A compass in the stock and this thing which tells time

[AlexanderA]

A compass built into a gun (or a knife) is like the digital compass built into the overhead console of my truck. These are all interesting but useless (in practice) gadgets. When navigating on the road, I consult a road map and read the signs. I never look at the compass. Now, if I was trekking in the wilderness, I'd take a GPS as well as a dedicated lensatic compass and topographic maps. (At my age, I don't have any plans to go trekking in the wilderness.)

Gadgets built into guns -- compasses, bottle openers, etc. -- have the same basic drawback as do Swiss army knives and multitools: "jack of all trades and master of none." Dedicated tools are always better than combination tools that attempt to do too much.

 

[JohnKSa]

Radium's likely dead, if indeed it's actually radium.

If it is radium it is not dead. The half-life for radium is 1600 years.

If it's no longer glowing it's because the fluorescent medium that the radium excites is "worn out". Same end result, I suppose.

 

[rcmodel]

A compass built into a gun (or a knife) is like the digital compass built into the overhead console of my truck. These are all interesting but useless (in practice) gadgets.

I hate to disagree, but I do.

The pre-digital $1.98 ball compass stuck to my truck windshield got me un-turned around, (lost in the dark) and out of the bad side of KCMO more then once in the old days.

The pre-GPS over-head ones in my later Dodge trucks are even better.
Once you drove around in a circle in a parking lot when the truck was new to set them.

Steel cab surrounding them be darned!


As for the rifle stock compass being too close to metal to work?

Not if you followed the instructions when installing them in the stock, and orientated them to true North before gluing them in the stock.

No, they were not GI Lensatic compass, or a Brunton, Suunto, or Silva orienteering compasses.

But, a gun stock compass will get you out of the woods when it is too dark or too foggy, or snowing too hard to get out any other way.

And it is darn hard to lose one as long as you don't lose your weapon!

Here is an old Marbles brass pin-on compass that has got me out of a jam a couple of times!



Same idea as the Poly-Choke gun stock compass, just a little bigger.



rc

 

[Arizona_Mike]

Radium's likely dead, if indeed it's actually radium. Wonder how "shockproof" they really are. Neat collector item though.

[Sarcasm]Has it been 1,600 years already? Time sure flies![/sarcasm]
Actually moxie is correct. The alpha radiation burns out the phosphor in the paint after a few years to a few decades (highly variable).

Mike

 

[Steel Horse Rider]

The only question I would have about the stock mounted compass would be to do with durability as the shock from the firing of a shot would put some pressure on the swivel point of the needle, but obviously since they evidently put the pictured compasses in a long time ago it apparently isn't a problem to the compass. I still use a lensatic compass I purchased from an Army Surplus store in 1973 and I have never been lost yet...... I may not have known exactly where I was but I was not lost.......

 

[rcmodel]

No, recoil wasn't a problem on the well made Marbles and Poly-Choke stock compasses.

They used a Sapphire needle bearing, fluid dampening, and corrosion proof housings.

They were/are tougher then WoodPecker Lips!

rc

 

[Coltdriver]

A tip of the hat to RCModel for the eBay pointer. I clicked and bought that one and it just came in the mail today.

I have a Marlin 1895 45 70 and am getting a very nice butt stock that I will fit to the rifle. My Gunners Guide is going in that stock.

I always carry a regular compass when in the woods. One thing is for certain, the battery will not die and fail me.

Now I will have two.

 

[rcmodel]

Thanks!

Now, one question?
Does it still glow in the dark?

And one request.
If you can, would you post a photo of the installation instruction sheet?

Like to refresh my memory.
I haven't seen one for a lot of years!

Thanks

rc

 

[Shanghai McCoy]

When I was a Diver in the Navy one of the guys tossed his radiation monitoring film badge into his locker. It landed next to the dial (radium) of his underwater compass.
THAT got him some attention when it was turned in to be checked after a couple months.
Got us all a lecture about wearing our film badges as well...

 

[wayne in boca]

I have an old Remington 721 in .270 Winchester,made in 1949.It has a compass in the stock,and it works just fine.I've probably had it for 30 years,and never got lost while holding it.

