Survival Kit Compass

[SCOMAN]

I've recently taken my homemade survival kit out for a run and to determine what deficiencies there were with the kit. Needless to say I found a few and one of them was the compass. I'd purchased some small button compasses on a velcro wrist strap, the rough bearings were vague to say the least. To that end I'm after a new compass, I was looking at the Silva Ranger 27, does anyone have any comments, good or bad and a good site to buy them from? Also does anyone else have a preference for a differrent compass.

 

[Mastino]

27 is fine, it doubles as a signal mirror

 

[hoppinmad]

Hi
The 27 is a good back up compass and has a sunwatch on the underside of the compass, even though it is smaller than the exped 4 when folded, it has about the same length baseplate when opened up, so is still fully usable for taking bearings etc. the only downside is that it does not have romer scales, but it does have a cm/mm scale
I find a site called dash4it very resonable for os maps and compasses with free post etc...no connection but happy customer
hope this helps regards
stu

 

[santaman2000]

Be sure to check how/where you are testing your compass as well. If you're trying to take a reading near metal (your knife, cookware, etc) or near an electrical field (powerlines, car stereo,etc) the compass will be inaccurate at best and sluggishly stuck in line with the source of deviation.

 

[SCOMAN]

No pretty happy the little button one was just pants I had considered all the points you mentioned. Not a major concern as no great price was paid.