Silva declination on baseplate

Question about Silva baseplate compasses Explorer 203 and Explorer Pro. The Ex. 203 has a declination scale and the Ex.Pro says it has a "geared declination." Is this geared declination the same as an adjustable decl. that requires the little screwdriver? Is it "set-able?"

I don't have an example of the Pro in hand, but i would certainly think it would be 'set-able." Wouldn't be of much use, otherwise.

For what it is worth, I have always preferred the models that incorporate a mirror - useful for signalling and other assorted tasks.

As far as I can tell "geared declination" is what the compasses with adjustable declination all have.

The compass with the "declination scale" is not the same - you have to calculate the declination manually, after boxing the needle.

If it doesn't have the little screwdriver, then it doesn't need it.

Once upon a time there were many compasses with friction declination presets. You just rotated the compass capsule inside the bezel and voila, declination is set.

But these seem to have disappeared in favor of the imprinted baseplate declination scale and the only presettable ones I see now have the little setscrew. I dislike the scale because I sometimes forget which side of north to place the offset (when I'm tired, cranky, whatever) and then I'm 30 degrees off.

The presettable compasses all seem large, but perhaps there are some small models out there still. That would be my preference.

Cheers,

I did happen upon this store page of "Compass with Adjustable Declination." It is nice since it shows various brands and styles.
Compasses with Adjustable Declination

Someone brought one of those last Sunday to my map/compass class. It's a bit easier than the geared declination - I'm so farsighted I have to really peer at the compass to get the small end of the key into the slot to reset declination, then squint at the scale to figure out which teeny tiny tick mark to set it at.

I always oriented my compass and map to magnetic north so that I never had to deal with declination. I would draw lines on the map for magnetic N to which to orient the compass. I found it easier to change N on the map than to deal with modifying the degrees on the compass.

That is basically similar to the procedures I learned for steering at sea; set a course referenced to magnetic north and leave declination alone.

Unfortunately, too much of my navigating (as opposed to the eyeball-and-go method I'm so fond of in leisure backpacking) has to be pretty precise, or miss the meeting with other SAR team members. You pretty much do what you're told, and declination matters to them.

It's kind of like English grammar. Learn all the rules and so on, then how to break them.

So true.

Not sure if I was clear in my earlier post, The method I employ uses the declination but has the bearing made with declination already taken into account. So instead a map giving me a bearing of 0*N which I then have to adjust on the compass to 348*, I have the map give me the bearing of 348*. Due to terrain, it is basically impossible to travel a straight line anyway so one must also supplement the map and compass with other geographical aids. The confluence of 2 streams, the outlet of a lake, height of land, etc... and then take new bearings.

DTape, yes; that makes perfect sense to me. I was actually playing with that concept the other day. It does seem to work a little easier for me as a beginner. And it helps me to "imprint" it into my head.