Originally posted by Tenebrous
My best suggestion is buy a expensive, high quality compass.
After semi-pro orienteering career much like north wolf (from childhood to my twenties, stopped couple years ago), some tips.
DONT get an expensive competition class orienteering plate/thumb-compass as a survival compas.
a) they are all made from plastic because of weight. they do take guite much beating, but not that much.
b) fanzy bearing systems. many comp. model compasses have complex bearing systems to make reading-ring turn nicely. have broken couple such bearings,
wont last
c) liguid filling, yes there is liguid inside most better compasses. makes compass steadier and faster to use. Downside is, if casing may leak gas
bubbles inside the liquid. which will ruin compass, because gas bubbles push the needle around. resulting false readings. After long use and beating
seams leak even in some good quality compasses. have seen many of these.
d)has no sighting system.
So instead get a metal framed military model compas which has sighting system for taking directions. very usefull, because you can locate yourself on
map, if you get your direction to two known landmarks at map. plus good metal frame is allmost impossible to destroy.
If compas has no filling, it is more rugged. Without filling needle oscillates little, so it is not as precice and fast to use as filled. This is not
very important at survival, because you dont need to be so fast.
If you are going to get filled compass, then get very good guality one. Bad guality fillled compass can get gas bubble inside it just from knocking it
couple times. so ask from dealer, if compas has liguid inside. After that ask if that model is easy getting bubbles inside it. In case dealer does not
know what "getting bubbles inside" means, he/she has no idea what stuff he/she sells. If you happen to find store that specialices in orienteering
eguipment ask them if they have sightingmodels. Those stores usually sell only good quality stuff.
What I looked on net US military
camenga looks good, but cost a lot (comments from US army
guys, are those good guality ones). Get something like that, but get good guality one. You don't want your compass showing you wrong direction or
breaking in peaces at the middle of wilderness. you are in big trouble if you get lost in there, when emergency services are down.
We used finnish made
Suunto hand-bearing compasses at armys FO jobs, but for these things they are little over shoot.
You don't need one unless you are going to command artillery fire
and looks like those cost 150€ a peace. no wonder our groupleader was
very worried about that thing. But if you have extra money, those things are just about the best you can get.
i would recommend taking one sturdy sighting compass and one plasticplate compass with you. it is much more easier to work on map with platecompas
than with sightingmodels. if you can take couple extra ones, can sell them to someone.
MAINRULE: EVERY PERSON MUST HAVE COMPASS WITH HIM/HER ALLWAYS, WHEN IN WILD. even if you move at group, everyone must allways have some kind of
compass and possibly a map. I know a friend of mine who had orienteered for years getting lost 500 m from our base car, when we were taking apart
orienteering exercise. we had personally put it up. He took 180 degrees wrong direction, because he reasoned directions wrongly. Took 1,5 hours to
find him. SO KEEP THAT COMPASS WITH YOU AND NOT IN THE BAG, BUT IN HAND.
lastly, because someone is going to ask this anyway. I have used plate-compasses from Silva, Suunto and Moscow compass. All are good guality stuff, as
long as you dont by cheapest camper models. Meaning the cheapest models you find at normal markets.
sorry for bad english
PS: northwolf: seura?