Buying a Compass for Land Navigation

I prefer the lensatic compass. It's just as precise as my mirror compass but (for me) it is easier to use in the field and I can see (and focus on) the landmark, index line and the numbers on the dial all at the same time. Land Nav is just plain fun no matter what your choice of compass.

great video ,,, very rare ive been out on a job and not had a simple base plate compass in my pocket , when everything else goes wrong , it is something you can bet your life on.

Thank you very much for taking the time to teach us how to use a compass, before your video all that I knew was true north and magnetic north. Every else is brand new to me.

Thank you Sir, very well instructed, to the point, clear and within 10 minutes, WOW!

After I watched this video I tossed it across the room.

Excellent review, Steven!

Thanks for the great Enlightenment on compasses and I did subscribe so I will be able to read maps and conquer positions if needed to be.....

I worked for years with my Silva ranger. Still love it.

Steven, I'm pleased to see I'm not the only one with boxes full of different types of compasses made by different companies. My motive is I just find it fun to play around with different designs, to explore how different designers go about building in useful functions that take a different approach from other company's ideas. And it's just fun to learn how a compass with a rotating compass card has to be used differently from a compass where only the magnetic needle rotates. In many ways you have to think in the opposite way. However, on both a lensatic, and a base plate / protractor compass, if mag declination is west, adjust for it by turning the bezel ccw, and if mag declination is east, you turn the bezel cw. So there are also similarities. Also I have learned a lot about how to correctly use the lensatic compass in your other videos. Thank you. You stated the lensatic compass has a global needle. I don't think that is correct. If you go to the Cammenga website and look at the 3H and type 27 models. You are directed to choose various options. One of the options is to select Hemisphere. With the choices being: Northern Hemisphere or Southern Hemisphere (add $1). That option is not present for the DT-3 protractor model, I don't know why as it appears to use the same compass housing. I will also mention that in Oct. 2017 Silva Sweden announced they have acquired the rights to the Silva trade name for N. America from Johnson Outdoors. The new arrangement went into effect Jan 4, 2018. Johnson Outdoors has owned the Silva name in N.America since 1998, and since then the Silva compasses sold here were made by Johnson Outdoors, not by Silva Sweden, the company that invented the Silva compass. So that has now changed. And Silva Sweden compasses after almost a twenty year absence are again being imported into Canada and the USA. The Silva compass models available here will be changing. You may want to update your blog to say the Silva Sweden compasses are now being imported here again. However, many of the compass models, maybe all of them, will say Designed by Silva Sweden, made in China. (look at the zoomed images on thecompassstore website). I also know this because I just purchased a Ranger 2.0 Quad compass. The 2.0 addition to a compass model name seems to indicate it is a US version of that model, having scales that match the standard scales used on USGS topographic maps. Anyway, I have been ordering Silva Sweden compasses from Europe the last few years, I won't have to do that anymore. I am not concerned the made in China compasses will be poor quality compasses. Compasses are a core business product for Silva Sweden, I am confident Silva Sweden will insure a high standard of QC at the Chinese factories. Or risk going out of business. I think it is only companies that just want some product that fits a certain product category they want to sell, something that isn't a core product for them, that will sell shoddy low QC items from China. I know Daiwa has some excellent fishing rods made in China. I think companies that focus on a few core products have their own people in the factories insuring high standards of production.

Hey! I have used the Suunto MB-6 global matchbox compass for years. It works great and is super easy to sight and shoot an azimuth. I do like my lensatic compass alot, too.

Love the way you throw compasses around.

Use of mils is mostly for Artillery because when you use mills in direction and the distance is known then you can adjust fire but In the Army we still use degrees for navigation. If you use mils and you want to know distance if you have the optics for it then the formula is Size of target (object) in yards/meters/feet (whatever you want to use the formula is the same.) times 1000/mils. You sight on something that is 4 meters long and say it is 5 mils in your sight then its 4x1,000/5 = 800 meters away and Artillery adjustment is done in a similar way but they are not seeing the target they just take the information and use it to calculate where to put their rounds. But for the most part we used degrees for navigating. lensatic compass has both degrees and mils.

10* Good topic and presentation.

good video, I like them all, my opinion of best night compass may vary.

9:13: they call them "Ranger" compasses because the Silva Type 15 was marketed in the US as the "Silva Ranger". It was/is one of (if not the) the most popular mirrored baseplate compasses on the market since the 70's. Some of the nicest Silva Type 15 Rangers were branded by the Boy Scouts for sale in Scout Shops and included aluminum bezels with engraved degrees and really beautiful leather carry pouches with Boy Scout stampings. Anyway, because the Type 15 was so popular/beloved, so it came to pass that mirrored baseplate compasses are typically referred to as "Ranger" or "Ranger-Style" compasses mostly in the US and especially anywhere with a heavy Scouting influence.

Mills. Is the standard the level of inaccuracy is smaller which can be compensated.

This was what i needed!

thank you sir. good video explained things well.

My favourite is the Silva/Brunton 4/54 baseplate compass with a sighting prism to take bearings good to one-half degree and has long-life glow in the dark paint illumination. Another type not shown is a hand-bearing sighting compass like the Plastimo, they float and are yellow (easy to find if dropped) and are encased in thick rubber so fairly rugged.

A lot of those Silva backup compasses when they start to leak I keep the needle for survival kits, much better than having to magnetize a sewing needle if push comes to shove