Cheapest, Most Highly Reviewed Compass on Amazon

Can a $10 dollar compass be trusted? The TurnOnSport Orienteering compass has over 5,000 reviews and nearly all are 5 star. It’s listed as an advanced scout compass good for camping and navigation and marketed for Boy Scouts, and professional navigators. A “Best Survival Gift” they say. 

But just how good is it?

It features an acrylic baseplate, rotation bezel ring, and a liquid-filled housing. They don’t inform us what the filling is though. It’s small and light weight, and I’ve seen it sold in florescent yellow and orange (as tested). For quite some time, the description informed potential buyers that it was “liquid filled” rather than “liquid filled” which should tell us a few things, but we can’t hold that against the compass.

In this video, we set out into the woods to conduct a field test with Riggs. I work to an attack point, and demonstrate the accuracy of the compass which was surprisingly well – but I should note, that it is brand new, out of the package, and has not experienced any environmental changes (extreme heat or cold, etc). 

Then, working from the attack point, we shoot an azimuth and work up to a land navigation point and are able to find it without any issue.

In the end, I believe this compass is just find for Scouts, youngsters, or for those who believe they may want to get involved in orienteering but are unsure about investing in a quality compass just yet. Its cheap – both in cost and quality, but would be a decent back up. It’s basically a large button compass at the end of the day because you can’t preset the declination, and while the bezel ring turns, it doesn’t click. 

If you are searing for a more quality compass, I’d always recommend the USGI Cammenga Lensatic.

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