Gear Review: Compasses

Gear Review- Compasses

Inside every man is a little boy who still dreams of finding buried treasure or walking out of the wood after being missing for three days, or rescuing a child from a burning building. Having an adventure. I think the modern day version of adventuring is merely getting off the beaten trail, whether that trail is through a national park or a city park. A compass is the difference between having a plan and wandering around.

I have never repressed my desire to get off the beaten path and thus I collect maps and compasses. I love reading maps. I love looking at maps that I have marked up with my adventures but truly the compass is a Shiny Thing.

The compass to the right is my latest and favoritist compass, the Brunton 8096 Adventure Racing Compass. Geared towards Adventure races, this 'baseplate' type compass packs a tremendous amount of information on the baseplate, including tools to read and utilize almost any standard map size without having to pull out protractors and UTM grids. Its an advanced model of compass, not for the novice for some of the reasons I will list below on the best selling compass the Silva but it is a beauty.

There is also two main reasons I really enjoy this particular compass. First it uses Brunton's circle in a circle system which I find extremely accurate and it has a tool free declination adjustment.

Sidenote: In non-techy terms declination deals with the fact that there is two north poles; one where Santa Claus lives and the other is where your compass point to in the Northwest Territory in Canada. How you set your compass to read a map azimuth (or line of travel) depends on where you live. A compass in Atlanta, Georgia needs almost no adjustment; however in Arizona you need to adjust about 12 degrees east in order to stay on target.

The Silva Ranger is a much more universal and award winning model. I have one of these as well. As a back up of course. Its amazing how your mind can play crazy with you when out in the middle of nowhere and if your not sure of your heading you can use a back up to check your bearing (direction of travel). The Ranger, a 'sighting' type compass, uses a mirror as a sighting/magnification mechanism so you can fold the mirror over the compass points, look through a little hole at your target and then without moving the compass look into the mirror to see your azimuth.

The difference in a baseplate and sighting compass comes down to the accuracy of reading the target. When you use a sighting compass you hold the compass up to your cheek and can look at your target and your compass and be extremely accurate with your azimuth. With a baseplate you hold the compass level in front of you look up at the target and down at your azimuth. Its a much faster read. It is as accurate as a sighting compass, if you have confidence in your abilities.

Part of my love for compasses is not so much the fact that I know how to use one, but that I have used it. I think of the fun I had in Yosemite or Guam or Olympic National Park in Washington State or on dozens of military operations in and out of the country. I dream of the fun that I yet to have, getting myself lost and unlost in places I have never been.

Oh yes, part of the fun of land navigation is the bushwhacking to where you are supposed to be but if you don't know how to read a map you won't even know where you are. That however is about map reading and not compasses.

If you tire of the same old novels at bed side or find that you wish you were doing something more productive than just watching television, buy a compass and a How To Book, usually a book will cover both map reading and compass usage. Plus little kids love looking at maps and playing with compasses so it interactive with the family as well.

I also suggest finding a map for a local recreation area to practice your compass work on. When you do this from your kitchen table its easy to study and practice and if you're familiar with the area you can visualize what your doing in front of you since you will recognize general terrain features.

In reference to maps, you would be surprised at what that thing will show you is just beyond the trees you pass every day.