You go backpacking and bushwacking and you don’t have one?

Some day, you might be out and about, and away from easy access to power, and you might need to get your bearings. While using a military compass takes practice, there are videos about this for beginners and it’s not overly difficult to learn the basics. So long as you know roughly where you are, can match up some sited items to a topo map, you can use this to get to where you need to go.

This unit has tritium bits, which, while not bright enough to be a flashlight, is plenty bright enough to keep the dials lit constantly. Much better than the fading glow og many less expensive coatings, tritium maintains its glow indefinitely for all intents and purposes.

If you’re very new to compass bearings, it’s probably a good idea to really memorize the tritium dials and practice basic measuring and magnetic to true north conversions in the safety of your home, where you can turn the lights off and on as you practice and really get used to using the unit in the dark. This isn’t hard to learn, and after a couple of youtube videos plus a little practice at home should help tons.

Here are some good resources for using a lensatic and/or base plate compass:
– http://youtu.be/m0NZ_lcH9I8
– http://youtu.be/i945NfNVuHk
– http://youtu.be/on7E9eCSHMI
– http://youtu.be/BkjCo0A96yU
– http://youtu.be/NtdeuE153sA

In a situation where you are walking for a while, you might end up needing to walk partly into the evening after the sun goes down. In this case, if you measured your bearings while the sun is out, the continuosly glowing tritium of this unit would allow you to keep going well into darkness without as much concern. It’s a bit of set-it-and-forget-it for each point to point line. You just stop and regular check your compass to make sure you’re going in the right direction.

There’s reason this style of compass has survived for so long and continues to be the backup or primary navigator of hiker, hunter, and soldier alike. Get one, learn the basics and keep it with you. One day, it just might save your life.