Sleeping Bags

[hokiehunter373]

Doing my first out of state hunt this year and have been stocking up on all the necessary items to tent camp for a week. I plan to do this yearly from here on out or at least every other year. This year is Ohio. Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, and many more are on the radar for future hunts and I want to buy once cry once and not have to worry about being too cold. I sleep warm. What temp rating bag should I be purchasing? I've got a cot and will be buying a sleeping pad as well. Do you all sleep with some of your hunting clothes on to save money on the bag purchase or no? Thanks!

 

[thedutchtouch]

You can always leave the zipper open on a 0 degree if it's a bit too warm, but short of liners and wearing layers, you can't make a warmer bag have more insulation. Also much easier to open a zipper if too hot at 3 am than to make yourself get out of the bag and put on more layers if you're cold.

 

[Marmuzz]

What’s your camp setup? Tent, trailer, truck, car interior, cabin, etc., and is any of it heated with campfire, woodstove, Buddy heater, car engine, etc.?

 

[hokiehunter373]

What’s your camp setup? Tent, trailer, truck, car interior, cabin, etc., and is any of it heated with campfire, woodstove, Buddy heater, car engine, etc.?

Tent camping. Buddy heater will be available but hoping not to use it at night

 

[raisins]

The sleeping pad is just as important. The inflatable ones made for winter have a high R value and will keep the cold ground off you.

Those ratings aren't for comfort but I guess survival. So, if you're like me, you're cold at 20 F when in a 20 F degree bag. They are sorta like stereo amplifiers (you have to buy more than what you need to get best result).

 

[NimbleTimbo]

You can spend a fortune on a bag but there are some decent options out there as well that are not too salty. I have a Cabela's -40 degree down bag but in November it's too much generally so I usually opt for my 0 or 20 degree bag. They are BlackOvis Chugach I got on Camofire and I do like the hybrid insulation. With a good pad they are plenty warm. Occasionally with a real cold front I might sleep in some base layers but usually I'm in my skivvies.

 

[Exhumis]

As a general rule I always recommend going 20 degrees beyond what the coldest weather will be. So if you’ll be in 30 degree weather get a bag rated to -20 to 0. Sleeping bags are rated comfort to risk with transition in the middle. Comfort is where you’re comfortable, transition is you’re maybe comfortable but moving to uncomfortable and risk is you will probably survive but it’s gonna suck and you’ll be miserable with possible hypothermia and at the far end death.

 

[gcr0003]

Also note that sleeping bag rating assumes that sufficient insulation/separation between you and the ground is achieved. For example, if you’re sleeping on the ground with a thin pad and a 20 degree sleeping bag you’ll probably be cool at 40 degrees. The ground really sucks it out of you.

If you’re on the not so tall side, I strongly suggest checking out some women’s sleeping bags. Unlike men’s sleeping bags they’re rated to women’s comfort at that temp vs the men’s that is rated to threshold. You can find some great high dollar sleeping bags at REI used if you have one near you and on sale. I picked up a NEMO 0 women’s bag for $80 for my wife and $120 for a men’s one. I’ve not used a ton of bags but I really like my Nemo bag over my marmot one.

 

[raisins]

If you’re on the not so tall side, I strongly suggest checking out some women’s sleeping bags. Unlike men’s sleeping bags they’re rated to women’s comfort at that temp vs the men’s that is rated to threshold.

wow, that's wild

 

[LoadedLimbs]

@hokiehunter373 - Do yourself a favor and call Jerry Wigutow, owner of Wiggy’s - the only sleeping bag manufacturer whose products are made in the USA. Ask him what he recommends. I think he’ll tell you that tent sleeping on the ground using a good sleeping pad, like the ones he sells, is going to keep you a lot warmer than sleeping on a cot, where the cold air cools the space above and below you. He’ll probably also tell you to go for his zero-degree-rated Lamilite rectangular hunter’s sleeping bag and be confident that you’re going to stay warm because his bags are truly capable of keeping you warm at temperatures below their rating. His bags are cheaper than most down bags, and outperform them.

If you really want to buy once, cry once, you shouldn’t buy from anywhere else.

Wiggy's – The World's BEST Sleeping Bags, Outdoor Gear & Clothing

Manufacturer of the finest sleeping bags and outdoor gear in the world. Nothing keeps you you warm & dry in cold, wet conditions like Wiggy's!

www.wiggys.com

 

[Jagger0502]

If you plan to tent camp beside the truck and weight isn’t an issue or goal in a bag I wouldn’t spend much on a bag. If you plan to have a buddy heater it seems like this is the case. Go get a thick warm inexpensive bag to sleep in. The only gain when spending more is lighter weight. You can find some good warm sleeping bags really cheap, they just are not light weight. Big canvas bag with syn down will keep you just as warm as a down bag that’s 10x the cost with the same ratings.

