Land Navigation Mistakes to Avoid

What are common mistakes I see people encountering as they begin to learn land navigation? A great subscriber question deserves a video response - here I'll share some thoughts on some of the lessons learned so you can put them in your kitbag and be aware of things to avoid.

Hey - yes you! If you enjoy the content of the video, make sure you subscribe so you can stay up to date on future endeavors. And don't forget to leave a comment below so we can continue the conversation. BTW - you're awesome, thanks for hanging out with me here for a few minutes.

[ryanlawson]

I did a landnav event today as part of my train up for SFAS. Your videos helped me to learn where my mistakes were made, and helped me find the confidence to go out there and not second guess my navigation. 4/4 points found with an hour and a half to spare. Thanks 1SG. I appreciate what you do.

[StarwaterCWS]

Love this excellent video. If no compass is available, something I picked up that works on sunny days is shadow navigation where anything fixed casting a shadow can be used by understanding that a shadow moves one degree every four minutes with the sun. Over the course of one hour you can expect a 15 degree change. If one has a general idea of where true north is (by observing shadow direction in relation to time of day) then in a forest one can navigate using tree shadows.

[Shannon_Robbie]

Great advice! I had to type it out so I don't forget. I was humbled today during a small walk in the woods.

1) Measure twice and cut once. Take 5 minutes to double check your map calculations.
2) Break your points down to smaller increments not always 600+ meters. Shorten it up to a couple hundred meters. Find some key man-made and/or natural terrain features that you can use to your advantage. (Example: a road intersection).
3) Trust your compass but also learn to trust yourself. Get a steering mark in front of you to help direct you so you don't have to keep looking down at your compass.
4) Land navigation in the woods takes you out of your comfort zone. Practice to build confidence and set up small wins. If you can move out 200m in a straight line and trust your pace count, distance & direction then you have a small win. Then increase the meters slowly to get better.

[tomdonaghy]

Excellent practical coaching, thanks. In my younger years I was a prospector in northern Canada, we did traverses every day all day with Silva’s. You had to adjust your trail often and do the geometry to get back on line all the time. Good stuff.

[charlesmckinney]

Outstanding advice. Especially your first point, measure twice cut once. I had made a Whopper of a mistake once and if I had not rechecked it I would have been up the proverbial creek without a paddle or canoe in site

[pangur]

Great advice. Small wins, very important. Just had a small win and a big loss on tonight's night nav but without mistakes it is trully impossible to learn.

[ampini]

Great content.
Wins build confidence
Losses build learning experiences.

[isshinryu]

Thanks Top. This certainly was a good foundation for anyone in Land Navigation or life thank you

[Mrsleepy]

Wow, and I thought I knew it all 😜. Always something new to learn to be a better navigator. Thank you very much!

[JeffMeadowsOutdoors]

I love getting out and practicing land nav, but I find it hard to create exercises to test myself. Maybe sometime you could do a video on setting up a course or on ways to practice. Thanks for the great video!

[Sintonizarproductions]

I forgot to add or subtract 3 degrees from grid north to magnetic north, it sucked especially because it was during the middle of a sandstorm.

[danielhutto]

I want to make sure im not crazy, orienting your map to true north (as in positioning your map so that the "grid north" is now facing towards true north actually accomplishes nothing, right? What I mean is that if i take a magnetic (compass) bearing, and want to plot it as a grid (map) point by adding/subtracting your declination as applicable, then it doesnt matter if my map is oriented at all, right? Other than the fact its way easier to look down at a map and then look up and see that point in front of me, orienting your map to true north is definitely not required, right?

[caseykelso]

Never disappoints🎉 thanks for sharing 🍺

[dennisseverns]

A big issue I have seen in the military but even more often when training with SAR team is people not using the declination or setting the wrong declination on their compass. Adding declination when they should be subtracting or vice versa.

Have definitely seen the people who continuously look at their compass and not what is in front of them, it is even funnier watching someone do that with a GPS. They get where they are going, but it is funny watching them zigzag back and forth as the GPS constantly corrects itself.

[joefennell]

Out a site Top. Gotta practice man. Good stuff as usual. Thanks

[tomesjt]

Where is a good place to order Orienteering maps? A lot of the regional parks in Cali and WA seem to just have a small Parks PDF map that don’t seem great for compass/orienteering (no long/Lat lines, no scale, grid squares, etc)

[rickm]

Awesome content ! My favorite stuff for sure

[nirkdowitzki]

when describing the person going at 85 degrees and ends up parallel but even to his point how does that happen? could you explain more on that?

[SNAFU_]

The old measure twice cut once methodology can apply to most things in life. Rash/rushed thinking and decisions at the least can lead to an inconvenience at worse can get a person killed.

[KevinOutdoors]

That's some strange disjointed discussion man. I don't think you met the objectives of the title at all. But, I do appreciate your passion.