reason I was looking at it is because it was available with a 4" barrel (shortest I could fine in rugers catalog) but the rest of the gun looks to be smaller than the other models as well. I was looking for small myself, and the P4 looks to be their smallest
http://www.ruger.com/Firearms/FAProdResults?function=famid&famid=4

I see what you mean Eugene. I never realized that the stainless was ninety dollars more than the blue. Judging from the negative feedback I have read on the trigger mechanism, I would give it some serious thought before I bought this model. At least, I would try to find a used one and take it out and test fire it. Good luck.

In a word..........no. I guess you would call this an urban legend stemming from the first GPS receivers that would only receive a maximum of five satellites. Now, AFAIK, all current units will receive twelve. There are around two dozen satellites circling the globe and at any given time there will be six to ten visible, albeit some of those are low on the horizon and are definitely hard to pick up in the timber. The screen shows all visible satellites and gives their location overhead so you can maneuver around a little for best reception. You only need three to get a good fix so if you lose one, you pick up another. Bottom line, acquiring and holding them is rarely a problem in the outdoors. I have a Holiday Rambler travel trailer with a rubber roof and aluminum "rafters" and it will acquire immediately when I am on the couch. It will also penetrate some wooden roofs.

This scenario is often mentioned by forum members to "justify" a small compass as EDC, even in a city.
I was always skeptical about that "necessity", in an urban context.
Until the other day, where I did just that : got out of a subway station, arrived at street level, gray sky, clouds, no sun. Where is North ?;...hum...that way ....
well, after 300m I found out I was heading in the wrong direction. No real damage. Just walked 600m more than necessary (good exercise anyway...)

So, guys, you are right : a small compass IS useful in a city !

I use GPS for geocaching so it sees some use in different areas. I have a Garmin 12 and a Garmin Etrex Venture. Those units have problems with foliage overhead. The effect is worse when the leaves are wet. It´s not always the older unit that has reception problems. An effect that is even worse is the calculation from reflected signals. The signal strength seems to be OK but the position is off quite a bit. Other geocachers observed this too.
On geocaching events at HAM field days the impact of the HAM activity on the signal strength can be observed sometimes.

Ever think of surveying your way to a geocache instead? Yep, it can be done, it takes considerably longer, but you can triangulate using a good compass to a fairly high degree of accuracy if you know what you are doing (a rangefinder is a pretty good cheat tool).

Actually Chris, my Grundig Mini World 100 PE doesn't state its country of origin at all-- inside or outside the case.. I don't know where it was made. And as a correction to my previous post, it is a 2AA battery model, not triple A's.

Similar happened to me too. on my first trip to Chicago. Took the train from O'Hare to downtown, came out under the street (kind of unusual for Chicago I believe) and exited up into a building IIRC. When I found my way to street level, had no idea which way was which. At the time I didn't even have a map because I just relied on an office colleague who said, "it's just two blocks east when you get off the train"

Didn't like the feeling of being in unfamiliar territory and knowing I was supposed to head east, but not knowing which way east was.

It was easy just to ask someone for directions and I was fine. But, I don't like not knowing, and needing to be reliant on others ..... especially if in a pinch ...... but I guess that's a big part of why we all ended up at ets.

Michael

I my area you don´t have a sufficient line of sight for proper triangulation in most cache spots. Taking bearings and guessing about intersection points from points where the reception is better is pretty much standard though. Learning about the limit s of the GPS is part of the game.

The EXACT same thing happened to me when traveling from the suburbs to Chicago. A complete sense of disorientation when emerging from the train station. I had a map, but even at the first intersection I wasn't sure which was was which (the map didn't make it clear where the station exits were), so I had to walk another block until I got a second "point" on the map from which I could figure out the direction I was traveling. Of course I was traveling south and had wanted to go north.

Great Idea?: ALL train stations should somehow put compass rosettes in the sidewalks just outside each set of exit doors.