 

[ricky racer]

Do your due diligence before buying a sleeping bag. There are light weight down bags that as long as they are dry they're warm and easy to pack but as soon as the down collects moisture from your body or any outside source their insulation value can go down to around zero depending on the degree of dampness.

Synthetic bags are not as light nor compressible as down, are less expensive and may work well for a year or two. They may last longer if you keep stored out of their stuff sack and hang them up or lay them flat with none of the bag compressed in any way (which I find inconvenient). If they get wet, they are slow to dry and have a greatly reduced insulation valve.

My suggestion is to go to Wiggys.com and examine his sleeping bags. Wiggy's temperature ratings on his bags are very conservative compared to other manufacturers. His bags will keep you warm even if they get wet unlike any other bag on the market. Wiggy's bags can be stored in their stuff sacks, even compression bags for years without losing their insulation value. That's why you'll find Wiggy's vacuum packed survival suits attached to the underside of all US fighter jet ejection seats. Wiggy's bags are machine washable too. When you get home from your trip, throw it in the washing machine and dryer and it's good to go on the next hunt. Wiggy's has a 0 degree bag on sale now: https://www.wiggys.com/specials/sale-super-light-marpat-select-color-sleeping-bags/

If you're car camping and your bag for some reason gets wet, it can be an inconvenience and maybe you'll have to spend the night in a motel until you get everything dried out. If you're ever going to do a drop hunt, your choice of bag may save your life should things go wrong and your bag gets wet. Below is a letter from a Wiggy's customer who had things go real bad on a hunt.

Jerry,
Well, I never thought I’d be writing a letter and thanking you for saving my life, but well, that’s just what this note is for. I went on a caribou hunting trip with my twelve year old son over the past weekend, flying out on Friday to a remote wilderness area about two hundred miles from Anchorage, Alaska. We were in a PA-18 Supercub floatplane. On Sunday afternoon, during the takeoff roll the aircraft flipped and went inverted, literally upside down and partially buried in the bottom of the lake. At the time, the winds were probably 10 to 15 mph, with some occasional gusts higher than that. After the accident they increased continuously over the next several hours. By nightfall they were gusting to at least forty. The temperatures were in the fifties but were dropping rapidly. The sky was clear, and the terrain was flat and open without any trees.
When we flipped, we, and everything we owned, were instantly soaked. Totally—submerged in fact. My son and I were wearing inflatable CO2 survival vests, and synthetic clothing with hip boots--all typical attire for Alaskan bush flying. After we successfully extracted ourselves from the upside down airplane, I took the time to get as much stuff out of it as I could. I wanted my Wiggy's sleeping bags, as I knew if we had any chance to survive, they would be key. It took me 30 minutes to get them—I had to cut a hole into the part of the aircraft that was still out of the water and push them forward where I could swim down and grab them from inside. We both had the Super Light FTRSS bags, in their stuff sacks. They were drenched; literally, the pressure from being held that long under water had been enough to soak them pretty thoroughly. Still, they were the only things we had. I tried to find the tent without success, and finally gave up looking for it.
We swam to shore, and my son and I were both hypothermic, him more so than me. We dove behind some small bushes, which was the only visible cover within miles. The bushes didn't completely block the wind, but they helped a lot. The ground was boggy, and wet, but to go to higher ground would have exposed us to the full force of the wind. There was no firewood or any other large trees—just miles of rolling tundra typical of caribou habitat. The picture I've attached captures the bleakness of the place pretty well, I think. It was taken 24 hours after the accident. Anyway, after we got to shore the real survival had just begun. My son wasn't talking much at this point, and I knew his situation was more desperate than mine. Since we were both shivering so badly, we were losing coordination, I recognized the symptoms of hypothermia and took the only action open to me. Like something out of a survival manual, we stripped off the wet clothing and got into one of your sleeping bags. I would have mated them together but I was too cold to try and change the zippers, so we just unzipped one partially and crammed into it (mine is a wide model) and I covered us up with the other bag. We shivered together for twenty minutes or so, behind those little bushes, and unbelievably, we warmed up in that wet bag. With the temperatures dropping and the wind whipping the prospects were ugly. I was really amazed how that bag was holding in our heat, what little we could generate, even though it was totally soaked and was sitting on wet, boggy ground.
I had an Iridium Satellite Phone with me, but it had gotten wet and wasn’t working. I had it in a watertight bag, but during the impact something had ripped a tear into it. I laid it out on a clump of grass to dry, praying it might work later after the wind had blown on it for a while. Knowing we needed something warm inside of us, I left my son in the bag and threw on some rain gear I had salvaged, and then ran around the shore and picked up some more stuff that had washed ashore. I hung what clothing I could find on the bushes, so that it could begin to dry in the wind as well. The gear I found included the dry bag with my small stove, along with a metal bowl, and some of our food bags. I started shaking again—as the sun was going down and getting low in the horizon the temperature went into the forties, and with the wind chill it was just unbelievably cold. I started shaking again too bad to continue gathering stuff, so I went back to my Wiggy’s bag and got inside. This time I just grabbed my son’s bag (he was still in mine) and jumped inside. I warmed up in minutes---it was the only “shelter” we had and it felt so good it's hard to describe. I stayed in the sleeping bag this time. I had found two of our foam pads during my search and put one under my son and the other under me, which got us out of the bog at least and made an improvement in the situation. What was strange was the sleeping bags were drying in the wind, even as we were inside them. The moisture was wicking out of them, and they seemed to get better and better and warmer at the same time. From the sleeping bag I lit off the stove, boiled some lake water, and made us two cups of hot cocoa. It tasted so good! After drinking it I was thinking more clearly, and remembered I had a spare battery for the Sat phone in my survival vest. I got it out and put it in the phone and this time it worked.
I made the call I needed to make, and luckily, I had passed the GPS coordinates of our campsite to my wife the night before. She still had them. After that, we just huddled in the sleeping bags and stayed warm, in spite of the dropping temperatures and high winds. I figured with less than an hour left of daylight we would probably have to spend the night, but luckily, an Alaskan State trooper flew out to us before the sun went down. With some red pen gun flares I had in my vest and the GPS coordinates he was able to locate us without any searching. The subsequent ride out of there in his floatplane was the best flight I’ve ever had. That night the temperatures plummeted into the 20's.
Wiggy, thanks! Plain and simple, you make an incredible sleeping bag. It works, and does what you say it does, and more. For me, and for my son, we are alive today because your product insulates, even when wet. If I had brought my down bag instead, I would never have made it. So, I thank you personally, and appreciate your sleeping bags in a way few others will ever know. Every single one of your employees should take pride in the work they do, and the efforts they make. All of you have my gratitude.

