Snugpak Tactical 3 Sleeping Bag

Short review: Great Bag so far (about 12 nights of winter use). Comfy interior fabric, decent weight and packsize, warm. Slightly annyoing zipper, and drawstring for collar and hood sometimes dangle in your face. Rambling review: I bought this to replace my aging Carinthia Defence 4. Despite the many rave reviews of that bag, I never fully warmed up to it, quite literally, in the few years I've used and abused it. My main complaints were: No shoulder baffle/collar. Because of this, I often felt like all the warm air was escaping through the "breathing hole" when moving. Way too roomy for 95% of people. I am 1,78m, 87kg and very broad around the shoulders. To me the bag felt like a cave, and like I had to warm up a lot of air that was just unnecessary. All in all it felt not much wamer than the much lighter and smaller Defence 1 (which is great). The Snugpak fixes both of the Defence 4s main issues. To me it actually felt warmer than the Defence 4, granted I only tested it down to around -5C so far (which is why I rate it only at 4.5, because I don't know if the temp ratings are fully accurate for me. But I feel like it is very warm.) It is cut much tighter than the Carinthia bag, thus reducing weight and packsize and making it easier to get and stay warm. At the same time the bag does not feel constricting to me, I can still move around and lay my arms next to my torso. If you want to lay in your bag with full plate carrier loadout and uniform, or if you are a truly mighty specimen, get the Carinthia. If you are somewhat normally sized, this is more efficient. The TS1 liner fabric just feels cozy as hell and is instantly warm. However, it picks up little leaves and needles when you are not careful, and they are sometimes harder to remove than from the slick nylon of the Carinthia. Also, while I understand the thought of reinforcing the footbox for sleeping in boots, it means that, when not wearing footwear, your feet are not surrounded by the soft TS1 liner, but by smooth nylon fabric, which feels colder to my feet. The Snugpaks main drawback is its zipper. It can be fiddly to close and catch on the outer fabric, which luckily seems to be pretty tough so far. Getting in and out of the Defence 4 was probably the best part about the whole bag. But a side zip is more thermally efficient, so it comes down to preference again. The compression bag from Carinthia is miles ahead. But that is not so much of an issue to me. In conclusion: this is a great bag at a great price, with some features that make it worth it to me over the benchmark.