A Good Compass?

[reconseed]

I am looking for a good compass. Anyone know where I can find them for a decent price?

:thumbup:

 

[Bronco]

I think this is one of those situations where "good compass" and "decent price" are highly subjective terms that depend largely on the intended use of said compass. Some folks like to have a good compass bought at a decent price as a backup sitting in the bottom of their pack in the event that they get lost while hunting and need to find that blacktop road that can easily be located by traveling in anything remotely resembling a southerly direction. For these folks a quality $15 Brunton is all they'll ever need.

Others have in mind serious land navigation adventures at various locations across the country and perhaps across the globe, at day or night and often in heavy foliage. For them, higher accuracy and advanced features such as declination adjustment, tritium vial illumination, etc., are a necessity and command a higher price tag.

What kind of use do you have in mind?

 

[Sid Post]

It all depends on actual use. $50 is way too expensive to some and dirt cheap to others. If your lost, $300 may seem cheap! YMMV

 

[Lanza]

Tru Nord is a good inexpensive compass. They will adjust the compass based on where you will use it. A google will turn them up.

 

[Bob W]

I prefer the Suunto M3 Leader, and usually find good prices at Forestry Suppliers. Simple to use, accurate enough for field mapping archaeological sites and serious backcountry travel, high quality, and affordable.

-Bob

 

[mycroftt]

I use a Suunto M3-DL Leader (The "D" means it has declination adjustment and the "L" means it is luminous or "glow in the dark".) I use it mostly for orienteering and I like the cutouts used for marking controls on your map and the baseplate is just the length I like.

 

[reconseed]

Thanks Branco.. I was just looking for something to throw in my pack when we do field training exercises... We already have GPS systems, etc, however, i always want to have a good compass with me.. I am not looking for anything high dollar, just something that will be reliable and wont break... Illumination of the compass isnt a prerequisite in my case. Thanks again for the help.


reconseed