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Post by johntpenca on Jan 7, 2017 9:56:36 GMT -8
See if your local outdoor shop i.e., REI offers orienting classes. An alternative could be a local JR college. As most have posted, it is not rocket science, but getting run thru a maze w/o significant line of sight indicators (i,e., mountiains) can teach a lot.
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BigLoad
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Post by BigLoad on Jan 7, 2017 10:49:23 GMT -8
To directly answer the question of the orignal post: Suunto MC-2G Navigator Compass Silva Ranger 515 Compass These are two of my favorites. The Suunto has the fastest-settling and most stable needle I've seen so far. Its other features are also great, but it is a bit pricey. I probably have more trail miles with the Ranger than anything else. It's a real standby, but two of mine have fallen victim to bubbles. They may have suffered too many unpressurized air trips, or too many temperature extremes, but for whatever reason, the capsules seem to develop microcracks and air sneaks in. Most compasses are probably subject to this, because it's happened to several others I've owned. The one I carry most now is the K&R Alpin. It's supposedly less susceptible to bubbles because its capsule is more flexible. The other thing I like about it (a lot) is that the declination adjustment requires no tools. You can easily rotate the declination scale with your fingers. I find that an adjustable declination scale is a huge benefit compared to the fixed scale. The latter is more subject to error when you're fatigued, cold, thirsty, overheated, etc. www.thecompassstore.com/alpin.html. Finally, as others have noted, it's important to develop facility in using a compass. Otherwise it's just dead weight. |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 7, 2017 11:19:59 GMT -8
BigLoad Nice looking compass with good features. My Ranger Silva Type 15, last year developed a bubble. I've had it since 1992ish. The scale is 1:25000, which is useless for 7.5 Quad maps. The base has a few chips. Anyways, I am lookinng at replacing it. The Alpin will go on my list as a possible replacement.
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swiftdream
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Post by swiftdream on Jan 7, 2017 13:27:01 GMT -8
I've not found a liquid filled compass yet that does not develop bubbles. My expensive Brunton got a huge bubble that does not go away, they replaced and and yet another permanent huge bubble appeared. My Suunto gets bubbles but they go away after you don't need it at home. My old Silva gets them too. My Cammanga dry compass is way too heavy to carry afoot and no adjustable declination anyway but it can't get bubbles and is fairly accurate if you hold it right. With the electronic craze I doubt we'll see mush R&D on the compass front in the future.
I've been using a K&R Sherpa for a few years now and even with the thermo elastic capsule that is supposed to be bubble resistant it will get a bubble now and then that also goes away when I get home. It will still get a reliable reading with a little fiddling so I'm sticking with it.
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tigger
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Post by tigger on Jan 7, 2017 17:11:19 GMT -8
Like all activities, it can be done to the Nth degree. I have two "real" but basic compasses. One stays on me, and one is attached to my pack via lanyard and velcro. I do similar with my map. I keep one on my person and one in my pack. After you've had one blow away in a wind/snow storm...you realize it's good to have a backup map too. All I've done is off-trail hike for roughly thirty years now (trails scare me). I also carry a GPS and phone with GPS app (Gaia).
Each location will have it's challenges. Compasses, maps, GPS, triangulation via landmarks, etc. all have their place. How I use a compass will be different than the next guy. I traverse via the terrain and use the compass only as a general guide. This works in my area quite nicely. Under thick cover, I use it more often. In whiteouts, fog or at night, I tend to rely on my GPS for coordinates, my map for routing and follow the compass quite a bit more to ensure I don't veer off course (off a cliff, etc). I don't use anything more than a basic compass that I think I paid $12 for. My current "main" compass is around 15 years old. I set the declination, look at my map, and go...My logic and focus are more important than anything else I got.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 8, 2017 3:41:05 GMT -8
According to Silva, bubbles are cosmetic and don't affect accuracy. That said, my Sunnto M2 mirror compass from the 1990's developed a bubble and that gave me reason enough to pick up the M3....both GPS's have compasses, but I seldom uses them.