 

[Nico Testosteros]

I've gotten lost while facing due north with a map and compass. That particular backpacking trip was jinxed.

 

[AK103K]

If all I had was that gun stock compass, I'd prefer having a good landmark, that was at least visible from good vantage points, and as good a bearing/azimuth to it from my starting point, as I could discern, and a rough distance reference on my outstretched arm, so I would know which way to turn and go, once got back on that bearing.

At least that way, everything would be relative to what the rifles compass was reading, regardless how far off it may be, in reality.

A good topo map to go along with it, would still be invaluable too.

 

[Coltdriver]

Hey RCModel! The first thing I checked was if it would glow in the dark. It did not. I tried to energize it under a lamp. No joy. Maybe a little sunshine will bring it to life for a minute or two, who knows? If I manage to keep my senses and wits about me I hope never to need it to glow in order to egress the woods!

The box and instructions are in perfect condition. I scanned em in. Its a wee bit more involved to install it than I imagined but will be easy enough to do.

The way it is employed in the field is pretty interesting and also not what I had imagined but it is more useful than the plain compass I thought it was.

 

[rcmodel]

Thanks Coltdriver!

I appreciate seeing those instructions one more time so many years later.

Too bad about the glow in the dark being dead.

But that's why they make $20 buck shirt pocket 100+ Lumen flashlights now!

Don't need no Stinken Radium to see in the dark anymore!

Rc

 

[kBob]

Anyone else find it odd that here we are two pages into compasses in gunstocks an note when some of us are the same ones that got our compass topic tossed off Non fire arms weapons in no time flat?


I have an old Un official BSA compass that has no glow in the dark capabilities and never did......until decades ago I taped a bit of "Ranger eyes" glow tape that we used in the Army to mark the back of our head gear. Since then I could at east tell which way north and south is.

My daughter has a few constellations made of such tape (or much like it) from a kit we bought. Originally we had planned to pick a specific night and time and try to match it on her ceiling, but the scale was all wrong. Now she just tries to learn the constellations in her room then learn how to find and use them a t night out side. The kit comes with holed templates so the angles in each constellation are right and four sizes of "stars" to get them to look muc like the actual things on a clear night. A service buddy and I did this with bits of Ranger eyes on a barracks room ceiling once and folks would come over to see it from time to time. Oddly the powers that where at the time considered this a "stupid waste of time" that just messed up our ceiling......nothing like great leadership, no really, nothing like it at all.

-kBob

 

[eastbank]

i don,t need no stinken compass or gps for that matter. my wife tells me where to go. eastbank.

 

[Offfhand]

Leupold & Stevens, makers of Leupold scopes, once made a very fine compass as well. I have one still new in the box

 

[kBob]

So my boy asked me if we take into account daylight savings time when using the matchstick shadow and analog watch technique.......now my head hurts.

-kBob

 

[AK103K]

It helps if youre trying to get the time.

 

[redneck2]

So my boy asked me if we take into account daylight savings time when using the matchstick shadow and analog watch technique.......now my head hurts.

i live just a couple hundred yards from the time change boundary. Go two hundred yards west and it's Central Time rather than eastern. So, do I use longer/ shorter matches, or crooked ones....

 

[paracordkydexcummins]

i don,t need no stinken compass or gps for that matter. my wife tells me where to go. eastbank.

I know how that goes

 

[Sav .250]

Compass in the stock...........not for me. They look tacky. JMO.

Carry a GPS. what ever works...

 

[MCgunner]

It's the friggin' 21st century, people! That gun needs a GPS receiver in the stock!

 

[MCgunner]

Oh, and just remember, the moss really does grow on the north side of the trees. I've actually had to use that bit of knowledge. You can use the sun (if you can see it) and your watch to locate true south, too.

i don,t need no stinken compass or gps for that matter. my wife tells me where to go. eastbank.

Yes, and I've been told to go to a hot, firey place more'n once.

 

[AK103K]

You can use the sun (if you can see it) and your watch to locate true south, too.

Yup. And it doesnt even need to have "hands".

Fingers at arms length over the horizon, are worth about 15 minutes of daylight too. In case you need to decide if you need to start looking for a pace to sleep.