Does anyone have a opinion own what brand would be a good light weight sleeping bag to take to Canada in the first three weeks of September for a hunt.

Will you be in a tent, cabin,. heat, no heat, driving in, flying in, hiking?

After several decades in the Canadian bush and many bags, my best choice for this is made in Calgary, AB. Canada and can be bought in various US outlets. One good dealer I can suggest is "Bear River Outfitters" in Utah, 435-764-1111. I get a lot of, my gear from him and the prices and service are first cabin.

Get an Integral Designs North Twin Primaloft bag and, if you are not used to "mummy" bags, buy the "broad" option. I have a lot of highend bags and use my ID-NT far more than all of my others combined....good stuff and will last.

Go to www.integraldesigns.com

Listen to what Dewey says about the Integral Designs. I've got one of their mummy bags & it works great in the Brooks Range on an Aug. sheep hunt. It's also very good during our Sep. moose season. Spend the money & get quality.
Bear in Fairbanks

quote:

Originally posted by calgarychef1:
Will you be in a tent, cabin,. heat, no heat, driving in, flying in, hiking?

I will fly in and stay in a one room cabin with a wood burner for heat. We sleep on plywood built off the ground. Sometimes we will spike out and stay in tents but we rarly do that. It was my first time last year and my sleeping bag sucked, so I am loking for a much better one. Thanks

I use a Chinook Everest Ice its tight fit in the shoulder with it being a mummy bag...think its rated for -30°C.
I bought it because its light weight & doesn't take up much room in a pack compared to other -30 bags.

You might want to look into Big Agnes bags.
http://www.bigagnes.com/
I have a Yellow-wall primaloft bag rated to 0 and that rating seems plasable. I've been very happy with mine for weather down to 15 above (so far the lowest temp I've used it in and I was very comfortable) The integrated bag and pad concept seemed like a good idea and it works very well for me.

I have an integral designs north twin, very good bag. Should work great for what you have planed.
I also have a western mountaineering antelope gws that is quite a bit warmer, if i was in a tent i would use the antelope.
What ever you buy , make sure its the right size or you won't sleep well.

take a Western Mountaineering with Gore Dry shell - I will always take another one if mine should be done some day (having 2 of them yet!)

That is true, but, WM are not the "best" sleeping bags available and a down/GT combo is not the most versatile for Canadian hunting.

I had a WM bag, a Feathered Friends bag, an ORIGINAL Marmot Mtn. Works down/GT bag, light years ahead of what they sell now and these were all excellent bags, used hard all over BC, northern Alberta and into the Yukon and NWT.

A BETTER down-membrane bag is my custom Integral Designs Himalaya with "Endurance" shell and the BEST down bag I have ever had is my Valandre Shocking Blue. BUT, with some 46 years of intense Canadian wilderness camping and work behind me, in all seasons, my recommendation for general hunting use is "hands down" the North Twin by Integral Designs, a Pertex-Primaloft bag.

I had a tarp rip in a very severe wind in a remote part of BC in Sept. 2007 and it dumped over a gallon of icy slush onto my ID-NT, which would have soaked most bags. I simply shook it off and went back to sleep as it was almost 03:00 and it stayed bone-dry for the rest of that trip.

I have used down and GT bags extensively in BC winter mountaineering since Jan. 1978 and I prefer down for real cold, but, for hunting, with all that entails, the ID-NT beats everything.

WM bags are also cut very "tight" for the given girth dimensions and this becomes really unpleasant in a longer, hunting camp stay. ID offers a 67" "Broad" option in their "regular" bags and it really is a LOT more comfortable and "sleep friendly" than a constricting bag for someone not used to spending months every year in a sleeping bag. Try one and see what I mean, ID is the "well kept secret" in gear.

Well, if you are interested in ID products you better get them now.
Rab Outdoor products purchased the company. It plans to expand the product distribution. It also plans to continue manufacture in Canada until 2011. What does this mean?

Whenever you have a very good line of products and a larger outside corporation takes over the product line gets offshored and quality goes down. Dana Designs, Mountainsmith, Bibler and other products get purchased and then quality drops.

Sincerely,
Thomas

quote:

Originally posted by Kaboku68:
Well, if you are interested in ID products you better get them now.
Rab Outdoor products purchased the company. It plans to expand the product distribution. It also plans to continue manufacture in Canada until 2011. What does this mean?

Whenever you have a very good line of products and a larger outside corporation takes over the product line gets offshored and quality goes down. Dana Designs, Mountainsmith, Bibler and other products get purchased and then quality drops.

Sincerely,
Thomas

With all due respect, I sure hope you're wrong on this. I do agree with your comments tho. It figures.
Bear in Fairbanks

That info. is correct and Rab now controls ID, with Evan Jones still sitting as president of ID. I was told by a totally solid source(2), that the tents, etc. would continue to be produced in Calgary as would the bags and bivies, but, the smaller items would be made in Chinkland.

I cannot quite do it, but, I try my dammest to never buy Asian-made anything, except Toyotas, as I am sick and tired of seeing Canadian jobs shipped over to the Chinamen.

They are taking over because WE allow it to happen and we WILL regret it!

Will ID quality continue as it has been, frankly, I seriously doubt it as my experience confirms the comments above and this is SAD because ID is among the VERY finest gear makers anywhere.

Never fucking fails, North American jobs go to foreigners, we live in a "fool's paradise"......

I just ordered the North Twin, thanks for the information. I got it from Bear River Outfitters.

I got a ID NT a year ago Bear River and am very pleased with it. Charlie is a good guy.

Your right he is avery good guy. He really treats you right as a customer. I will continue doing business with him,

I guess I'm too late in replying, but Wiggy's http://www.wiggys.com/ makes some more toasty sleeping bags. However, I doubt they are considered lightweight. I've got a 0-degree bag, regular-wide, that I can't sleep in because I sleep too hot. Unless it's well below freezing you can't keep unzipped. I took it on a DIY caribou hunt in Alaska in 2006. I'm thinking of getting a 20-degree, maybe one of the lighter ones from Wiggy's Alaska.

Check out the Big Agness. It comes with a 3" air mattress that slips into a slot on the underside. Light, compact, warm, waaaaay more comfortable than any thermarest, and you never roll off the air mattress.

Nothing like slipping into my Big Agness at the end of the day!

Dewey is clearly very experienced. I appreciate and hold his opinion in high regard.

A couple of other options that I've personally been looking at are the following:

1. From Valandre is this: Bloody Mary Sleeping BagIt's a little lighter than the Shocking Blue and is a little more versatile in 2-3 season temps. The only downside, as Dewey mentioned, is that it is down and can get wet. It does not have a Gore fabric outer shell.

The other option is WM's Antelope GWS, with Gore Windstopper. This is not as breathable, though not sure what the downside might be if you don't overlayer going to sleep.

Thoughts? Have you made your decision?

Hi Guys, this is Charlie Jennings from Bear River Outfitters.

Thanks for the kind words, by the way.

Just a comment on the Bloody Mary by Valandre'. If your needs are for a bag that compresses small and is lightweight, the BM is a great bag. The girth is large enough that one can layer with it. If wetness or condensation is a concern, I would use the lightweight bivy by Titanium Goat to cover it. This is what I do to keep my down bags dry.

ID products are really nice too, so it depends on what your needs are.