Getting an early start on climbing Orizaba a "few" years ago, my companion was navigating by compass; I was following the North Star. The compass was off by 45 degrees due to iron in the surrounding volcanic basalt. Not very critical in that situation, because the critical directions were up and down.

totally subjective comment:

30 years ago, working for the USFS as a survey contract inspector, i used a personally-owned Ranger Type 15CLQ daily. part of my job included locating 100+ yr old survey makers.

let me describe my best "find": i had to go one mile from a known survey starting point though a very thick lodgepole-pine thicket. counting my steps and checking the Ranger every few paces, i eventually stopped when i thought i was in the right place. scanning around i didn't see any eye-level tree markings usually associated with a ground level cap or rock-marker. i was about to give up when i looked down. i was standing on it!

if it hadn't happened to me i never would have believed it. i give full credit to the compass. it never let me down and always got me very close to where i needed to be, even over a many mile trek.

fyi - my impression over the years was that i could be consistently accurate to within half a degree, so it surprised me to read the above comment in post #2, that they are only accurate to +/- 2 degrees...

Lot's of very thoughtful input.

I really appreciate it.

Blake

www.outdoorquest.biz

Just to give some credit where credit is due, the modern descendant of that Ranger compass in the U.S. is the Brunton 15DTCL. Unfortunately, looking at Brunton's web site it looks like they are rolling out an entirely new line of O.S.S. compasses ... and will no longer be offering the many styles they've sold for years.

Some web sites still have the Brunton 15DTCL for sale though.

Honestly not trying to hijack this thread (Sorry!!), but I just stumbled upon this article about Brunton moving its manufacturing from China back to Riverton, Wyoming ... and in the article there are pictures of the new style O.S.S. compass. That must be the back story on the new line of compasses. I hope it works for them.

http://county10.com/2012/03/14/a-360-tur...ton-from-china/