Compass recommendations?

T. Erdelyi said:
Silva Ranger, I've used mine for the last 15 years
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T. Erdelyi,

If you purchased your Silva Ranger 15 years ago in the U.S., it was a REAL Silva Ranger made by Silva of Sweden and marketed in the U.S. by Johnson Outdoors.

In the U.S. today, that compass is still made by Silva of Sweden (which now owns Brunton), but they are sold in the U.S. as the Brunton 15TDCL. Compasses sold in the U.S. with the Silva trademark are NOT made by the original Silva of Sweden, and the compass sold in the U.S. as the Silva Ranger is NOT made by the original Silva of Sweden, nor is it the compass that you bought 15 years ago.

Its an odd thing, but it bugs me that Johnson Outddors wouldn't give up the Silva trademark to Silva of Sweden who invented that style of compass, and now Johnson Outdoors essentially sells "fake" Silva compasses in the U.S.

Elsewhere in the world, a Silva compass is made by Silva of Sweden.
 
OK.....so, Silva owns Brunton. If you have a Brunton, it's a Silva. If you get a Silva, it's not a real Silva, nor a Brunton, it's a Johnson.

Johnson Outdoors (use it in sentence)
"It was below zero, I had to wizz, I froze my Johnson Outdoors."
 
jude_061 said:
when we're out of sight of land the compass is the guy you want incase the electronics poop the bed, but you'd be surprised how many seafarers don't know how to navigate. i carry one incase the boat sinks. one boat i worked on had a compass that was 30 degrees off! if the electronics crapped out, we'd end up in nova scotia:eek:

plus, i like gadgets.

to check your compass at home, magnetize a needle by stroking in one direction with silk or a magnet. suspend it from a thread. it'll point north south.

carry your compass as far from your knife as possible, as the iron in the blade will mess it up
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A compass on a boat needs to be checked for variation as the boat itself will induce an error which changes depending on boat heading. Your knife, gun whatever can have the same effect but you can move the compass away from them and eliminate that error. If you take your compass which works great on land onto a boat, you may find that it doesn't point quite right out there either.
 
you're telling me? lol

my hand compass works fine on the boat. i get a fix on a range light or a known landmark. the binnacle is another story...
 
SkunkWerX said:
OK.....so, Silva owns Brunton. If you have a Brunton, it's a Silva. If you get a Silva, it's not a real Silva, nor a Brunton, it's a Johnson.

Johnson Outdoors (use it in sentence)
"It was below zero, I had to wizz, I froze my Johnson Outdoors."
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This post wins the thread! :D

This thread is full of great information though! I'm curious - is there anything actually bad about the new Silvas or is it simply a grudge for taking the name from Swedish Silva?

For someone like me I'm guessing either one would be more than enough compass.
 
...just a grudge related to my own personal sense of what is right and wrong. Legally Johnson Outdoors did nothing wrong. I'm sure the compasses sold by Johnson Outdoors are more than adequate for most users.

Ken K.
 
T. Erdelyi said:
Silva Ranger, I've used mine for the last 15 years and it's great for use with contour maps and navigating using UTM coordinates.

The clinometer is great to help determine altitude and distances.

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click me for more info
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+1. This was editor's choice several years ago, and seeing how compass technology hasn't changed recently, it's the one that I go with. Liquid filled, so it's smooth to get on bearing, then stops quickly, not having to waver like other compasses then settle on the bearing. In fact I have two. One in the BOB and one that I use for orienteering competitions and regular hiking.
 
I carry three compasses when doing any serious hiking. An ex Army prismatic for the detail and technical work, used in conjunction with a protractor with a built in roma scale, a Silva baseplate as a "going" compass, and a Marbles pin on button compass as a backup and checking compass.
Sounds like a bit of overkill, but it has been a long, long time since I was "geographically embarrassed". :)
I have a Magellan GPS, but I can never bring myself to totally trust it without the map and compass double check.

Old dogs and new tricks. I suppose.

