a little bit more than general understanding I don't really know you know that I'm trying to my best to kind of give it in layman's terms and dumb it down as best as possible and I may or may not have done that in a good enough way do you understand it land nap in general is a complicated thing some people are really really good at land nav some people are really really bad at land f it just kind of depends on a lot of factors of if you're gonna be one that is really good at land having really bad at land have me personally I'm pretty good at land nav I don't know if I express that well enough in the video to be able to help you out explain it and understand it well enough but you know hopefully it does give you some kind of understanding of how to do land navigation so it's possible maybe I missed some good little tips or whatever if you have some tips and you're pretty good at land Navs and you can leave some tips down in the comments down below maybe help out some individuals that are looking to learn how to do land navigation for the army or even for the Marines or whatever so that's it that's the end of this video hopefully enjoyed it if you did and found it somewhat useful then hit that thumbs up for me check out some recommendations right over here some of the videos I guess some links down the description for all sorts of fun stuff thank you guys so much for watching I'm Christopher chaos and I will see you next time see ya