Reccomend me a new compass!!

That's just a standard baseplate compass with no declination adjustment or mirror. Didn't even know they were calling that a "Ranger"


What you want is the Ranger CL:

41a7NM6XOpL._SL500_AA280_.jpg


Or Suunto MC2:

41R2LSNlSyL._SL500_AA280_.jpg
 
Here is a cut and paste from another site with some interesting information...if true. As it is a "he said, she said" kind of thing, I don't know if the info is true. Can anyone shed light on this?


"I've got a "real" Silva Ranger from Sweden, and didn't realize until a month ago that they're not the same anymore.

Below is a cut and paste from an REI review. I think it answers your question.

Silva is the original Swedish company that makes the Silva compasses, including the standard Ranger sold outside the US. They also own Brunton in the US. For some reason the "Silva" brand name is owned by Johnson Outdoors in the US, and this company sells the "Silva Ranger" here, a poor quality product made in the far east. (The one I returned had an eyelash floating in the needle capsule, among other things.) The real Silva Ranger made by Silva of Sweden (in Sweden) is sold under the name Brunton 15TDCL, which is a great product.
You probably don't need to know all this trivia to buy a compass, but when somebody older than you says "buy Silva Ranger, I've used it for a long time" they really mean Brunton 15TDCL."
 
Yep, this while thing is a cluster f**k. Mike Perrin researched this a while back and can elaborate more on it.
 
So the Brunton 15TDCL is the one? Now that you mention it, I remember something about this coming up in the past........
 
The Silva-Brunton-Johnson Worldwide thing happened a long time ago and is a good example of how slicksters operate in my opinion. Johnson WOrldwide was the U.S./North American Distributor for the Swedish company, Silva way back when. Unknown to Silva, Johnson WW quietly acquired the legal trademark for Silva on the North American Continent. So when Silva actually found this out they pulled the distributorship from JWW. But because of the trademark Silva could no longer sell their own brand name in the U.S. or Canada. SO they began using the name "Nexus" here and stuck with Silva everywhere else in the world. Meanwhile they also acquired Brunton USA and marketed their Nexus brand through Brunton as well.

Meanwhile Johnson WW contracted Suunto in FInland to make "Silva" compasses for the North American market. JWW can sell Silva compasses made by Suunto nowhere else in the world. Johnson WW makes nothing themselves and has no real expertise in the navigation market as far as I could ever tell. They are simply a distributor/middle man with an expertise in marketing. But the result was (and still is to some extent) that the U.S. consumer who buys a "Silva" compass here in the states thinks they are buying the old reliable, Swedish compass when in fact they are buying another reliable compass made in another country by another maker.:)

The above statements were largely gathered directly from Brunton USA , Silva of Sweden and Suunto of Finland.

But to the consumer I think what matters is if they are getting a good, reliable compass for the money they spend. Suunto is a very good company and makes a good compass. So is Brunton and Silva of Sweden goes without saying in my book. Brunton USA has made for decades THE pocket transit for geologists and engineers for field work that has become so relied upon an well known that most folks simply call it a "Brunton" instead of a pocket transit. Personaly if I was going to buy a Suunto compass though I would buy one that says "Suunto" rather than "Silva" made in Finland. But that is just my point of view. Mike
 
RancidSumo said:
Yes he does.
Click to expand...

Well, when you said he used one every day, I figured him for a Surveyor or something very similar.

Pocket Transits are incredibly accurate, they're a bit more than what is generally required in the type of compass we are talking about. It's a case where the ease of use and lack of a few different features negates the "pro" of being so accurate.
 
Jeff,

BTW, before I recommended the USMC Recon Kit to you, I checked information, some of which Mike just posted up above, to make sure we were getting the excellent Silvas that were pre-shennanigan Silvas. We have the good ones from the kits. :thumbup:
 
+1 on the Suunto MC2G (I believe there is an MC2 without the global needle, the MC2G with the global needle). Well worth the price.
 
I don't have all the details Mike does, but the Johnson "Silvas" clearly state "made in Indonesia", which the originals do not. If you purchase in person it is pretty easy to check this out.
 
I have a couple each of Suunto MC2 and Silva Ranger CL compasses and all of them say made in Finland.
 
Who the hell knows where they are being made right now. Or, they might just be copies made in Indonesia or whatever. Crazy times.
 
MikePerrin said:
The Silva-Brunton-Johnson Worldwide thing happened a long time ago and is a good example of how slicksters operate in my opinion. Johnson WOrldwide was the U.S./North American Distributor for the Swedish company, Silva way back when. Unknown to Silva, Johnson WW quietly acquired the legal trademark for Silva on the North American Continent. So when Silva actually found this out they pulled the distributorship from JWW. But because of the trademark Silva could no longer sell their own brand name in the U.S. or Canada. SO they began using the name "Nexus" here and stuck with Silva everywhere else in the world. Meanwhile they also acquired Brunton USA and marketed their Nexus brand through Brunton as well.

Meanwhile Johnson WW contracted Suunto in FInland to make "Silva" compasses for the North American market. JWW can sell Silva compasses made by Suunto nowhere else in the world. Johnson WW makes nothing themselves and has no real expertise in the navigation market as far as I could ever tell. They are simply a distributor/middle man with an expertise in marketing. But the result was (and still is to some extent) that the U.S. consumer who buys a "Silva" compass here in the states thinks they are buying the old reliable, Swedish compass when in fact they are buying another reliable compass made in another country by another maker.:)

The above statements were largely gathered directly from Brunton USA , Silva of Sweden and Suunto of Finland.

But to the consumer I think what matters is if they are getting a good, reliable compass for the money they spend. Suunto is a very good company and makes a good compass. So is Brunton and Silva of Sweden goes without saying in my book. Brunton USA has made for decades THE pocket transit for geologists and engineers for field work that has become so relied upon an well known that most folks simply call it a "Brunton" instead of a pocket transit. Personaly if I was going to buy a Suunto compass though I would buy one that says "Suunto" rather than "Silva" made in Finland. But that is just my point of view. Mike
Click to expand...

Mike,

Thanks for the info. Sounds like Silva didn't have an an adequate distributorship agreement, and Johnson took advantage of that. While I have a few Johnson/Silvas, I will probably buy Suunto's or Brunton's in the future.

Chris
 
Don Rearic said:
If you want something that is rather cool that I have also used for the same amount of time, try a Recta DP Matchbox. I don't even know if you can get Recta any longer but Suunto makes their version as well.

It is a rock solid piece of gear. I took a spill down the side of a rather steep mountainside in the Shenandoah National Park back around 1986 and it survived that!
Click to expand...

I looked up the Recta matchbox and they still make them. However apparently Suunto acquired Recta in the mid 90's, so I wonder if there is any difference between the two other than the labels.
 
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