Great video Blackie. I'v spent many a nite sleeping in the old sleeping bag cover alone or with a woobie. I sleep warm and don't usualy need much cover.
After watching this and realizing I’d like to use it in warmer weather, I went to eBay and found 5 or 6 listed, saw a well used one still in very good condition, and made an offer, and the seller accepted…and I got it for $10 bucks. The others run over $40, and almost new, so if anyone wants one, send them to eBay. Make an offer! Thanks Blackie!
I carry a moving blanket and a canvas painters tarp in my vehicle. Use to just be the tarp. It covered my gear from the looky loos while parked so people walking by couldn't identify stuff in the wagon or mini van. I have woke up in the night when the temperature dropped in to the low 30s and pulled that tarp over. It would work better than even I thought. The first time was out of desperation of what do I have that could be used as a blanket.
Yeah, I have a buttpack. I've had it for years. Right now, it's relegated to a work bag. Believe it or not, or you probably do? They are virtually indestructible. I had one from a neighbor that had been in the military, sometime back in the 1960s. I had gotten it and some of his gear when I was in Jr.High school, early 1980s. Just in time for when, I transitioned from playing in the backyards, to going hunting. I used thst all throughout high school, camping, hunting, ROTC, and later. Had to replace the original one, but it soldiered on. Great piece of gear.
I like the way you explain everything. My Dad would have loved to watch you but he passed away in 2003. I learn a lot from your videos and your tips have helped me a few times when I've been backpacking 🙂💚
AKA USMC Bivy Cover. I just bought one! About $75. Perfect! In Winter, wear the right clothes and bundle up in a fleece couch throw and voila! You are warm down to 20F! Counting the backpack you carry it all in, about 5 pounds! No excuse for not having this stuff!
Ive got an intermediate & extreme surplus bags,love them besides the weight. Both have these covers & bags & cover both in mint shape. You are correct about finding them now days! All of the good 80s surplus are drying up ...great info once again. Thanks for keeping it all real..
I have both. I have my grandpa's cover and I have a first gen woodland gortex bivvy. Personally I like the bivvy more. I keep my sleeping bag in the bivvy and when it's hot I just use the sleeping bag as a pad under me.
Great idea Blackie, thank you! After watching your video, I bought 3 from B and M surplus, they had some very reasonably priced. Got them today and they are brand new but have the usual storage smell. All 3 had different manufacturers.
Got myself a m65 jacket with liner in my size - way down in Australia it’s rare as hens teeth - former servicemen selling his kit from his younger days - he also didn’t charge the earth for it $150 AUD - what a great jacket ! And feels like it has decades of life left in it
Blackie , Uncle Sam let me use one of those from 1979-1986 and , Great Video and Outstanding Information Thanks For Sharing Your Knowledge and Your Time. You are right I have not seen one in years. You Are The Master Woodsman and Buschcrafter. Tim L. U.S. Army Vet.
Blackie I have two of the M-1945 covers and two of the Airforce Wool sleeping Bags that I picked up years ago that are still like new. they are great for spring-summer and fall out here in the Pacific Northwest in the Olympics they are lite and warm..
About 20 years ago I got a three pack of mattress covers from Sportsman’s Guide. They are made of a heavy cotton canvas material and I think they were designed for military hospital beds. A dark chocolate brown color. They open at one end and have ties sewn into that end to help keep them in place and tight on the mattresses. I really like the sleeping bags that have zippers on the top side, great for venting excess heat. My intention was to have a seamstress sew a 3/4 length zipper on them and waterproof em with…? I wanted my own cowboy style canvas bedroll. I never found a seamstress and they are a pain in the butt to shimmy into them from the top and get out again. Been in storage too long and this video has reminded me to get back to em and get it done. I imagine that finding one like yours is not likely at this point. I do have the center-zip, down bag from the Korean War era but I can’t use it with the currently made bivy bags. Nice piece of kit there bud. Now the ones left just went up in demand and value. Never knew of them before.
Well Made Hidden Gem Like the Alice Pack. As they say, they don't make them as they use to Sleeping Cover is almost 70 yrs old and now most of our Chinese Products wouldn't last more than 3 to 5 yrs.
Thanks for sharing this. I've heard of them but haven't actually seen one in person. I do remember being issued the intermediate cold sleeping bag in Germany in 1985. I would use a poncho liner and a GI wool blanket to get maximum use of what sleep time we were able to get.
