My old Boy Scout compass, while it was great, has a big bubble now.

Looking for a good, high quality, first world made compass. USA, Japan, Europe. Cammenga lensatic seems we’ll recommended but costly. Sunnto seems to be getting a lot of bad reviews.

Recommendations? If not, I’ll buy once, cry hard, with the cammenga.

TruNord has been recommended here previously if I recall correctly.

https://trunord.com/

Anything that has SUUNTO on it. Mine are over forty years old and still point MN within the smallest possible deviations.

Two moving parts, no batteries, VERY good lume, even now.

Mine were issued to me by the Quartermaster, who advised me that I had 'lost them on exercise' when I went to hand them in on leaving the Army.

Bruton compass

everything you need and nothing you don't. I have navigated many miles backpacking with this compass.

quote:

Originally posted by konata88:
high quality, first world made compass. USA, Japan, Europe.

It’s not designed as a map tool, but for land navigation it’s excellent: Francis Barker M-73. And it’s very expensive (far more than the Cammenga). I bought mine a few years ago from a company that no longer carries them, but these are apparently a couple that do:

https://www.sherwoods-photo.co...rancis_barker_fs.htm

http://www.gunapris.net/index....oduct&product_id=320

quote:

Originally posted by tacfoley:
Anything that has SUUNTO on it. Mine are over forty years old and still point MN within the smallest possible deviations.

Two moving parts, no batteries, VERY good lume, even now.

I don't know what bad press Suunto has gotten recently but I have 3 different models, one is less then 2 years old and they are excellent for my hiking/camping needs. My nephews use them on maps when we go places and they are not gentle boys.

I had an older several generation previous version of the Brunton TruArc 15 which either broke or was lost after a lot of hard use. This was at least 30 years ago.

Currently I have a knock off of the honking Brunton Professional Transit. Forgot where this came from. As well as an old late '90s Army issue lensatic tritium Cammenga 21-26460-02e compass that was a gift a good number of years ago. And for small pocket jobs, I have a Recta Swiss Army Type DP6, which is the same as Suunto MB-6, and a classic Silva Type 27.






If I were in the market today I'd give the Silva Ranger and Expedition models a hard look followed by the Brunton TruArc 7 and Suunto MC-2.

For a good selection of a wide range of compass types and price points, you could look at thecompassstore.com. I haven't actually used them, but I think I remember that people recommended them here in one of the previous compass threads.

I was curious, so looked into Suunto a bit, expecting to find that they'd started selling made-in-China junk in an attempt to push their price point down, but even the inexpensive Suunto compasses I looked at seem to be made in Finland, despite having a number of poor reviews.

I think the place to start is how you want to use the compass.

If you want to work with maps, you want a baseplate compass (the typical Boy Scout compass is a simple baseplate compass). A baseplate compass has the compass mounted on a clear baseplate with features and markings for doing precise work with/on maps.

If you want to be able to take precise bearings to distant objects, you want a sighting compass. There are a number of different styles of sighting compass. Lensatic compasses like the Cammenga are probably the most familiar to most people.

If you want to do both, there are compasses that are both baseplate and sighting compasses, like this one: https://www.thecompassstore.com/alpin.html

There are some interesting types of sighting compasses that offer amazing precision when taking bearings (some are 0.5 degrees) but they are very expensive and not useful for working with maps.

Don’t buy the Tate’s brand, it sucks.



He who has a Tate’s is lost!



Sorry, I just couldn’t help myself

Thanks guys! Some good starts to look into.

sigfreund: wow!

I don't have anything but my phone right now (and my broken boy scout compass - any way to remove the large air bubble? it got in some how, should be a way to get it out too, right? ).

What it probably really need (I think; don't have one, never tried one but sounds like it'll work) is one of the handheld gps units. But they are very expensive.

But even if I get one, batteries, made in china, electronics, and Murphy - failure when I need it most would not surprise me. So, looking for a good backup, and maybe even primary.

Cammenga and Suunto seem like go to brands but Sunnto in particular seems to get bad reviews these days. And also funny comments like putting the Suunto logo in places that obscure functional areas of the compass. But I need to look more.

Off to research and shop.....

I have an older Silva Ranger, either 1986 or 1992 vintage (had two, lost one, not sure which one was lost) that refuses to die. The back-up, just in case, is a Suunto that's few years newer.

Neither of them are showing any signs of dying, The lume on the Silva is pretty much gone. If I ever have occasion to replace it, some heir of mine will probably still be using the new one long after I'm cluttering up a grave somewhere.

Summary: I'd recommend either brand without hesitation.

I can’t personally vouch for it, but the Garman eTrex 10 is available for under $100. If you don’t need highways and landmarks, gas stations, banks, it appears this is a solid performer as an actual GPS. And it’s waterproof.

quote:

The black one looks very similar to the Army M2 compass, except the one I used was graduated in mils instead of degrees.

quote:

Originally posted by Palm:
TruNord has been recommended here previously if I recall correctly.

https://trunord.com/

I own two of them. These are very small compasses, good for giving you a general idea of direction, but these are backup/small kit compasses. BTW, they seem to have really gotten too big for their britches, as they have raised their prices yet again. I paid 24.95 for my first pocket compass from them in 2011. In 2018, they were selling for 54.95. Today, it's ten dollars beyond that- 64.95. You can see my comments here. It looks as if they no longer offer the titanium model. It's no surprise few were willing to pay 150 bucks for a tiny pocket compass.

For general use, I have two choices. Suunto invented the liquid-filled compass and of all the Suuntos I own, none of them has ever developed a bubble. The Suunto MC-2 and the Suunto MB-6 are excellent.

One way to have a compass never develop a bubble is for it to not be liquid-filled to begin with. The M-1950 lensatic compass, currently manufactured by Cammenga, is a great choice and is not liquid-filled. This design has been around for decades and an object doesn't remain in continuous production for so very long without being good.

quote:

Originally posted by konata88:
I don't have anything but my phone right now (and my broken boy scout compass - any way to remove the large air bubble? it got in some how, should be a way to get it out too, right? ).

What it probably really need (I think; don't have one, never tried one but sounds like it'll work) is one of the handheld gps units. But they are very expensive.

Anything you can do with a handheld GPS unit you can do with your phone, albeit in a more fragile device with worse battery life.

You can't really do it with the included maps apps like Google Maps or Apple Maps, but there are apps available that are functional replacements for handheld GPS units. Backcountry Navigator and Gaia GPS are two examples. They let you pre-download a variety of map types including topographic maps and include all the typical waypoint, route recording, etc., features. You need an internet connection to pre-download the maps, but once the maps are on your phone, no connection is required, and virtually every smartphone available for years and years has had a GPS chip in it that doesn't require any cellular connection to work (a lot of laptops don't, and for some stupid reason the wifi-only iPads don't, but basically every phone does).

I'm just now learning that GPS works w/o cellular service. And about these GPS apps. Who knew phones could do this?

Depending on how remote the location, phone may be good enough. More remote and off-road/off-trail then handheld GPS w/ phone/compass as backup. Is this typical?

As most probably already know, serious trekkers are experts with map and compass, followed by optional backup via GPS, cell phone, PLB, etc. Cell phones are only as good as the signal can reach, and all electronic navigation devices are typical murphy targets. I had a high-end Garmin crap out on me in a big woods at night after a day of hunting, but I had taken a reading with my wrist compass going in, and got lucky coming out in a place where I could figure out how to get back out. Never rely only on electronic navigation. I wish I really knew how to use a map and compass, my map and compass skills are insufficient for serious use. You can read about it, and it's fascination, but you can't learn it without doing it with lots of trial and error.

My recommendation? ... don't let it get anywhere near anything magnetic
(can't find a brand name on mine. Simple orienteering compass that has served all my compass needs ... mostly aligning antennas)

 
I've had a Plastimo Iris 50 for about 20 years. It is a hand bearing compass that can read to a single degree. I am quite pleased with its quality.

I got a Cammenga 3H back in 2005 and paid $80 and change