With my sincerest thanks,
John C. Dieffenderfe

 

[dalton916]

You said you were going to sleep on a cot, correct? Buy a second, cheap, bag and affix it to the bottom of the cot like an underquilt on a hammock.

 

[Camelcluch]

I voted 0 but there is a ton to think about on the great sleeping bag search. Not all bags are created the same and factors like a pad make a huge difference. The Exped 9 is an oven and will improve all bags. Klymit is good but not even close to the same warmth. Down is warm and synthetic takes moisture. Rectangle is comfy but mummy is warmer. Are they using the certified rating system or making their own rating? Good luck!

 

[hokiehunter373]

The sleeping pad is just as important. The inflatable ones made for winter have a high R value and will keep the cold ground off you.

Those ratings aren't for comfort but I guess survival. So, if you're like me, you're cold at 20 F when in a 20 F degree bag. They are sorta like stereo amplifiers (you have to buy more than what you need to get best result).

Yeah, I'm looking into decent sleeping pads. Currently between REI Helix Insulated, Therm-a-Rest XTherm NXT, and Big Agnes Rapide SL Insulated. Just deciding on what price range I want to settle into relative to R value

You can spend a fortune on a bag but there are some decent options out there as well that are not too salty. I have a Cabela's -40 degree down bag but in November it's too much generally so I usually opt for my 0 or 20 degree bag. They are BlackOvis Chugach I got on Camofire and I do like the hybrid insulation. With a good pad they are plenty warm. Occasionally with a real cold front I might sleep in some base layers but usually I'm in my skivvies.

I've been leaning toward 0 degree in my search but just wanted this thread to verify. Mission accomplished. The 0 of the Chugach is currently sold out.

If you’re on the not so tall side, I strongly suggest checking out some women’s sleeping bags. Unlike men’s sleeping bags they’re rated to women’s comfort at that temp vs the men’s that is rated to threshold. You can find some great high dollar sleeping bags at REI used if you have one near you and on sale. I picked up a NEMO 0 women’s bag for $80 for my wife and $120 for a men’s one. I’ve not used a ton of bags but I really like my Nemo bag over my marmot one.

I'm nowhere close to tall so thanks for this tip!

@LoadedLimbs and @ricky racer thanks for the Wiggy's suggestion. His bags actually seem cheaper than others I've been looking at although they do weigh more. I'll look into them. Loaded, I know sleeping on the ground on a pad is warmer than the cot but sleeping on the cot lets you store things under the cot. I'd like to start by cot sleeping and if I'm too cold then I have the option to throw the cot in the truck and sleep on the ground.