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BigLoad
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Post by BigLoad on Jan 8, 2017 9:27:09 GMT -8
According to Silva, bubbles are cosmetic and don't affect accuracy. I believe that up to a point. My belief wanes when they get big enough for the surface tension on the bubble to affect fluid flow, but that's a big bubble. |
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Post by Lamebeaver on Jan 9, 2017 9:00:15 GMT -8
be sure to get one that can be adjusted for declination! Just know what declination is. It's good to understand declination, and for pinpointing your location on a map it's important, but for general navigation and off trail hiking, not essential. Very few of use can actually walk a bearing with greater than 10° accuracy in wooded areas and uneven terrain. Most of us use a compass to make sure we're heading in the right general direction, or to figure out which direction to go if we get lost. I don't have much experience with orienteering books, but I'm sure some of those suggested by others are good. |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 9, 2017 9:18:06 GMT -8
For every single degree off course, 'you' will miss your target spot by 92 feet for every mile traveled.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 9, 2017 10:23:53 GMT -8
The instructions that come with some of the compasses are pretty good. I've carried a simple Silva Polaris for about 30 years. Silva Compass Instructions |
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swiftdream
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Post by swiftdream on Jan 9, 2017 10:54:24 GMT -8
Compass use is not always about walking a straight line, not for us anyway. That is not going to happen in canyon country or juniper/pinion forest anyway, way to many obstacles. If you have done much off trail in the Colorado Plateau canyon country you will know what that means.
One of the things a compass is really good for is finding your way back through the difficulty of that terrain, not easy even if you can see your objective. It can be hard to find a way up out of a canyon or across a canyon. When you find a route that goes, you mark the top of the entrance/exit with triangulation. You can get back to that point from any direction with two vectors, about 90 degrees apart. One might need several points marked and noted in a field notebook throughout a long traverse.
At other times there are many little canyons coming off a variegated mesa. Take the wrong one and that will shoot you off where you don't want to go and in the maze of things it might be hard just to find the specific one that takes you back to your camp or vehicle without stomping a mile back and forth. We tend to tuck our camps into places in the terrain that are not visible until you are right on them. Again, a triangulated point will walk you right back to that point in hall of mirrors. Triangulation is a wonderful technique.
I'm not sure how many here hike canyon country or need to triangulate but I bet Ohm has done this a time or two.
For just getting general direction, pinpointing is not that essential and when the sun is about it is easier to use shadowing for walking anyway, adjusting with a compass occasionally.
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Post by johntpenca on Jan 9, 2017 11:20:42 GMT -8
Very few of use can actually walk a bearing with greater than 10° accuracy in wooded areas and uneven terrain. Hence my suggestion to take a coarse. 10 degree accuracy is fine if you are walking a relatively straight line path and have line of sight identifiers (trails, peaks, lakes and streams). But when making numerous turns in dense forest or relatively flat terrain, that 10 degree accuracy can screw you big time. |
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ErnieW
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Post by ErnieW on Jan 9, 2017 13:42:18 GMT -8
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tigger
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Post by tigger on Jan 9, 2017 17:46:26 GMT -8
Hence, travelling by Topo - rivers, ridges, and other land features in combo with your wits, the sun, shadows, plant life to help determine elevation/area, a GPS, and pace counting all come into play at least for me. A compass is just one component of my arsenal for off-trail travel.
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Post by dayhiker on Jan 9, 2017 19:01:42 GMT -8
Staying Found is a good book, and so is the idea the title implies it is allot easier to keep track of where you are, and what things are around you , then to wait until you are lost. I find it takes me awhile to get used to the scale and formatting of a map and that is helped by looking at it often at first.
Skiing off trail, I have used streams and ridges, along with map and compass (and sometimes an altimeter. I find a GPS is sometimes faster, but not a substitute.
That said, if I am on a trail with just a few junctions I find "navigation" to be simple enough that I skip
some of these steps, which it sounds like you have done so far.
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