Should I upgrade my sleeping bag?

[Jdog]

Love my Western Mountaineering bag--super light weight and superb quality.

 

[armedleftist]

I am looking at upgrading my sleep system for this fall. Last year I was sold on a Big Agnes Farewell 0 degree bag for a number of reasons, the cost for a 0 degree bag was in my price range and it is a semi-rectangular bag with plenty of room. I also got a Big Agnes Insulated Air Core pad. I was elk hunting out of a tent for 2, multi-day hunts with temps as low as 25 degrees. I got cold almost every night. I hate to think about spending about $300 on that system and feel like I got taken. I was expecting to be sweating in that thing but was disappointed. Besides getting cold, one thing I do not like that system is since there is no insulation on the bottom of your sleeping bag, you are 100% relying on that pad. What IF it leaks? What IF it gets a hole in it? Then you are lying on a pad with no air in it and no insulation between you and the ground. At least if you have a normal bag and the pad leaks, you have insulation. I am not saying that their other bags and pad combos don't work. I understand that bag isn't the most expensive but the rating on that I was not happy with. I am in the process of searching for a good bag and pad. I have narrowed it down to Feathered Friends 10 semi rectangle or KUIU 15. As anyone had any experiences with the KUIU? My hunting partner had the Feathered Friends and likes it. I am thinking KUIU because of the high quality, treated down, and extremely lightweight.

The compressed insulation in a fully insulated bag that is under your body has essentially the same insulation value (zero), as a (possibly) deflated or leaking pad. It's a matter of probability. On one hand you have 100% chance of no insulation value below you: on the other you have >zero (that you largely control by the way you care for your gear.). Either way the down side is exactly the same. The upside is what you were asking about.

 

[Gumbo]

I've been running a western mountaineering 0 degree bag for about 8 years now. I love it, although I do worry about condensation and getting it wet, but similar to other's experience it has never happened yet. I'm a cold sleeper and it does the job for archery hunts. It compresses down very well and is light.