SUUNTOMC-2 Compass: Top-of-The-line Compass for Professionals & serious Hikers

I was curious on how to use a compass. Took some YouTube lessons and this it what was recommended. Need to stick with it and practice though. Suggest you don't get dropped off in the middle of the desert for your fist try!

After spending a lot of time reviewing compasses, I decided on this one and what a great decision it was. I couldn't be happier with this compass. It is a truly professional compass in every way. Easy to use & very accurate. I highly recommend it. Don't waste your money on those cheap $17.00 compasses as they are not even in the same league as this one.

Quality compass, ideal for my needs!

Other members of our SAR teams in the county use this one, but we cheaped out at first and tried less expensive ones (from $5-18)...all of which failed either accuracy or function requirements. Between us and a few others, we compared about a dozen different mfrs and the Suunto always came out on top for reliability, accuracy, ease of use, and features. I really like the declination adjustment as it makes it easy to set our 11 deg once and not have to do the math on every azmuth we shoot.The MC-2 not only works reliably, it have other design features which made spending the money a no brainer. It's a lot lighter than my old military-style, lenzatic compass I was using.I used mine in low-light conditions practicing land-nav and the glow-in-the-dark portions of the compass which needed to glow, stood out very well, but needed to be saturated with light regularly, but I don't see that being something we will need much.If you are trying to decide about spending the money or not, to me, I say don't waste time, or money with the others. The couple other brands which passed the requirements for our SAR teams, still had minor things wbout them which put them down on the list of which one would I buy again, knowing what I know now.Lastly, I like how there is a Northern Hemishpere option and the different scale choices so I was able to get the model which best fit our needs. I did end up using a eyeglass screwdriver to adjust the declination as I didn't much like the little tool on the lanyard provided, but it is there for those who don't mind the 'fishing lure' tool. Come to think of it, it might work pretty good in my emergency wilderness kit, as a fishing lure!

Top compass for bushcraft. Very well made.

