Usgi mss

Abducting? Bloody autocorrect. Was meant to say "and hunting" haha

I'm a big guy 6'2" 250lbs and I live in the pacific northwest which is the same weather I think. My army surplus bivvy is great but I always take a tarp with me.

>>1012799
Cool! Youre the same sort of size as me by the sounds of it. Is it a tight fit in the bivvy?

>>1012796
I'd be really interested to see how this goes for you, I'm from the lower North Island and a bivvy seems more practical

>>1012803
Yeah im interested inhow it goes im from the waikato region. Hunt up through the kaimais. I reckon a tarp wouldnt be too neccesary in the bush. Park that bivvy under a punga and youd be golden. Alot of people I know go for the hammock option but I cbf setting up so much stuff, thats also not useable on a south islamd trip where your up above the tree line looking for tahr

>>1012796
I have one of the outer bivy sacks. It was surplus and like new condition. It doesn't breath well but I just leave it unzipped unless it's raining. It is well made and rugged and keeps me dry.

I used this system for years in the army. I would swear by it! I used it in most weather conditions minus heavy snow with out cover most times. In heavy rain I supplemented it with my poncho. Use a good mat under it to keep bottom in good repair and it'll last a long time. Yes it will retain lots of heat...i stick to hold up the opening worked good for me, or a tarp clip and a piece if 550 cord tied to a low branch. It's a good by, and packs well. Especially if you only bring the bags ya need.

>>1012796
>>1012803
A couple things of note, coming from someone who used them when they were current issue.
>they are actually waterproof. They are not really breathable
Even factory-new they didn't really breathe. Better than a plastic bag, but still expect to end up with a damp bag from sweat. And if you're buying surplus, odds are some dumbshit private Nikwax'd or Sno-Seal'd it.
>there is no face covering of any form
Not sure what the bug/nuisance-animal scene is like there in kiwiland, if bitey crawly things are a concern figure a way to rig one. Also, yer gonna get rained on.
>it is incompatible with side sleepers or tossers/turners
The big fucking snaps that hold the sleep system together aren't baffled or otherwise padded. If you're using just the bivvy or bivvy and light bag, you're gonna have welts and bruises from the snaps unless you sleep flat on your back and never move.

>>1012796
Make sure you get the old black wool model instead of the current Multicam, UCP or MARPAT versions

The sleep system with a woobie and insulation pad is 10/10

>>1013923
> When they were current issue
Still are mate, just different pattern
And the cold weather bag has a different insulate

>>1013669
>It doesn't breath well
In the USA they had a TV show called Alone. The bivy system was one of the 10 things they could pick and the one contestant was having a mold problem.

>>1012801
Not same guy but also 6'2" and 230lbs. I have three other bivies and this is by far the largest of the three. Just a guess, but I think the Army wanted it big enough for a variety of body types as well as potentially needing to sleep with your boots and bdus on.

I fucking love this thing. I almost never use my other much more expensive bivies. I use my Outdoor Research Advanced bivy only when I'm expecting it to be really buggy (it has no-seeum mesh). I don't know how much more expensive it would be in Middle Earth land, but here in the states it's cheap enough to just buy one if you're 50% sure you want one. At worst, you have an emergency shelter you can toss in the back of the car.

Like all bivies, condensation is a bit of an issue. Pack a lighter sleeping bag than normal, and try to sleep a little colder than usual. Like another anon said, rigging the mouth so that it's open with either a clip and cord or a stick does a lot for condensation issues. At the end of the day, I'm convinced that the varying opinion on bivies comes from the fact that some people sweat a lot more in their sleep than others. Climates are also so dramatically different in humidity which has a huge importance. Coming from humid nasty east coast, I say it does alright all things considered.

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>>1012799
>>1014249
I picked one up and it's too small for me length-wise. I just drapped my rain jacket across my face to cover from rain though.

>>1014259
How tall are you? It was a little close for me, but damn anon.

>>1014306
6'8

feels bad crouching under branches constantly because the trail was cleared out by manlets...