Blackie mighty fine bit of kit I found issues with ticks and mosquitoes 🦟 I love wild camping especially whittling by camp fire I always taught scouts a thing or two even the leaders glade that you’re feeling better after the Covid crap 👍🇮🇹🦊🐾
That's great Blackie. I remember seeing one of those at a surplus store not too long ago. I'll have to keep an eye out. Yeah, that would be a great lightweight option for summer.Thanks for the video!👍
I have one of those. Haven't used it. Need too sow little cut in it just be fine. Good video. Still waiting for the boots video. Good job. God bless. From Glenn CATT in Massachusetts. Hope you do a video of all the U S military gear . Like a bug out bag. That would be great. No one has done one yet that I can find. Corporal corner. Did one.it was great .
Aside from the bit of warmth you might need for the crazy weather conditions such a nice light bag is good to keep bugs off. That was made back when Americans used to know how to make stuff. Nice find!
I live in Kansas and our weather is unpredictable as well. I carry this setup in my truck. I also added G.I collapsible quart shoulder strap to the butt pack for easy carry. Great minds.
Love this! I got a similar one years ago and used it as an outer cover for my blanket. Worked great, even in lower temps. Mine got a really big flap on the top so I could make kind of roof to protect my head just using some sticks to keep it up. Really awesome piece of gear!
The cotton sleeping bag cover is a nice piece of gear. I used one a lot of times over the down and feather Arctic shell. The snaps were better than a zipper. Sometimes I would crawl between the sleeping bag and this one if it was fairly warm.
@Blackie Thomas thanks for this video! I stayed overnight at my cabin last night. It has been warm and cold all week and I couldn’t be sure, so i had this sleeping bag cover, my Kelty Cosmic 20, and a self inflating mattress. It turned out warm, so I slept comfortably inside the sleeping bag cover, and on top of the other gear. Had it been colder, I could have slipped into the heavier bag.
Funny thing, got one by accident, but learned to love it! It’s so useful and reliable! Keeps me warm and comfy....Thx for sharing it! Regards again from Germany!
The modern gore-tex version of this bivy sack is available lately at surplus stores. I got the unpopular digi-camo because it was cheaper. $50. Then they make a light bag and a heavy bag that are designed to nest in each other and in the bivy sack. That runs you from about 0F to 65F depending on how you configure them. I'm in Arizona, so at low elevations in the summer from March onward, the bivy and a woobie is the most I would need. With a little altitude, it can chill down quite a bit and might need the light bag in the heavy bag in the bivy at 9000 feet in early March. We have some fun mountains in this otherwise flat place!
After US Army Basic Training In 1979 when I got to my permanent unit in West Germany I was issued a brand new " Intermediate " sleeping bag along with my TA-50 Issue. It consisted of the sleeping bag, the case, as you show here and also a soft skull cap to keep your head warm. In the US Army your TA-50 ( Table of Allowances 50 ) was the gear your were issued at your unit when you arrived that included all the field gear you needed to go to war, or train to go to war, with. Before transferring to your next station or exiting the Army you would be sure all that gear was clean and serviceable before you turned it in. You were issued a statement of charges for anything missing.This gear is separate from your own personal uniforms, boots and shoes.
YEP and the smart one would get a second set of used gear to take and use in field problems and keep the brand new issue for inspections and to tune in when they left for new station often selling the used gear to a guy coming in for beer money... thanks for your service
Just found these offered at Sportsman Guide. Supposedly Like new condition, $26. Thanks for the video! I've been hunting for a durable lightweight bedroll option, this might just be the ticket.
This is not surplus but... The BrooklynArmedForces makes a Polartec Fleece that's lightweight, warm, +quick drying. And with the SOL Goretex Bivy I'm nice and cozy 😁
I spent one night sleeping under the stars in the Sierra Nevada mountains. It was spring time, which means warm in the day and cold at night. Yup, I Froze my ass off when the temp dropped. But I learned an excellent lesson about convection.
Here in the great Pacific Northwest rain forest "water repellant" doesn't cut it. It's got to be "water PROOF" or you will sleep in a puddle. So, I prefer the upgrade to the bag you're talking about: the US DoD Bivvy Sack which is water proof (so far) and both buttons and zips up.
This would be perfect to add wax to and it would be almost as water proof as gortex, almost as breathable, but a shitton more durable. It will also double the weight though. 🤔
The grommet holes were for a cord so you could use the bag as a body bag. The idea came from the Navy hammock of old. Sailors would die and they would use their hammock as a body bag. Good video and your right they are hard to find.