WARNING!!! I ordered the MC-2 360/D/L/IN/NH compass, but received the MC-2 USGS compass. When I looked at the packaging, it is evident that someone put a MC-2 360/D/L/IN/NH sticker on the outside of the plastic packaging, over the original Suunto UPC/description for the MC-2 USGS label. (See photos below.) The only real differences are the scales printing on the baseplate. As I am in the US, I still like the USGS compass, but it is not exactly the compass I wanted. I contacted Amazon, and they started a free return of the USGS compass. On Amazon's advice, I ordered the MC-2 360/D/L/IN/NH again. We'll see what I get this time. The price dropped about $3, so that was good at least.UPDATE: Compass # 2 arrived - Still the incorrect MC-2 USGS compass!!!! :-(FINAL UPDATE: I love Amazon! I called customer service about receiving the wrong compass twice. They refunded both purchases fully, and told me to keep bot hot the compasses! I used this compass for a Wilderness survival class that had 3 navigation components and the compass worked beautifully. I don't have the exact baseplate scales I ordered, but this compass may actually be better. Again: YEA AMAZON!!!Also, the picture of the MC-2 360/D/L/IN/NH in this ad is not of the MC-2 360/D/L/IN/NH compass, but is a picture of the MC-2 Global compass.I bought "this compass" after returning a defective Silva Ranger, and a K&R Alpin, due to several issues. I like this compass better for a few reasons. This review is very long, but I did a thorough comparison of the three head to head.Executive summary - This compass is better than the Silva Ranger and much, much better than the K&R Alpin that costs twice as much.1. Needle - Suunto is perfectly level, and highly visible, as it should be! The Silva needle was also very visible, but dipped down on the red side so much that just a 1/4" tilt of the baseplate caused it to bottom out. That's why I returned it. The K&R needle was hard to see because the "doghouse" is a plastic notch on top of the compass dial, and the entire tip of the needle is encased in a plastic luminous material. In daylight, this made it tough to see, and at night, the needle tip didn't absorb enough light to make it glow enough. Double fail.2. Luminous attributes - The Suunto luminous dial glows for 20 minutes or so after just a 10 seconds of exposure to my Princeton Tec Remix headlamp on the lowest setting. I can still easily read the numbers on the dial for about 10 minutes or so. The needle and north indicators luminous points are very easy to align, and hold a useable glow for about 30 minutes. The "dots" on the cover at the top and bottom at the aiming Vs are actually rods about 3/8" long of solid luminous material. This is nice because when you have the compass cover in position to use the mirror to take a bearing, the rods still absorb light from the top and glow nicely.3. Declination/clinometer - The red numbers for the Suunto are printed so that they can be read from the back of the compass. This is good because the declination adjustment screw is on the reverse (and works nicely). Also, when using the clinometer, and finding an angle with the mirror as you are supposed to, the numbers are readable in the mirror. Brilliant! To be fair, the Silva is also printed on the reverse, just with black numbers, which are also easy to read. Also, the declination indicator pointer on the Suunto is very thin, and thus easier to set accurately, much more so than the wide black indicator on black hash marks on the Silva Ranger. To set the declination on the K&R, you turn the inner part of the compass face. This seems simple and great, until you realize that now the bearing pointer at the top of the compass no longer lines up with the numbers on the inner ring of the bezel ring, and the inner ring has no numbers. It can be very confusing getting the correct bearing because of this. I can imagine if I was tired, I would easily get the wrong bearing.4. Mirror - The Suunto alignment guide down the middle of the mirror (to align your eye with the center of the compass) is wide enough to use, but not too wide to get in the way of getting your bearing. The Silva Ranger guide line was so thin I couldn't even see it. The K&R was a slit that blocked out the entire center of the compass, and even the needle itself near a 0* or 180* bearing. The Suunto and Silva mirror itself appears to be glass, and is like any other mirror in that it reflects very well, and projects a great flash for signaling. The K&R is metal, and thus unbreakable. It was not as bright for signaling, though.5. Lanyard - The Suunto lanyard is woven with reflective material, and really reflects my headlamp light! It would be super easy to find this compass if you dropped it in the dark. A very nice feature indeed! I did not use the included plastic attachment thing on the Suunto, as I read it could fall off and you could lose your compass. I could easily see that. I just larks-headed it on. The Silva just had a plain red cord. Both had a little stainless steel flat "screw "to adjust the declination. The K&R lanyard was the most comfortable, and easily removable from the compass using the quick release buckle, but it "flapped" in a breeze, as a ribbon will do.Magnifier - I believe it is a 5x magnifier on the Suunto and the Silva, and a 6x on the K&R. All three compass magnifiers easily ignited my char cloth in the noon-day sun.Bezel ring - Besides being luminous, the bezel ring numbers are a slightly larger font on the Suunto. The Silva ring had more notches for your fingers, so it was a bit easier to grasp. The black ring, not being luminous, was impossible to see at night. The Suunto and Silva had numbers every 20*. This made it easy to know the 10* bearing in between as there was only one. Also, since the cardinal directions (N, NE, E, etc.) are printed on the on the black part of the Suunto ring, and the luminous part has numbers all the way around the ring (16 total numbers), with 4 numerical bearings between each of the main cardinal directions tick marks. (N, E, S, W) The K&R had numbers only every 30*, (just 8 total numbers) so there were two 10* bearings in between, plus the 4 cardinal direction letters. This made me double check myself more often, and seemed far less intuitive. The K&R was luminous, and smooth to turn, but maybe a tad too tight.Baseplate Feet - the K&R had 4 grippy feet in the corners. I made it a bit more stable when holding it down and drawing a line on your map. The Silva and Suunto have 3 trippy feet. This is still fine, but you just have to press on the center foot or the compass will rock a little bit. A very minor issue..Final Tip - the Suunto cover snaps closed VERY tightly. It does loosen up a bit over time with use. Also, I found that if you put your thumb against the cover lip and rest it on the baseplate and sort of twist your thumb upwards, it acts to lever the lid open easily, vs. just pulling on the lid.My only gripe with the Suunto (and the reason for only 4 stars) is that the compass housing could be a tighter fit in the baseplate. It does move a bit side to side in the baseplate (maybe 1-2 degrees worth of "slop"). My work-around is to make sure the compass is firmly up at the top where the direction pointer is. My bearings are fine this way.If I could give this compass a 4.5 star rating, I would.