Map Reading and Land Navigation

Key points:

• Grid coordinates are always read right, then up. The more digits, the more precise the location.
• There are three norths: true, grid and magnetic. The declination diagram in the map margin gives the angle between grid and magnetic north, and a bearing carried between map and ground is wrong by that angle unless you adjust for it.
• Keep the compass away from metal and electricity. The manual's separation distances run from 55 meters for high-tension power lines to half a meter for a steel helmet or rifle.
• Know your pace count: the number of paces it takes you to walk 100 meters, measured on ground like the ground you will cross.
• Learn the five major terrain features on the map (hill, saddle, valley, ridge, depression) so you can match the map to the ground in front of you.
• Orient the map before anything else, so that its north and south line up with north and south on the ground.

Who it's for: hikers, hunters and anyone who wants to navigate with a paper map and compass instead of a phone.

How to use it: read the core chapters in order: Maps, Marginal information and symbols, Grids, Scale and distance, Direction. Then Elevation and relief explains contour lines, and Terrain association shows how to match the ground in front of you to the map, the skill that still works when a compass reading is in doubt. The military-only chapters (mounted navigation, unit sustainment) can be skipped.

What to know: published in 2001. The GPS material is dated; the map, compass and terrain methods have not changed.