Suunto MC-2G Compass (Basic Components and How to Use )

hello welcome to the American backpacker today I'm going to be talking about the compass and utilizing a compass in a wilderness area now this is the last video that I'm doing in my series of videos on land navigation so I'm going to talk today about the three essential skills that you need to know when you're in a wilderness area and those three skills are shooting an asthma tour a bearing and they're one of the same shooting a back-ass but to get back to where you started from and orienting the map utilizing a compass you need to understand those three skills to be able to effectively use a compass in a wilderness area now the compass that I like using is the suit om c2g compass and the reason I like this particular compass is is that it has a global needle now to understand what a global needle is need to understand that the earth has vertical and horizontal magnetic poles and on a regular compass the needle itself the entire needle is magnetized what ends up happening is when you're in a specific part of the world that vertical pole has tendency neither to pull the needle down and get it stuck on the bottom of the compass or pull it up so you have to have a compass designed for that specific part of the world with the global needle you don't have to worry about that the only thing magnetized is the disc in the center of the compass and I'm gonna get you a close-up here of this compass go over the components and talk to you about a little more about the global needle now global needle compasses cost more but they're well worth that you never have to worry about figuring out what type of compass or buying a compass for that specific area of the world it's designed to go anywhere in the world it's also nice to have because if you're in a mountainous area and you're shooting as Masson inclines the compass or the needle is free-floating so that's another advantage of having this particular compass here now again I'm going to give you a close-up and go over the components of this particular compass so anytime you're in a wilderness area compasses a compass is something that you should have encompasses our preferential I've used a military lens that a compass before and I've loved that compass but once I got hold of this this is my go-to compass when I'm in a wilderness area so stand by while I give you a close-up of the Suunto MC 2g compass and go over the components of this particular compass and then get into the three skills that you need to know when you're in a wilderness area here you have my suit o MC 2g compass and by the way it's made in Finland so let's talk about the global needle on this particular compass now here you have the magnetic needle and a lot of compasses this entire needle is magnetized not on this compass on this compass here there's a little silver disc here in the center and that's the only thing magnetized and you have two hinges here that allow the needle to rotate freely up and down so you're in a certain part of the world where there's a vertical magnetic pole you don't have to worry about this needle hitting the top and getting stuck or hitting the bottom and getting stuck because it hinges on this little magnetic disc and that is an advantage of having a compass such as this all right let's go over the components really quick before I talk to you about shooting in asmath your back azimuth and utilizing this compass to orient your map all right here you have a base plate and the base plate is C clear so you can see through it below the map here this I have a backpack I have a green background here you have a ruler here and you can use the this edge here once you the compass is laid out flat to extend your line if you something on a map you have your scale you have the red little tick marks here which is your declination scale and another nice feature about this compass and a lot of other compasses have it is that you can adjust the declination on this particular compass in the area that you're going to be at so you can set it and not worry about it the way you do that is you turn the compass over here and you have a little screw there that you take this little flat tip screwdriver that comes with the compass you put it in there and you adjust it and you can adjust it for the East declination or west declination in the area that you're going to be at so once you set it it's permanent and you don't have to worry about it all right you have the red lines here which are your meridian lines and I'll talk about that probably in another video later on but just know that those are the meridian lines of course you have the magnetic needle we just talked about that you have the magnetic needle here and you have the orienting arrow when you're shooting an asmath or bearing the one on the same you're going to put this in that orienting arrow and it'll get your direction of travel there with that said the outer bezel here is called a bezel or dial 360 degrees and their each tick mark is two degrees you have your site index here sight line sometimes it's called an index line you have the mirror here which is great for emergency situations if you need to utilize it for a signaling device and also when you're shooting an asmath you utilize this mirror to orient your needle here your magnetic needle would you're orienting arrow there there's a lot of components on here that are luminous they light up in the evening the