Looking to pick up a compass to have when hunting out west. I like the mirrored sighting compasses. Looking at Silva, Brunton, and Suunto mostly. What do you guys recommend?

Suunto is the one I would choose. I have their protractor compass and it's quality. If you want a traditional lensatic compass, Cammenga is the brand I have liked.

Compass is good to have but much less useful without topo maps of the area or some other reference. Be sure to get a few of those printed out. Assuming GPS is still your main navigation method?

I want this mainly to hone my navigation skills, and have as a last resort should my electronic navigation devices fail me in the field. I will have a Topo map of the area with me during the my hunt. The Suunto compasses look nice. I have a Brunton TruArc 15 in hand now, but think about exchanging it. I'm not really a fan of the tool less declination adjustment on the Brunton. It seems like it could easily move without the user noticing and throw off your bearings.

I have a Cammenga (Lensatic) with tritium inserts. It's a tough, well built compass, that can be used at night.

aggie_2010 said:

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I want this mainly to hone my navigation skills, and have as a last resort should my electronic navigation devices fail me in the field. I will have a Topo map of the area with me during the my hunt. The Suunto compasses look nice. I have a Brunton TruArc 15 in hand now, but think about exchanging it. I'm not really a fan of the tool less declination adjustment on the Brunton. It seems like it could easily move without the user noticing and throw off your bearings.

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I'm a land surveyor (TX RPLS, formerly TN RLS) and an Eagle Scout. I know my compass work pretty well though I'm not a recent practitioner in the realm of hiking and hunting the American West.

You should be able to look at your compass and know if your declination has changed unexpectedly for a given trip. If you were covering enough ground in a single trip to need more than one memorizable declination we'd already be asking if you were dead yet.

The bigger issue is getting the declination adjustment done in the proper direction so that you haven't doubled your magnetic error. And then memorize the setting. The other issue is looking at the date of the paper map against which you are navigating. When was it done? What is the projection? How does that relate to grid/true/magnetic north? How has the magnetic declination changed since the map was published? The magnitude of these answers may surprise you.

ETA: That's a lot of words to say "The issue is training, not equipment."

I hear what you're saying about user error, and knowing your equipment. Do you have a compass preference?

Neches21 said:

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I have a Cammenga (Lensatic) with tritium inserts. It's a tough, well built compass, that can be used at night.

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Excellent compass!

I dunno. We used Brunton through 6 weeks of field work for A&M Geology. I can't fathom needing anything more precise, accurate, fancy, or expensive than something required to operate within confines of the coursework and professors we had. Damn.

Same here for my field camp. The Brunton was easy to use. You can look up the declination for the area you are going to be in and set it beforehand. Just double check that your topo is oriented to true North. It might have a declination on it for a user to set to, but declination changes over time so looking up the most current is best.

aggie_2010 said:

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I hear what you're saying about user error, and knowing your equipment. Do you have a compass preference?

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I'd like to address this tomorrow in more depth than my phone posting allows. In the mean time can you tell me where you're planning on hunting just by state and approximate longitude? No latitude.

I'll try to address the hardware as well.

BrazosDog02 said:

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I dunno. We used Brunton through 6 weeks of field work for A&M Geology. I can't fathom needing anything more precise, accurate, fancy, or expensive than something required to operate within confines of the coursework and professors we had. Damn.

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Good times. Those Bruntons and Veitnam-era clipboards take a beating through the decades and hold up just fine.

Hell yeah. I still use my clipboards. Really handy.

dmart90 said:

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Neches21 said:

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I have a Cammenga (Lensatic) with tritium inserts. It's a tough, well built compass, that can be used at night.

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Excellent compass!

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Love my Cammenga as well. Lost it once during a military landnav course at night and needed it to find my last point. Luckily those bright tritium dials enabled to find it again and complete the course with 4 of 4 points found.

We'll be hunting National Forrest lands in Wyoming this year. Next years could be the same spot in WY, or new ones in CO, NM, or another western state.

I know Silva, Brunton, and Suunto all make good/great compasses. I just want to know what the OB prefers, and why.

Just saw the price difference between Brunton and Cammenga... Yeah, go with Cammenga if you don't need the bubble level and other niceties that a Brunton has that more useful for Geologists.

Brazos & Birdbear, I still have my clipboard too. But, it sits on a shelf now. My aluminum clipboard has more storage for my astm & usc sheets, along with other storage, that's more beneficial for work.

My understanding is that the Cammenga needs a protractor to do a lot of the map work. One benefit of base plate compasses is that you can see through them once they're set on the map. Also, I'm not sure you can you set the declination in the Cammenga. It looks heavy too, so I haven't really considered it for a backpack hunt.

aggie_2010 said:

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My understanding is that the Cammenga needs a protractor to do a lot of the map work. One benefit of base plate compasses is that you can see through them once they're set on the map. Also, I'm not sure you can you set the declination in the Cammenga. It looks heavy too, so I haven't really considered it for a backpack hunt.

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A protractor compass will always be easier for map work on a flat surface in perfect conditions. The Cammenga (Or any lensatic) is much better for sighting, shooting azimuths, resectioning, etc.

Also, all you do is turn the bezel to move the indicator so you can mark your declination. 3 degree clicks, which is close enough for government work and navigating the mountains. Where I was at in CO, it was right at 9*3', so three clicks was perfect.

It weights about 5 ounces if I remember correctly.

In the end, use whatever you're comfortable with. I'm not trying to talk you into anything.

Thanks Buck. No doubt the Cammenga is a work horse given it's use in the military. I think I still lean heavy towards the mirror sighting compasses.