budget sighting compass

i am struggling to find some wom boxes i have been given with my old silva type3 and recon it may be easier with a proper sighting compass

also i am going to be siting a few boxes of my own and recon i will need a better compass for that if i ever expect anyone to be able find them

what is the best budget compass out there for letterboxing they seem to vary a lot pricewise

The Silva Expedition 54 sighting compass is probably your best bet. I have bought cheaper one's in the past but is IMHO its the best one to use.

Colin

Colin wrote:The Silva Expedition 54 sighting compass is probably your best bet. I have bought cheaper one's in the past but is IMHO its the best one to use.

Colin

Yep agree 100% not cheap but in my opinion the best buy.

Agree - you really have to be very accurate with the bearings when siting boxes. If you try and sight them with a hand held compass, then it will make it very difficult for other boxers with the proper sighting compass to find the box. You can find the '54' on ebay sometimes, or even Amazon. A good price is between £40 - 50. If you are going to get into boxing as a real hobby this compass is essential.

how does that work then ??

it dosen't appear to have a mirror on top so you can allighn the needle which was the type i was thinking of

this seems to be a different type alltogeter how do you allighn the needle with this while sighting an object ??

Where the dial is on a hand held compass - the dial on a 54 is raised up and there is a prism inside. You hole the compass to the eye and look through the prism to get a bearing. If youare anywhere near Kountry Kit in Tavistock, or Moorland Rambler shop, go in and asked to have a look at one.

I would suggest if you are going to spend £40 - £50 on a compass you throw an extra £10 at it and get yourself a GPS off of ebay?
I have tried all sorts of things but sometimes it boils down to "LUCK?" You have to trust that the people sighting the box are 100% accurate and what is 100% really? I used to think "some people" are having a laugh, but maybe it is down to re-siteing of boxes or even the LBT? (what is 100%?)
Failing all that PM me your address and I will send you my compass, as I don't use it, and have two I don't use! (you did say "budget")
Now I just go for a walk. If I find one, I find one, if not? Hay Ho! I still find as many by chance as looked for........ Or is it just me? Am I just crap at it?

i recon its probably within 5degrees with my ordinary compass but i have to line it up then try to bring the compass down to chest height to see the dial while keeping the direction right its not accurate at all realy and nowhere near correct

i have sent you a pm anyway if you have a sighting compass spare that would be amazing then i can as you say put the cash towards a gps and have both

If you are going to publish the clue - be it to friends or other letterboxers keep the map reference to 6 figures... it discourages the DLT

yep go for the 54 silva compass simply the best better then all the rest(theres a song in there)

reg the bullmastiff wrote:Now I just go for a walk. If I find one, I find one, if not? Hay Ho! I still find as many by chance as looked for........ Or is it just me? Am I just crap at it?

That is the funniest thing I've read on here in ages

AH I take it it's me, I must be crap?

Went to the moor over the weekend and found a few, no map, compass or book. Just a dog (can anyone guess what sort of dog I have?) ANYWAY I digress I went and checked on our box that has been out since 2009-2010 ..................... I'VE BEEN ROBBED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So what is the answer??????????????


STICK OUT A "LOAD" MORE!

What is the answer to the thief? I dunno, but making it as difficult as possible has got to be the way forward.
As for a compass, it has to be the best you can afford as you might have to use it to save your life to navigate in zero visibilty!

The mention of a GPS is a good one. Not to everyone's tastes, and if you're asking to this detail of a sighting compass, it's clear you've got a good idea of what you want, but I find a GPS very useful for navigating as well as keeping track of where I've been. "Where's my car" is always a quick answer with an exact distance too - I don't even need to waymark it as the path I've walked is shown on the map.

And yes, magnetic compasses are often built in too, as well as true bearings.

A true, good, sighting compass will last a lifetime, is lighter, less easily damaged and never runs out of batteries. Just mentioning the alternatives!

Dartymoor wrote: A true, good, sighting compass will last a lifetime, is lighter, less easily damaged and never runs out of batteries. Just mentioning the alternatives!

Anyone who relies upon a GPS is a fool, IMHO. I like to use a GPS as an aid, but secondary to the compass and good preparation.
Using a GPS certainly blinkers anyone as to what is going on around you, as the user follows their course blindly.
A compass shows the way a GPS takes you there.... does that make sense?

I think that's a little insulting, Nik.

What you describe may be how some use a gps, just like some people drive into a river by following their car's satnav, but it's not how everyone uses it.

And what course? Just like a compass, a gps gives you a direction. It may also give you a map including footpaths. Finding a good route from A to B still involves skill and experience.

I don't rely on a gps when I'm walking the moor - I use my brain to navigate using all the tools available to me. A GPSr tells me where I am with total confidence, and I fail to understand why that makes it a bad thing under any circumstances.

Sorry if you misinterpreted my meaning there, no offence was intended.
I meant anyone who relies upon a GPS as a sole navigation tool is a fool. You need to be able to use a compass and a map as a GPS relies upon complicated technology as well as batteries.

A compass is waterproof! A GPS isn't, though the manufacturer might claim it is, and it might be when it leaves the factory, but as soon as the user opens the battery compartment it is no longer waterproof, and the seal cannot be guaranteed when it is reassembled.

The other problem with a GPS is the person operating it, you could forget to put in fresh batteries, you could forget spare batteries, seen that and done it myself, it can be dropped, a wrong digit entered into the system and a whole host of other things to boot.

This is not an attack on any individual, but an attack upon the reliance of fallible technology.

Each to their own really. But I don't think there is anything wrong with using GPS, most letterboxers now use it, even if they suggest otherwise, and frankly I think if the hobby is to grow it is vitally necessary. Without GPS it would eventually wither and die. If you disagree,ask yourself why all the charity walks give GPS grids? The problem is it makes the perverted behaviour of the Letterbox Thief easier. Thats why i think that most boxes on the moor are WOM and not in the book, a lot of people believe that if you put it in the book its more likely to disapear.

teignmouth trampers wrote:ask yourself why all the charity walks give GPS grids?

The answer I think is "Look how we sited our walk... we used a GPS!"

That I have no problem with... none whatsoever. Yes it does make it very easy to find, but, what I am campaigning for is that the clues are published with only 6 figure references.
There is no fun in looking in a 1 metre square area, no challenge.
A couple of years ago I did a charity walk in 45 minutes, but unfortunately on the day of release one of the boxes had been stolen. I didn't need a compass to check bearings, I went straight to site to site, it wasn't much fun.

Well that is my opinion... do you agree or not?

My twopence worth to add, such as it is:

In some respects I see the Gps helping the boxer to a site and within a short distance from the box may to some degree prevent unnecessary disturbance of the area.
From my point of view it also helps in particular those of us getting older in years and not so gamely on our legs by reducing a not inconsiderable distance walked and amount of 'to and froing' lining up bearings; being on the wrong side of a deep ravine, or river, or bog. Thus it has the reward of achieving more boxes, in less time, covering an area greater than by compass alone.

To answer Nik's point: Not everyone might enjoy the physical act of searching for a box. For me, it's more about the walk, history and view than crawling about on all fours searching for tupperware. For others, it's the stamps, supporting the charity or whatever. Maybe there's an idea for a poll there?

( Oh, and to reply to an earlier email, compasses are not indestructable either. I have very thoroughly smashed a quite expensive sighting compass beyond use through the simple act of leaning back against some granite whilst it was in my pocket. )

The thing is Nick, your GPS must be very sophisticated because ours only takes us to within 5 meters or if you square it a fair area to search, sometimes we still can't find it!!!!! so its not just a question of just going to the box. And if its in clitter our hearts sink, you know the type of thing, 141 and 5 paces from crocodile/seal shaped/dinosaur/cat shaped etc etc, lets not forget that my whale looks to you like a triangular/bat/house shaped rock. So a plea to you clitter lovers, less flowery description of rocks.

Personally, Michelle and I never use a GPS as we think it removes a major part of the challenge - the satisfaction of finding boxes solely by the use of map and compass must be greater than being directed to a much smaller locale by technology. However, as we are only in our 30s, I appreciate that more 'seasoned' or 'mature' letterboxers would prefer not to have to sweep large areas in the hope of finding what they're looking for. From our point of view, as long as people are enjoying letterboxing and making use of the incomparable resource that is Dartmoor, each to their own. One plea to those siting boxes/walks: please remember that there are those of us that don't use GPS so clues (especially bearings) need to be as accurate as possible as this is the only way we have of getting into the correct area where the box should be.

Thank you,

There is one other bonus for the old compass technique, and that is finding other boxes boxes whilst looking for the one you were originally looking for

Whilst using the GPS we still scour the area as we pass for 'Freebies' and have found quite a few! (a lot of years experience of looking for boxes does help though!!!!)