>>1013923
This guys talking about fags getting welts from the snaps when sleeping on your side. This just shows me how much you have actually used a mss. I am out/ for the past two years, and have used the bivy sack almost everyone of those nights. If I feel a button I move the shit out the way. Word of advice, lose the sleeping bags in the mss and buy a good sleeping bag that can pack much smaller. In North Platte nebraska, I used this bivy sack in an open field during a tornado. Woke up with the only moisture I had to deal with being from my body not the rain. Also great for stealth camping, find a ditch or a clump of grass to throw your bag under and sleep the night away

>>1012796

Have used the MSS quite a bit. If you can get it for a good price, it's pretty good. Just keep in mind the winter bag is pretty big and doesn't compress very well. As for the Bivy, it works, but as mentioned it isn't very breathable and also does not have any poles to keep it off your face, so if it's raining you'll have to rig up a poncho or tarp over it.

Also, the bivy snaps into the sleeping bags, so make sure you do that before you pack it up if you're expecting rain.

You get condensation in bivys which is super fucking annoying. Also that set is pretty heavy and doesn't compact well.

>>1014871
Don't understand why snapping the bivy into the sleeping bags makes any sense for better rain protection.

Definitely want to echo the fact that the Cold Weather bag doesn't compress for shit. Went hiking this winter and it was 0 degrees F at nights. Waterbottles were freezing, we had to keep our lighters tucked into our underwear just to light cigarettes n shit.

It kept me warm enough though. I slept with every scrap of clothes I brought and wished I had more but the sleep system kept me warm enough to let me get some good hours of sleep in.

>>1014917
So you don't have your non-waterproof bag out of the bivvy when you stop for the day, and it gets rained on while setting up.

As long as it's inside the bivvy you're OK, it doesn't *have* to be snapped together, but makes life easier getting in and out of it cuz you're not having to line up 2-3 separate zippers.

>>1014933
OOOOOOH... this is what you're talking about. Yeah, I defnitely leave the shit packed together as one complete unit while hiking. Don't know or care if it's snapped ogether but the theme is the same. Love just rolling out the swag when it comes time to sleep.

>>1014463
what sleeping bags would you recommend to put inside the bivy?

heres a vid of a dude who added bug netting to his bivy. looks like a pretty good idea
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FFf0WHoFjw0

Id go Macpac Alpine cocoon with a big agnes system. (Im in NZ too).

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>>1012806
Maate I recommend bringing a hoochie pic related. You won't need to use it every night but it weighs fuck all and will save your butt when it rains. Ditch the poles you can just string it up on trees in the bush. Double up the cord and tie knots along it, so you can simply pull the cord around a branch and tuck one of the knots through a gap, or peg through any of the gaps takes like 2 minutes to put it up. If you have a sleep in just a bivvy in the rain your bag will get wet, your pack will get wet, your boots will get wet if you don't cuddle them. It's a shit time if it goes bad, but yeah you can get away with it on clear nights. You can collect rainwater off the hoochie which is handy, just tie a little bit of cord to it somewhere near a corner, tie a little stick on this then put it into your water bottle, get it to wedge up against the inside of the neck and your bottle will fill.

By the pic that set looks like the jungle bag and the regular one? The jungle bag is often not enough on a cold night, use the heavier bag. It's designed for the tropics where you end up stark naked sweating your ass off at midnight with no sleeping bag anyway. I've never had to double them up and I think my record was about -15c in tekapo. Goes without saying bring a mat? Or you'll be cold as shit. Don't zip your head up inside the thing they don't breathe that well, you might wake up in the middle of the night freaking out because you can't find the zipper to get some needed fresh air.

You don't want to be shoving it back in your pack covered in frost or moisture too, hoochie prevents this forming if you're expecting to move off early.

>>1015036
The sleeping bags that are part of the system? The light weight bag is really good for the weight, desu.

>whatever you do don't get down for a bivy

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>>1015038
I appreciate this but I need to politely say NO. I a long time ago kept trying to over come the downsides of bivies until I came to the point where it was more time consuming and difficult to set up a bivy over setting up a tent.

To me a bivy is ultimate simplicity. It's a bag that goes over your bag that ya sleep in. If you have trouble with that find a tent.

>>1015183
Yo I hear you about the tarp. You got a lot of sage n based advice in this rant. Yer doin' the lords werk my friend.