dial here and you have a v-notch here kind of like a gun sight that you utilize to shoot your direction of travel to whatever the object is in the background here you shoot it here you put your arrow in your or your magnetic needle in your mom orienting arrow there and it'll give you your direction of travel there and there you have it the Suunto MC 2g compass its components and in the explanation of what a global needle is so how to shoot an azmuth so we're trying to shoot an azmuth with the Suunto MC 2g compass here now we're going to use this little V notch here as our sight and we're going to aim at whatever target we're going to focus on in the distance all right so let's just say it's going to be this tree right over here what you're going to do is you're going to go ahead and angle your compass a 45 degree angle and you're going to go ahead and take that V notch and shoot your azmuth to that tree right there you're going to utilize the mirror here and what you want to do is you want to get this red needle here into the orienting arrow and you're going to do that and it's kind of difficult there because I'm trying to look at it myself oh I'm trying to get into the camera view but you're going to go ahead and you're gonna get the read in the shed there alright so again we're looking here in the mirror to get the needle into the orienting arrow and again it's kind of difficult cuz I'm trying to do this on the camera as I'm looking at it but we'll go ahead and say that's about it right there and again and we're gonna look up here and we can look at these tick marks here and these are in two degree increments so you have 220 there and you have 240 there and it's about 230 maybe 228 so it's probably more like 229 but again it's kind of roughing it because I'm trying to hold it in front of the camera so our azmuth to that particular tree about two hundred twenty-nine degrees magnetic shooting a back asmath with a compass so here's the rule of thumb if it's less than 180 degrees you're going to add 180 so if it's 179 or less you're gonna add 180 to get your back a Smith okay now if it's more than 180 you're gonna subtract so if it's 181 degrees you're gonna subtract 180 and your back azmuth than that reference will be one degree if it's exactly 180 degrees then it's zero and that's how you get your back azmuth so whenever you get to your specific point if you want to work back to where you started from you're going to go ahead and utilize that formula I just stated to you you're gonna subtract are you gonna add 180 degrees it's 180 on the money then it's zero degrees back aspect now what's nice about this particular compass here is there's a little sight line there so whatever you're shooting your azmuth there you know what your back azimuth is over here okay so all you gotta do is look at the compass turn your dial right in the shed and head back and that's how simple it is to shoot a back asthma orienting a map using your compass so what you're going to do is you're going to take your compass and you're going to set the North on your sight line there and then you're going to find a vertical grid line on the map and you're gonna place the straight edge of the compass on that vertical grid line and then what you're going to do is you're going to rotate the compass till the needle gets into the orienting arrow there so we're gonna rotate the compass until the red is in the shed now this map here of the Tonto National Forest is oriented to magnetic north and that's how simple that is utilizing a compass in a wilderness area three essential skills shooting an azimuth shooting a back azimuth and orienting the map utilizing the compass very basic skills and not too difficult to understand also I talked to you about the compass that I use which is the Shinto M C to G compass because it has a global needle it also has the built-in declination and you can address on the back and it's a great compass also to use in mountainous areas because of that free-floating needle and it won't stick on the top or bottom of the compass a little more expensive than most compasses but I think it's well worth it compass is a preferential I've used a military Lanzetta compass before I love that compass but I really enjoy this one here and this is what I've been utilizing when I go on a wilderness area I hope you liked the video if you have any questions go ahead and post it on my youtube channel and I'll get back to you with an answer you can also send me an e-mail at the American backpacker at gmail.com if you want to go ahead and ask a question that way please click like if you liked the video subscribe to the channel check out my webpage which I'm going to post the article on this particular compass the sinto M C to G and I'm going to talk a little bit more about the global needle and that article and of course she got my Facebook page hosting a good pics there and I think you'll like that as well too this is Andy with the American backpacker looking forward 2018 I hope you follow along take care

Channel: The American Backpacker

Views: 46,881

Rating: 4.7922077 out of 5

Keywords: The, American, Backpacker, Backpacking, Wilderness Backpacking, The American Backpacker, Suunto Compass, Suunto MC-2G Compass, Global Compass, Hiking, Camping, Survival, Bushcraft, Theamericanbackpacker.tv, #The American Backpacker#

Id: 3UflXQ0dCAY

Length: 14min 48sec (888 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 28 2017