I spent 20 years in the military and learned advance land navigation in phase one of special forces school. I used the miltary lensatic compass a lot and never got a real love for it, like some have.

Most of us in SF would buy a good compass like the genuine Silva Ranger, or when the Silvas were no longer true Silvas, we went to Suunto compasses.

The military lensatic compass is NOT world-wide, there is a spacial model for different areas of the world. You can get that from the fine print at Cammenaga.

The global needle Sunnto compasses are the best out there today.

While the military lensatic compass has tritium in it for night navigation, that has become something of a liability when operating against an enemy equipped with night vision devices. The light from the lensatic compass can be seen from a fair distance by someone with good NVG equipment.

I for the life of me, do not understand the facination with the US military compass, it's too heavy, too hard to read for someone sight challenged and they tend to lose their ability to point to magnetic north over the years. Oh, and they cost too much.

There is a lot of fascination with things military, even when there are far better options available at lower cost.

I am amazed that the US 9mm pistol is not more popular.

I think part of is that people think military gear is made better. What it really is made to do is be usable by semi-trained teenagers and hard for the semi-trained teenagers to break.

I think the M9 Berreta lost it's initial appeal after they had problems with the slide coming off the pistol when being fired. The civilian version is the 92SF. The other thing is that 9mm is not all that highly regarded, particularly in a large frame pistol.

All of what you said is very, very true. Besides the P-38 can opener, I can't think of a single piece of military gear that I actually still use. I guess I still use the miltary belt, the webbing one with the open face buckle. Most services have replaced that with some tacticool wide belt, a poor man's riggers belt.

Over the years, I have used a lot of mil surp, especially back in the starving student days. Nowadays, I use it much less, but I still pack my 1951 Mountain cook set occasionally;most days I don't need its large capacity. I would still employ a P38, but who needs a can opener all that often?

Mil surp is abundant, generally strong, and often relatively cheap. Some of it is very good indeed. I was grateful for Hueys on many a SAR operation - they and their pilots saved quite a few lives. I always had a high regard for the M1 Garand, and even the M1 carbine, and the 30-06 cartridge is a versatile, timeless classic. M16s and their ammo seem to be in demand these days. What would we do without GPS (kind of surplus, in a way).

Never did care for the military type mops and brooms, though. Haven't seen any of them lately...

You've got to still be using 7-strand paracord, aren't you?

Yes, I do use the 7-strand paracord, it is commercial copy though:)

Hijack Warning - several of my buttons got mashed



Heh - gotta pile on to this: DEAD WRONG - at least back in the stone age. And modern SF. Me: Officer 23 years active duty; long retired. Youngest son: Enlisted SF (now medicaled out). Middle son: Enlisted USAR Combat Engineer, and they did not go past basic (good) land navigation up to this point in his service. I don't miss my objectives and "close" in an unsupported night attack is not close enough. 'nuff said.

I (still) use a Silva Ranger; always have. In IOBC, I spent one day with the lensatic and dashed off to Ranger Joe's for the first of what (so far) has been 3 of those over the decades. My sole issue with those has been a bubble sometimes appearing (why I've gone thru 2 so far).

Radium paint on, not tritium in the lensatic, IIRC. Same as an analog watch used to be (photoluminescent mostly nowadays on watches). ETA - the lensatics may be photoluminescent also - IDK. But not tritium.

Meh, seriously, don't anyone take this harshly, as it's not intended to be, but I surely do not agree with blanket bashing milsurp gear or the soldiers who use it. It depends. (BTW, scouts are even harder on gear than soldiers, believe it or not). Discerning users with hands-on experience can really pluck gems out of a lot of milsurp gear. Some of it is quite superior to anything equivalent off the shelf commercially. Some of it is terrible for even its intended purpose (Large ALICE ruck comes to mind <shudder>). I speak from real world usage of all sorts of gear (I have too much...), including really good commercial stuff from underwear to internal and external frame packs.

I cannot recall a time that I used(use) purely milsurp or purely commercial - even on active duty.

Whew! Got that off my chest!

I like the Cammenga M3.It IS bulky and heavy. It's pretty rugged though, as far as compasses go.

I also like the "military sleep system." It's bulky and heavy as well. It is affordable, modular, well manufactured and effective, however- despite being a pain to lug around.

I agree with many of the comments posted about this new compass.

I don't particularly care for the $79 price tag either.

Land Nav. isn't hard but a compass with out the clear rotating housing is just making it more difficult than necessary.

Blake

www.outdoorquest.blogspot.com

P38, paracord, the canteen cup and the woobie.

Four things I still use.