I did an upgrade cycle on my field compass in January. My requirements include simple declination adjustment, a mirrored sight, and an inclinometer. The Brunton TruArc 15 hit those points, is American-made, and under $100 at REI.
I returned it. It gets a lot of praise, but the unit I had was a poor design poorly executed. The built quality was lacking, damping nearly non-existant (the declination needle would just flop around), and the compass rose was really difficult to read.
Its worst sin is in its needle. Brunton markets this as a ‘global’ needle that works anywhere in the world, which might be partially true, I guess. The TruArc 15 that I had was compensated poorly, and at 42ºN dragged its tail. It made readings highly dependent on posture, and in the field I couldn’t reproduce bearings consistently. It meant I couldn’t trust the compass.
I replaced it with a Suunto MC-2, the USGS version that is specifically compensated for the northern hemisphere. It fixes all of the problems that the Brunton has – the needle is rock-steady, it’s easy to read, produces consistent bearings – in roughly the same form factor and price. The Suunto goes in the pack, the Brunton into REI’s returned merchandise bin.
I’m glad you posted this as I’ve been on the hunt for a better compass than the AOFAR compass I got. It has a hard time getting back on point with the heading. But, it is also $18.
I’m curious of the Suunto can fit in the old Alice compass pouch? My main hiking kit is an Alice belt system that has a 24hr kit in the butt-pack in case I have to drop ruck for what ever reason.
I think it probably would, an ALICE compass pouch is something like 4x5", and the Suunto is slightly smaller. The AOFAR lensatic is a completely different design than the MC-2, which is made for mapping and positional work. If what you need is to walk to a bearing, the lensatic is probably more accurate than the MC-2. If you care about declination, need an inclinometer, and are taking repeated bearing measurements, the MC-2 is the tool.
The Suunto is also perfectly fine for hiking along a bearing, and if you are taking a sight on a landmark and then hiking to that there’s not much difference. If you are hiking bearings from a map you want the MC-2, though.
Depends on how good your eyesight is! There’s a notch on the back that lets you sight directly across the compass, and a corresponding hole in the bottom of the case with a tick mark. You can set the mirror such that you can put the needle in the shed and then adjust it down to read the back azimuth…it’ll be the mirror image.
Easier to just shoot the forward bearing normally and then just read the back angle off the bezel, this one doesn’t flop around. I could barely read the numbers on the Brunton, the MC-2 is better. Getting old.
This Silva was at a local shop a few years ago. I didn’t compare then but have had several different compasses since being a map freak as a Boy Scout in the ‘60s and ‘70s.
Damping is good and the needle is near level here at 45 degrees north.
The degrees are easy enough for me to read (with bifocals). The declination adjustment scale is smaller but is clear enough and I don’t change declination nearly as often.
It does take a tiny screwdriver, about 2mm, to change the declination. This is the biggest complaint I have about this compass. The declination can be set very precisely and the compass is very easy to use after that.
I think the Suunto and that Silva are pretty close. I was down to the two of them and tipped to the MC-2 only because it was a few dollars less. The Suunto has the same screw for declination – the Brunton has an awkward squeeze-and-twist thing with the entire capsule.
My Brunton has been my go to compass for oh, I’m embarrassed to say. Decades. Many decades. More than 3 decades. The damn thing feels like it’s the platonic ideal of a field compass at this point.
Some time back, it became unfindable in the way possessions sometimes do when you get old. So I bought another Brunton, because, well, why not?
It was awful. It seemed to be possessed. I took it back to REI, who happily exchanged it for a fancy schmancy Silva. The Silva was… meh. It was… ok. I kept it, because you just don’t go thru life without a damn compass, right?
About a year ago, I came across the Much Beloved Brunton, in a box of stuff unrelated to navigation (it was, in fact, a box of full of chainsaw chains to be sharpened. Don’t ask me, I have no clue) It leapt out of the box and gave me a hug. It’s possible that tears were shed.
The Silva is ok. I can use it. My now aged Brunton is an old friend. I’m sure some will scoff at the idea of being friends with a tool. To them, I say: you are Very Wrong. My Brunton compass was, if I recall, pretty expensive when I bought it. But amortized across 40 years, incredibly cheap for the quality delivered.
Years ago I helped the local health group publish a map of trails in town. When they published it, they turned the compass rose to magnetic north with no mention of true north or declination. It’s one solution, I suppose. Back then declination here was near 18 degrees. The graphic artist said nobody would notice which may be true.
the odds that I would notice if indicated north on a trail map was 18 degrees off are approximate 100%. The time before I noticed might not even be very long even if I was using the map and didn’t have a compass at hand.
I suppose they didn’t feel it was worth making distances correct? Heck, just make the trail map like the London Tube map - show the connections but don’t bother with actual, you know, cartography.
