Thompson Center's Compass in 30-06 Springfield Part 2

The Maine summer has been hot and dry, following a cold and dry winter. The well is pulling ledge, I am way behind in house and shop projects and we are two months behind in timber harvesting. If I can just procrastinate another ninety days or so, the inevitability of snow will allow me to stall until next spring. The cycle of life.

The Thompson – Center rifle is a value priced rifle, but the price tag does not come at the expense of performance or good looks. What is missing from the Compass is some of the high end model fanfare. The bolt is black, no sign of a bright, jeweled bolt body or gloss blued receiver and barrel, which may not fare well for show time, but works to the benefit of a hunting rifle.

A 3x-9x40mm Burris Full Field II scope was installed on the rifle’s Weaver style bases, the scope was bore sighted and the rifle and a few boxes of ammo were hauled off to the range. The Compass is not particularly a lightweight at 7.25 lbs, but its balance makes it an easy carry and an extra pound over an ultra light helps damped 30-06 Springfield levels of recoil.

The 30-06 Springfield is an incredibly flexible cartridge, suitable for many type of hunting, medium through the largest North American game. There are currently 119 popular types of factory ammunition, produced from a group of nineteen manufacturers, in bullet weights from 125 grains to 220 grains.

Three types of ammo were used for the Compass checkout, all basic Remington Core-Lokt. At $20/box, it is often less than 50% the cost of some of the more heavily marketed and more fancily packaged products and it is effective hunting ammo.

All of the ammo fed smoothly and reliably from the Compass’s detachable, self centering, rotary magazine. The stocks pull length was comfortable as was the overall stock geometry, even shooting from a bench… good recoil pad. The 22″ barrel lost little, if anything, in the way of velocity to the 24″ SAAMI test barrel standard, which caused me to shoot a second time to verify.

The Compass is well behaved. The stock geometry keeps the muzzle down and the straight stock gets the recoil to the recoil pad an not up against a shooter’s face. The forearm is a good width and profile, the longitudinal finger grooves help to provide a solid, steady hold. The pistol grip radius is tight enough to serve a purpose; fingers are not left dangling in the breeze.

The muzzle end barrel threads are useful. I have silencers and I have shot suppressed firearms to a more than casual degree. I’m not sold on suppressed centerfire firearms that perform substantially above supersonic speeds as it seems a lot of expensive hardware for a modest reduction in report. I am sold on good brakes, knowing how effective they can be in reducing the jet effect component of recoil and reducing felt recoil by as much as 60%. The threaded barrel gives a compass owner those options.

The swing safety didn’t do a whole lot for me. Moving from one position to another was functionally not a problem and each of the 3 positions have tactile delineation and are not going to wander out of position under recoil owr with a casual contact. However, in position the safety lever didn’t have a precise feel. Moved forward to the fire position, the lever was a little noisy getting there, and the lever wiggled around quite a bit once it was full forward. I’m being picky, but it stood out because there wasn’t anything else to grouse about.

Overall

I like the Thompson – Center Compass; look, feel, accuracy, and features. Compared to other rifles in its price range, the Compass is definitely near or at the top of the value priced rifle list within a large population of some serious hardware. The Compass is made in a Smith and Wesson U.S. facilities and backed by a life time warranty. A very nice rifle.

Thompson Center’s Compass in 30-06 Springfield Part 1
Thompson Center’s Compass in 30-06 Springfield Part 2