Sierra Trading Post sells some that compress down to 6"x10," rated to 46 Degrees. I've never heard of Lafuma before, so I'm just curious about the brand. On that note, know of any brands that are really lousy?

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Depends on what you plan to use it for. I can't say that I have ever really owned a crappy sleeping bag. Currently I have a 30 degree Kelty that I use for Hunting camp and tent camping. I have a 20 degree Slumberjack (Love this bag) that goes on my backpacking trips.

Your budget will also determine how good you think a bag is. Me..I can't see spending over $100 for a bag...but then I'm cheap. I have heard that the North Face Cat's Meow bag is pretty good and has gotten good reveiws. It's a little harder for me, being 6'1 and 220, I am tall and am pretty broad so standard mummy bags don't fit me.

If you are going to be using it for backcountry use, I would definitely suggest a name brand. My Slumberjack went down to single digits this year with a fleece liner.

I would also suggest getting in a bag before you order. You'd be surprised at some manufactuers really can't measure very good....well, then again I only had to test because of my size.

Shop around. REI and Campmor have good deals, you might also try Sportsman's Guide. They generally have nice quality for cheap...although they never tell you how much the bag weighs....so if you are wanting for Backpacking not a good site.

The primary, the ONLY valid criteria for a sleeping bag is to keep you ALIVE at worse, comfortable at best. When The first thing I hear about a bag is compressability smaller than a body bag warning flags go up. A 45 degree rating is easy to fudge. Our unregulated rating system assumes your in a tent, in good health,fed and falling into some mythical parameter of individual metabolism. Such bags will probably be used a few times a year in nice safe campgrounds with coke a cola machines , porta potties and payphones. The manufacturers know most will go a few years of sporadic use and then go flat or fall apart.Then you go out, buy another one in the latest dayglo colour ad nauseum until you've spent double the price of a good unit. Thats the good news. The bad news is you can die in these things and get a nice certificate that lists exposure or hypothermia as cause of demise <img src="/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

and 45 F (even if the rating is accurate) isn't all that cold. If you need a sleeping bag under the worst of YOUR local conditions, how cold would it get?

Sue

A 46 F bag is not enough even during the summer time in many (most) places. If you want to backpack with it you will have to pay extra to make it light weight enough to carry well. If it’s going to ride around in the car a military surplus one or a big heavy cheap one might suffice.

I’m looking at getting another bag this summer for backpacking and have been reading good things about the Wiggy’s bags, which I hear the military now uses. My local climbing store likes the Mountain Hard Wear ones and speaks well of them. All other things being equal higher cost will make the bag lighter and more compact.

Down is more compact but losses most (all) of its insulation ability if it gets wet. Synthetics are bulkier and heavier (on average) but will still keep some warmth in them if they get wet. Wiggy’s are supposed to excel at keeping you warm (alive) when wet.

Any way that’s my 2 cents worth!

Check out this site http://www.backpackgeartest.org/reviews/ It has lots of good user reviews. Use the manufacture rating as a way of lining up bags within a manufature's line. Almost all the reviews a read suggest get a bag rated at least 10 colder than you intend use it in. Most manufactures say there rating is in a closed tent on top of an insulating pad. A light 45 degree bag might be great for a summer hike. It can be augmented with a fleece inner bag for about $30 which REI says that can add 10-20 degrees to the bag. You could also use an outer shell. The Wiggy's system uses a sleeping bag and an outer shell, but for a lot less money you could nest a inside a second bag.

Marcy

AFAIK, Lafuma is (but, nowadays, who knows?) a french company, at first mainly known for its backpacks and other camping gear.
It has expanded its products range to shoes, clothes, sleeping bags and hunting gear (see also "Millet" - more technical gear, for climbing etc..- or "Le Chameau" - hunting gear - those brand names are now in the same Lafuma Group).

their web site

I can try to find independent reviews of a specific product and translate it, if you are interested.

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If you look for instance at the "Warm'n light 1kg down" sleeping bag, you will see the following explanation (see what others ie Chris K have said in other posts) :
"Lafuma sleeping bags are laboratory tested by the independent agency IFTH (1) in compliance with French standard G08-013. This standard determines the following three usage temperatures:
- extreme temperature: experienced users (2) feel cold. Hypothermia risk for inexperienced users after a few hours.
- comfort temperature limit: experienced users (2) feel neither warm nor cold. Inexperienced users may suffer general discomfort.
- comfort temperature: inexperienced users (3) do not suffer any discomfort, even local, from the cold.
Remember that the conditions, the user's training and physical condition at the time of use can create discrepancies in these measurements, and consequent coldness.
Notes :
(1) French Textile-Clothing Institute
(2) Experienced users adapt their position inside the bag to the ambient conditions.
(3) Inexperienced users do not necessarily understand how to use their bag well."

SD, I have experience with the military Wiggy's bag, not bad, heavier than it needs to be and bulky due the poly fill. I prefer down, as long as I can keep it dry. For my personal bags I have a North Face Cat's Meow, a great polyfill bag and I have a Marmot down bag, +10 degrees. One aspect of sleeping bags, look at real hardcore travelers, like Mt Everest climbers, Denali climbers, or other serious adventurers, they always have NF or Marmot or Sierra Designs, etc. Never Wiggy's. WIggy's seems to sell to the military and thus has some followers. Way overrated and over priced IMHO! Cheers

Well La Fuma seems to be an established company using down. One of the advantages of our international community is feedback on national products; G.B.has Snugpak, France the above and America Wiggys and Stephenson. Most everything else is, ahem, made in China from birds plotting to wipe out the world with avian influenza- not that a bag will have anymore lethality than an Altoids mint transmitting Mad Cow Disease <img src="/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> I do have an adverse reaction to buying chicom goods when I can support an American family. Thats why our military uses M16s, not kalashnikovs courtesy of the people's army heavy industry plant # 22. I know this cowboy who still uses a canvas bedroll, sugans and wool blankets. I dare say hes gone down trails and been in weather just as nasty as Annapurna. My point, is that people choose bags out of tradition, familiarity, peer pressure and popularity, considerations of wieght and bulk ( and sometimes freebies from a maker's advertising dept.). If you've ever seen a mule improvise UL testing on a pretty red sleeping bag my friend's choice makes sense :grin : My criteria is simple: my bags have to perform under potentially the worse conditions imaginable. Lamilite, not poly is the culprit in those big bulky Wiggys. I KNOW I can drag a sopping wet bag from a wreck, crawl in and survive. It's been done, both in deliberate testing and real world mishaps. Someday I'll be able to afford a factory vacume packed bag, slip it in my BOB and snicker at all those bulky Snugpaks and down bags. Until then,I'll lug the beast until a down or poly bag can pass the same test. <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> At the end of the day we all have to crawl into our own choice. We've literally "Made our own bed and have to sleep in it." Theres a lot of Alaskan bushpilots, commercial fishermen and Iditarod sled mushers pummeling those wiggys into a gearbag. My ancient Trailwise down bag was recycled last spring into dozens of local bird nests. the local golden eagles wanted my Wiggys, but settled on a BMW convertible top <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />