Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Wiggy's sleeping bags?

You guys sure know how to make tough on a n00b!! I have been reading some older posts about bags, and Jerry had posted in many. Opinionated is, well, an understatement?
I was looking at buying a good bag. I sleep mostly on my side/belly, and need lots of room. Get cold easy as well.

Think I'll look closer at a WM Badger!

Thanks, later...

I think a lot of bag temp rating optimism stems from the bagmaker's attempts to make the lightest possible bag. They cut the bags for tall skinny body types. We widebodies stretch the bag and compress the insulation, resulting in cold arms and elbows.

The wiggy bags come in many length and girth combinations. A long/wide 20-degree bag weighs just under four pounds, if I remember right (the "glacier hunter", available in AK). I laid in one, and it is indeed roomy to the point that none of my appendages compressed any insulation.

The ergonomics of the head/shoulder area are absolutely lousy, though. I didn't see a draft collar in the 20 or 0 bags I looked over, and that's a big problem. The wiggy guys will tell you that "your head is a radiator and why would you want to isolate it from warming the rest of your body", and that logic is too wrong to even know where to start refuting it.

Their bags are designed to move moisture. Porous outer material and synthetic insulation. Finding moisture condensed on the outside of your bag in the morning is a good thing - that means that your sweat and clothing dampness moisture made it outside, rather than condensing out in your insulation. Down bags are subject to a bit of "loading up" with moisture as it condenses in the insulating layer, but it's not the big deal that the wiggy guys make it out to be, unless you are moving all day in the rain with the bag packed, and you go to bed wet every night.

Agree.
Though I haven't used one, I have seen plenty of Wiggy's attitude as well as Taylor's attitude on this forum.
I wouldn't ever do business with them, I don't care how good the bags were.

Beanman:
Spend your money on an Integral Designs & be done with it. They're in Calgary & make very good stuff. Spend your money once. The only Wiggy's items I have are the light weight slip over boots for wading creeks & streams. Those, BTW work great IMHO. Just get ID gear & don't look back. I have one of their mummy bags rated to +15 (I think it's +15) and it works very well on the north side of the Brooks as well as here in the Interior for our Sep. moose season. I also just got their light weight jacket w/ optional hood. Expensive but quality is very good. I can't believe how warm it is for it's weight. I'm wearing it every day now as it's getting to about -5 deg. or so. I'll be getting the matching insulated pants next spring and will be using these two items on our Aug. 2010 sheep hunt into the Brooks. Gonna use 'em so I can siwash it on mountain tops & not hike up & down the mountains daily.
Integral Designs gear just plain works.
Bear in Fairbanks

Piece of....junk. Bought one for a sheep hunt after reading about it on Kifaru. siteWorthless! Filling clumped up , cold as heck, o.k.for summer use in a cabin. Step away from Wiggy's hype, don't waste your money,wish I hadn't wasted mine!

Thanks for the opinions guys. I have an older Marmot down bag that I will be replacing in a year or so and I plan to go with WM bag for that. I do want to get a synthetic bag for certain trips where it might get wet. I will Check out the ID bags.

Thanks again,

BeanMan

ID does make great gear, pricey but great

if you want affordable alternatives, I've had really good luck with TNF Cat's Meow, Kelty bags (but it's old) and most recently Montbell Super Stretch, most comfortable synthetic bag I've ever slept in. don't believe I've given even $150 for any of them

I do have a Wiggy's bag, but it's relegated to the boat as it was heavier than my TNF bags and not as warm ime.

have a little sleep bag experience, spent 10 years or so averaging 50-60 nights in one.

Lots of folks in Alaska love their Wiggy's bags, though not everybody in Alaska is backack hunting for sheep. On my sheep hunt this year my partner had a Wiggy's; I had a TNF Cat's Meow. Despite lots of internet hype, we both lived to tell about it.

The Cat's Meow is definitely cut for skinny types but it kept me warm. (I'm 6-1, 190 and I use the regular-size bag as this is my "lightweight" bag). This is my second Cat's Meow, I got my first at age 12 and while it's only good to about 50deg now, the construction is still solid.

The Wiggy's appears without a doubt to be a good bag at a fair price. Well-made, heavy-duty zipper, not an ultralight. Plus, each night just through your wet rusty rifle in the bag, it will be clean by morning!

ANY and EVERY synthetic bag will do that. It's the fact of not absorbing water like down does - not because of brand.

I saw that and was reminded of SHAM-WOW!. I can't remember the specifics, but recall there being a fair amount of other cold-weather gear was worn. Also, most/all bags have some sort of DWR coating so as to not be water sponges.


Wiggy bags generate a lot of emotion for sure. Guys either really like them or really don't like them. When there is such a split on opinion, I'll spend my money on a surer thing.

Beanman, I bought several of his bags just before the "Wiggy's S-storm." I bought two of the 20* Kifaru specials (I think he now calls them the ultralight. They got delegated to kids sleepover bags after first trip. I bought two of the hunter dual bags also. Those have worked great for base camp use. If you're looking for a backpacking bag, don't waste your money on a Wiggy's. There is alot of good advice from previous posters. YMMV Tim.

our experience has been that while there may be better bags, the bags hold to their ratings very well, and we are not used to cold at all.... and they are big, bulky and heavy. Wouldn't use them on a backpacking jaunt again, but for base camp the bag system works extremely well for us. I think we have 5-6 systems rated to -20 with everything on them... IE thats outer and inner bag combination, I know this much, we've been almost sweating warm if using them combined and its above 20 in the tent....

That's because no synthetic breathes as well as down. No offense (PLEASE don't take any), but I've never found the idea "we were sweating" as a quality recommendation of a bag... I've sweat in a LOT of synthetic bags over the years in a variety of conditions and from a variety of makers...

The Taylor circus show, not impressed. Even tempted to duplicate the stunt in my ID down bag. Could be fatal.

well no offense taken, and the down bag we got from you allowed a LOT of moisture to vent out the top of the bag, in fact it took a long time to wipe off all the frost off the bag.... But thats life.

My meaning in sweating is that the bag was warm enough that we had to not zip up or take a liner bag off, so we didn't sweat. Meaning it held a true temp rating or sure seemed to. We've had the zero bag down to 5 so far and been just fine, close enough for me. I have had the 40 bag down to 25 and did grab a jacket in the early AM as it was getting a bit downright cool then, but 40 vs 25 is way apart IMHO.

And then again the wife and I sometimes get really hot in the wiggys bags, well other bags too.....

Our next backpack purchase will be Kifaru though....

What are you saying?

I"m saying we were pouring off moisture through the down bags too, IE very warm.

That was my main point, if you are warm in a bag, then its working right? And I didn't say sweating, I said we were to that point so we vented IE unzipped the bags. Which sure beats the heck out of being zipped up and shivering at temps ABOVE teh bags rating.

Wyo,
How do you like that ID bag?
I have heard good things.

Very nice bag, temp rating is good, light, compresses well. Everything a Wiggy's isnt. A little expensive though. Going to try a WM bag when this one wears out, could be a while.

I have a Big Agnes bag for walking hunting and a Wiggys overbag to use with it for winter tent/truck/horse packing type hunting. The combination has worked for me down to about -5 F in an unheated tent. The BA is light enough for my needs with a pack but I like roomy bags.

The Wiggatow invective is VERY wearing. He should have stayed in NY. Probably someone would have put him in the East River by now.

Thanks for the input.
As it happened, I purchased several WM bags, and I am very happy with them.
I do own some ID stuff, a Mega Sola shelter which I am very pleased with as well as a tarp and bivy sack.
Very good products.