If you plan to tent camp beside the truck and weight isn’t an issue or goal in a bag I wouldn’t spend much on a bag. If you plan to have a buddy heater it seems like this is the case. Go get a thick warm inexpensive bag to sleep in. The only gain when spending more is lighter weight. You can find some good warm sleeping bags really cheap, they just are not light weight. Big canvas bag with syn down will keep you just as warm as a down bag that’s 10x the cost with the same ratings.

Yes, this hunt will be next to the truck. Future hunts will hopefully include being miles away from the truck. Probably have a few years until that so I'm trying not to weigh it heavily in my search but lighter is better because I'd prefer not to have to buy a second bag in a few years.

 

[raisins]

Yeah, I'm looking into decent sleeping pads. Currently between REI Helix Insulated, Therm-a-Rest XTherm NXT, and Big Agnes Rapide SL Insulated. Just deciding on what price range I want to settle into relative to R value



I've been leaning toward 0 degree in my search but just wanted this thread to verify. Mission accomplished. The 0 of the Chugach is currently sold out.



I'm nowhere close to tall so thanks for this tip!

@LoadedLimbs and @ricky racer thanks for the Wiggy's suggestion. His bags actually seem cheaper than others I've been looking at although they do weigh more. I'll look into them. Loaded, I know sleeping on the ground on a pad is warmer than the cot but sleeping on the cot lets you store things under the cot. I'd like to start by cot sleeping and if I'm too cold then I have the option to throw the cot in the truck and sleep on the ground.


Yes, this hunt will be next to the truck. Future hunts will hopefully include being miles away from the truck. Probably have a few years until that so I'm trying not to weigh it heavily in my search but lighter is better because I'd prefer not to have to buy a second bag in a few years.

I had a thermarest pad from REI and sent it back (didn't need that much insulation). I tried it out inside a few times. It seemed very nice and the reviews were good also.

 

[hokiehunter373]

Anyone who was surprised by @gcr0003 tidbit above can read this article to find out more and why: https://www.rei.com/learn/expert-advice/understanding-sleeping-bag-temperature-ratings.html

 

[Maverick1]

I’ve been sleeping in the back of my truck across the upper Midwest for the last 20 years, primarily in November. It is rarely in the single digits. I voted for a 15 or 20 degree bag. Get a sleeping bag liner, adds a few degrees, and easier to clean. When I first started out (young and poor) I bought two cheap Walmart sleeping bags (one mummy and one rectangular) and stuck one inside the other. It worked fine but was a little bulky. Buy a nice bag if you can afford it, but there are other ways to make your hunt happen if one has the drive and desire.

 

[gcr0003]

Anyone who was surprised by @gcr0003 tidbit above can read this article to find out more and why: https://www.rei.com/learn/expert-advice/understanding-sleeping-bag-temperature-ratings.html

Another thing I would recommend anyone do if it’s possible is get a thin summer liner for the inside of the bag and also dedicate one set of thin base layers (merino of course) to live in the sleeping bag. The liner is used to reduce the oils from your skin getting in and on the bag (since when backpacking, camping, and hunting we typically don’t have access to wash everyday. It will also slightly increase rating. Wearing base layers will aid in hitting the desired comfort level of warmth in the sleeping bag as well also reduce the oils in the bag. Some have suggested that the oils from your skin can significantly kill the life of of your bag, I’m not sure either way, but I know it’s can be nasty to hop in a sleeping bag after sweating all day on the trail. The base layers are an extra step but I do feel they have increased my comfort camping. After a good night sleep, simply take off the base layers and stuff them in the bag. They’ll live there for the duration of the trip.

 

[Maverick1]

Yeah, I'm looking into decent sleeping pads. Currently between REI Helix Insulated, Therm-a-Rest XTherm NXT, and Big Agnes Rapide SL Insulated. Just deciding on what price range I want to settle into relative to R value



I've been leaning toward 0 degree in my search but just wanted this thread to verify. Mission accomplished. The 0 of the Chugach is currently sold out.



I'm nowhere close to tall so thanks for this tip!

@LoadedLimbs and @ricky racer thanks for the Wiggy's suggestion. His bags actually seem cheaper than others I've been looking at although they do weigh more. I'll look into them. Loaded, I know sleeping on the ground on a pad is warmer than the cot but sleeping on the cot lets you store things under the cot. I'd like to start by cot sleeping and if I'm too cold then I have the option to throw the cot in the truck and sleep on the ground.


Yes, this hunt will be next to the truck. Future hunts will hopefully include being miles away from the truck. Probably have a few years until that so I'm trying not to weigh it heavily in my search but lighter is better because I'd prefer not to have to buy a second bag in a few years.

Why not sleep in the bed of the truck? If your truck bed is long enough and you have a topper, it is a better setup than a tent, IME.