If I had to re-equip myself today, I would definitely go for a Silva Ranger. A superb bit of equipment, worth every penny.
 
Thanks!

Btw, if I'm looking for a decent (not prohibitively expensive, certainly under $100, preferably $60 or less) compass that is usable world-wide (international adjustment for declination of mag-north to north), what should I be looking at?

ie, something that's going to work just as well in the middle east as in the mid-west.
 
The Johnson company was on the NRA/ILA list as a company that contributed heavily to gun control issues. Because of the pressure of that pubilcity Johnson stopped their donations program to gun control groups. I feel absolutely no loyalty to them even though they have changed their ways. I would buy a Swedish Silva or a Finnish Suunto as both are great compasses.

Here is another link to a company I have dealt with for years.http://www.forestry-suppliers.com/
 
yacoub said:
Thanks!

Btw, if I'm looking for a decent (not prohibitively expensive, certainly under $100, preferably $60 or less) compass that is usable world-wide (international adjustment for declination of mag-north to north), what should I be looking at?

ie, something that's going to work just as well in the middle east as in the mid-west.
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The Suunto MC-2G Global is the only compass I know of specifically designed to work anywhere on earth. It has a special needle. Most compasses work in either the northern or southern hemisphere. It is under $60. If only in the the Northern Hemisphere, declination adjustment is availble on all hte higherend compasess like the Ranger. Oddly I have never seen it on even mid range models.

Will
 
yacoub said:
sorry i should have specified northern hemisphere. so any with adjustable declination can handle anywhere north of the equitorial area?

looks like this is the cheapest Brunton with declination adjustment: http://www.brunton.com/product.php?id=112
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Yes, but look around. You can get it for less money than brunton's MSRP.

http://www.forestry-suppliers.com/product_pages/View_Catalog_Page.asp?mi=1291

I like the looks of this compass because it has a thermometer. But I just discovered that I need to replace my 20-year-old Silva Ranger (the mirror fell off of it) and so I'll probably buy a new Silva Ranger. Yes, I know that the new Silva Ranger is a different manufacturer than the old Silva Ranger. The important thing to me is that the new Silva Ranger comes with a magnifying glass in the baseplate. I'm not quite at a point where I can't read those tiny little map details without glasses, but I can see that day coming in the not-too-distant future.
 
Keep in mind that there are two kinds of compass errors - declination, which is the difference between true north and magnetic north, and inclination, which is a tendancy for the northern point of a needle to be pulled downward (it is trying to point through the Earth toward the magenetic pole).

Here is a web site that discusses inclination and the zones of inclination:
http://www.wide-screen.com/support/FAQsuunto.shtml#Anchor-60059

Any compass with adjustable declination can be set to counteract declination as needed.

Inclination changes around the world. Compass manufacturers have defined five regions on the globe. Most compasses are built such that their needles are balanced specifically for one of these regions. This web site give some good info on it. The Suunto Global Needle is built to maintain balance in all of these regions. I think Brunton has a global needle too.

If you are buying a compass in the U.S., it probably built for inclination zone 1. It will work in the U.S., Europe, and much of northern Asia. If you take that compass to any of the other zones, it will tend to bottom out and won't work properly. If you want a compass to work in the middle east, then you either need to buy one specifically built to work in zone 2, or buy one with a global needle.
 
The Silva Ranger and its modern incarnations are the compass all compasses are measured against.

Mine is 30 years old beat up and still tough as nails.

If you are using maps you need a good baseplate compass to map out bearings. The mirror is used for more accurate line of sight sighting and is used to adjust going uphill something a cheaper non mirror compass cannot do without tilting the needle.

UTM grid roamers on the baseplate are very helpfull for map work as well.

Dont forget the mirror is used for many other things including signalling in an emergency.

Do yourself a favor and get a Ranger or something similar.

Skammer
 
Have you guys ever tested one compass against another t check accuracy? Found any evidence of problems, or a compass that has gone bad?

Just curious. . .

Scott
 
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