Brunton O.S.S. 50M Mirrored Compass

I just received two of the OSS 50M compasses and was I unhappy. My plan was to use them during our PCT trek in the early part of next year, thought I'd get used to them in the next few months. The first unit was a real loser, the needle followed the movement of the bezel! I could set north off by over 90 degrees just by turning the bezel. I can't imagine what is causing that problem but I'm not going into the bush with that compass.The second unit was not as bad, north varied up to 4-5 degrees depending on which way you turned the bezel. Setting the direction of travel arrow and needle to 180 while holding the base stationary, then rotate the bezel 360 degrees until the DOT arrow aligned with 180, needle could be off north by 5 degrees if you turned the bezel clockwise, 4 degrees if you turned the bezel 1 revolution counter clockwise. I would expect a little hysteresis but not that much. Give the condition of the first unit and a similar bezel related problem with the second, I was just not comfortable that these compasses could be relied upon.The cover latch is a strange configuration and I would not want to try to open it with gloves on. It appears to be a cam-over center arrangement, you gently pull the hinge assemble a little forward to release the front catch rather that prying up the catch. I never attempted to use any of the other features as a compass that in neither accurate nor gives reproducible results is worth anything more than putting in back in the package and sending it back. I'm now looking at a Suunto or Silva.

This compass is very poorly made for the pricess. The markings will get scraped off and mine formeed a bubble that's growing. Besides that the instructions are very vague and I never know if I'm to keep the mirrow locked into the pivoting hinge or disconnected while I'm making observations. The thing failed me while out in the middle of nowhere with no GPS and definetly will not depend on this thing ever again for navigating in a life or death situation. Brunton has been very prompt with responding about having the vial replaced but I don't know if I have the time or care enough to actually send it in considering they'll just send me out the same thing and I don't see it improving somehow. Oh well. I'll probably just buy a Suunto like I knew I should have.

We really havent used it yet. Got it for my daughter. She needs it for school. Price point was great.

My husband, the explorer wanted this compass so for the price I got it for him. He was tickled with how simple it is but at the same time, just what he wanted!He's happy so I'm happy.

I've not experienced any of the problems pointed out in the previous reviews of this compass. Not one. I've been using mine now for three years and the paint on the scale is just as good as the day it came out of the box. The mirror opens easily every time and I've not experienced any distortion in the mirror when aligning the North circle with the red north indicator on the inner ring. Once those two circles are aligned you can determine the bearing easily by looking at the bearing index line. I'm not sure what the individual who rated it at horrible was alluding to when he talked about the North end of the arrow blocking heading readings. It is fully 1/2" away from the numbers and blocks nothing at all. I'm wondering if he even owns this compass. I've never experienced any problems with the compass in the field either. It's very reliable, very accurate, and in fact, I use it to verify whether the compass on my garmin GPS is in need of recalibration. If the garmin doesn't agree with this compass I run the garmin through a compass calibration. I like the fact that this compass is light and wouldn't want to carry it if it qualified as a fishing weight.

I do NOT recommend this compass. The cheap mirror is so bent and distorted that you cannot see the reflection accurately. Absolutely terrible and useless.