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Sleeping bags and zip position

It will Dodat

Very Talkative
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Morning all....

So before I get into the post, there is a big strike planned for the day.... Strikes in SA tend to be a bit like soccer hooliganism in the UK with rocks / bricks being thrown at vehicles, truckes being set alight and looted, and the all time favorite dozens of burning tyres as means of blockading the roads....

In order to garnish support, they have the happy habit of going into the informal settlements (where the unemployment is almost 100 %) and by threatening the dwellers with torching their shacks, or even worse necklessing... (put a tyre round your neck, pour petrol inside then set it alight) coerce people to join....

But lets wait & see................ Did keep the rugrats (7 & 8) out of school because their "shuttle bus" does the school rounds, and you never know....

Anyhow, my post....
I was considering my SA army issue sleeping bag, and it dawned on me that the zip is in the middle of the bag. I also have another military issue sleeping bag (from Europe somewhere) and it's zip is also in the middle top-side.

My SA Army issue bag is parrallel from top to bottom but the other one is "mummy" shaped, IE tapers to the bottom.

Then it came to mind that, as far as I can recall, all of the civilian bags I've looked at, whether mummy or not, all have zips that go down the side of the bag. Very high quality ones have short zips with weather flaps on the inside, but all on the side.

Perhaps with you guy's exposure to a greater selection of both military & civilian bags my assumption / observation is not accurate.........Or is it? & if so, why?

Rugrat Pics: -
1 Aiden first time by the sea
2 Caylin first time by the sea
3 Aiden 6 Caylin 5 Bithday at a Spur resturaunt
4 Aiden stealing garlic snail sauce from his dad Chris. As a single parent, I fostered Chris about 25 years ago, A first for any single man in SA at the time
5 Grandad's birthday prezzie.....
6 Aiden "building a house for mommy" on grandad's Landrover bonnet.... Gotta love em....
 

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Interesting point, It Will Dodat, absolutely no idea why this is...somewhere in my collection of crap I have an officers camel hair sleeping bag manufactured by Jaeger (early 20th C)...no zipper at all. It just overlaps and buttons...no idea why I felt the need to add that random bit of information but I just couldn't stop myself
 
I could be wrong but aren't the military bags made with centre zips for a quick exit in times of need ? As for the 'strikes' @It will Dodat , yeah, was there for a couple, one was on a coal mine at Ogies and the BIG one was the student strike / uprising in Mmabatho in '94 iirc, that was a bad week :(
 
Hi Bop.... We have just "observed" a dude in a red cap come down the road & make a telephone call outside every factory in the street, So yes, we'll just have to wait & see.



SLEEPING BAGS & ZIPS... One of the security measures I apply is not to sleep in a sleeping bag, rather under it... (open it up and use it like a blanket)

With the mill issue ones, I zip open, turn it upside down, and shove my feet into "bag"at the bottom.

I do this so that I can exit the bag real quickly. During the border wars up in South West / Caprivi that's how we used the bag.

With the zip down the side.......... Don't see how that would delay exit speed, unless the zip fouled... But shurly that's a design of the zip factor?........... Zip jammng

Hi Ystranc... That buttons with the flap..... Down the middle or side?
 
It consists of three layers of camel wool blanket that allow you to sleep above or below the inner layer. It has an opening one third of it's length down the left hand side, closed by three vegetable Ivory/celluloid buttons. The label shows it to be an early one
 

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Nofair....

now I'm green and salivating with envy..... :thumbsup::rofl:

If that's your crap, then fella, you are one very lucky chap.... That's amazing:bow::bow::tri-cool:

What year do you recon?
 
Well............

All I can say is, you 'ang onto that for dear life.....

It would be a show stopper, where you to do a how it was done way back then "theme" pitch....

Mumble mumble "some fellas have all the luck" mumble mumble grumble...
 
Not sure what the real reason is for central zip but it is easier to use in a hammock than a side zip. I have an army Arctic bag with central zip and find it much better than the side zip.
 
I have what divebuddy has; my version has the shorter ventral zip: I took that for reasons of robustness (shorter zip) and warmth (shorter zip!). I always assumed also, it was easier access for tree sleepers?

I certainly don't think its quicker or easier to get in or out, compared to a longer side or ventral zip!! (But it is wonderfully warm!!)
 
In the bivvy bag a centre zip is far better.

If it rains, you roll on the side, so it doesn't rain in. With this the center zip fits very well.

And that's why the centre zip is simply the best: Perfect in a bivvy bag, perfect in a tent.
 
Thanks folks...
Come to think od it, my Mil issue senior officer's bivy also has a centre zip...

Seems that centre zip
Shelter bed roll bivy bag.jpg
 
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I mentioned doing service during the South African bush war, and that I very quickly learnt that it was prudent to not sleep in a bag but under the bag.

Fact is depending on the situation we even used to go so far as to put our skeleton webbing in the bag under the personal shelter made to look like someone asleep in the bag and sleep in our clothing elswhere..

Attached are photos of typicical personal shelters that I lifetd off the web, just to give you fellas an idea of how rough we lived.... Had 7 or 14 day's out then either chopper & back or walk patrol back....

The most common was the tarp with 360 deg vision under the edges. Mostly <except in the rainy seasons> the shelter was a shade thing.... Funny thing that, the rainy season.... The Kavango river is the only river in the world that, for 4 months flows east, lies stagnant for about 2 months then flows West for 4 months.... When it rains, the Okovongo delta fills up and the river flows West.... Best you watch out, it brings crockodiles and a whol bunch of stuff with....Then as water evaporates out of the delta, the river flows East, back into the delta..... That's how flat it is there...

Anyhow.....

In thich bush we usually secured the perimeter with trip wires connectet to claymore mines.... Come just before sunset / and sunrise, you prepare and lie i wait for a possible attack... we called it Klaarstaan.... Don't know what the english word is>.....

Attack's where usually planned for those times because of the shifting light intensity, your distance perception changes..... You won't believe me if I tell you that if you stare at a bush or a tree that's in your arc of fire for a short while it changes into an enemy soldier crawling / walking towards you....

Your nerves are wound up to intensities you have no idea.... Close eyes...... Breath slowly...... Control the adrenilin...... Open eyes......

I was a mere stripling of 7 - 18 at the time...... Interesting times they where..... Interesting times
Sorry to go off topic & thread focus.... All this talk of army stuff.....................Just needed to re-visit those days
Idea Shelter 05.jpg
 

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Hi all,
Back from a sort of a long weekend.
I took some photo's of my army sleeping bag / sleep-system. Consisting of an inner bag (with a side zip) and the outer bag, it works quite well in temperate climates, working on the principal of trapping air between the inner & outer bags when they are used in conjunction.

Mostly, we only used the outer bag, especially when doing patrols.

Now, iterestingly enough, I chanced on a whole bunch of magazines of the ganre' Soldier of fortune / Americal Survivalist / knives / guns ETC... Makes for interesting reading, and as I got them for nothing at the dump-site... At a jolly good price I'd say!

All of them are from the mid 70's.....

None the less, there was one advert for a special sub-zero sleep-system, consisting of a mummy bag (they did give the construction), special bootes & a hood like item that's much like a balaclava.

Never thought to think of a sleep system that includes items of clothing as part of a sleep-system.
 
Oh EEK! Photo's did not come through....
Silly me...... Must be the holy-day's
 

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