@woodsorrel
Great article mate, and a good lookin' compass too!
That compass looks like a Suunto MC2G, which is my modern compass of choice also - Great minds think alike ;-) The MC2G supposedly works anywhere in the world without too much of a needle "dip".
That ability to dial in the declination is super convenient and something which has been missing from compasses until the Suunto came along I reckon. The mirror sighting is very accurate compared to a basic baseplate compass without such a lid, and the mirror itself can be pressed into service as a heliograph/signal mirror in an emergency or as a general purpose camp mirror. I've shaved using mine.
If you use degrees instead of mils for your land nav it's a compass I'll recommend. I'm not sure if they make a military model in mils or not. I tend to do a lot of land nav using old timey compasses graduated in degrees, so I can use either system. Don't ask me to use the Soviet/Arab 60000 mils system though or I'll be flummoxed hahaha
Here's another of my faves
It's a British-made 1870s-1890s prismatic military marching compass. Still dead accurate.
Shown here with the lid off and sitting on my leather map case
A bit of detail showing the funny green dial and the fold-up sighting vane.
Size of the compass (right) when compared with a later 1910s era Verner's Pattern prismatic marching compass which developed from it.