Hi, Blackie. Thanks for everything you’ve been doing. Any updates on the wool blankets? I think you had said it would be about 8 months. Can’t wait to get it. Thanks again.
yes they are being manufactured now and the word i was given is they are on schedule and going to plan as soon as i get a date for them to be arriving i will pass the info on
Blackie. I got my sleeping bag set in the 70's. Got the Mountain Bag and the Intermediate Bag and 2 bag covers. Wouldn't let go of them for a lot of money Ken Billings
Like you explained, camping in the south is a different experience. Here in Arkansas, we were in the 70's with a tornado watch last night, and we are preparing for an ice storm tomorrow morning! I have a Korean War era USMC sleeping bag cover similar to that one. I've never used it, but I got it because I thought it would be a good warm weather option.
So hard to find anything “Surplus “ . There is an army surplus store in town 🇨🇦 but very few items are surplus anymore, most of the store is now cheap nock off items. Not a big fan of buying anything used online, I like to see the item before I buy it.
I LIKE THAT ! I know exactly what you mean about the Weather.. Right now it's 83 in Baton Rouge and tonight mid/low 60s. End of the week subtract 10-15 from today's temps. I have a Czech surplus summer bag, but damn if it isn't BIG ! I can definitely find something like that and add it to whatever bag I'm going to use along with the woobie ! I actually saw something just like that last night at a UK online military store that ships here.
I have used the MSS Gore Tex bivy with a poncho liner for mild weather camping. Good into the 50's, might in a pinch extend into the mid 40's if used with appropriate clothing. A light foam ground pad would be a good addition...
This was something I looked for but never found one I wanted to purchase. They looked like they were left at the Battle of The Bulge and always thought I would find another. It would be perfect for Arizona in the summer around the desert lakes. It get's a little nippy around 2 AM and Tequila stops working. Here in northern PA I would be using the mummy inside the shell inside this and a banked up fire with a reflector. When you read the description off the label I got a flashback from my supply days in the USAF in Selma, Alabama!
thank you for your service and yes its good in those hot places here in bama in the summer nights its 100 with 85% humidity during day but at 4 am it may be 70 and it feels cooler than it is
I was in from 1990-2012 and it wasn't until the 2005 timeframe that we were issued the modern Gore-Tex MSS . Prior to that we still had the intermediate and then later the cold sleeping bags. I remember a LOT of guys having bags that were completely soaked in the fields, with bags draped over vehicles etc for days trying to dry them out, usually without success. I don't know why they stopped issuing these things in the 70s, because nothing was issued to replace them, and we were still issued the sleeping bags that needed this sort of thing I've never even HEARD of this item existing until watching this video.
yep when i was getting into camping in early 70's we would coat theses covers to make them very water repellent to as good as goretex but it gave you a fighting chance to keep them from getting soaked
@@BLACKIETHOMAS I've had it since 1987, I got the cover and the bag the same day.The cover was in way better shape than the bag.I laced them up that night and have never had them apart. Still in great shape.
you know if you can't find these they do make fleece sleeping bag liners that work as summer bags! they're about that size and weight you can get rectangular ones as well as mummy style and run between $15.00 and $30.00! i've got a home improvement store something like lowes or home depot named manards that also keeps sporting goods and they carry them! that's an option til you can find one! also if you want to make your own you can go to wallywolrd get a lightweight cheap fleece blanket and a set of snaps!
You would have to put it in a poncho or ground sheet folded to get fleece to shed water or dew. But yes they are great I have one and love it also keeps the real sleeping bag clean.
I remember these and even had one and loved it and would love to get another one as I can pair it with the original cold weather military sleeping bag and sleep comfortably down to about 10 below 0 which is nice but I also pair both with a inflatable rubber mattress again military surplus but I am having problems with my mattress it deflates while sleeping on it. Any ideas on how to prevent this from happening? Can you help with this question?
sure if you will do a search of my channel for the hat you will find a video i think it was called the hat question is the title i go into detail of mine
Make patterns of your vintage gear before it's too worn-out! Then you can make accurate reproductions as well as making modifications to your own specs. You can offer the patterns and customization ideas for others for barter, trade, sale, et cetera.
Speaking of summer sleeping bags, does anybody make a cloth sleeping bag with a loose inner liner (not sew through)? I really don't like those nylon bags, too slippery, and I'm not sure if they can be properly waterproofed.
If you took a woobie, and tied the 3 sets of strings at the bottom to form a footbox, and stuffed that into the sleeping bag cover, might take you into early fall weather.
Available www.armynavysales.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=sleeping+bag+cover Described as Good Condition And for Bank Line: www.memphisnet.net/product/Tarred-Nylon-Seine-Twine
