# Prepping / Emergency Preparedness > Bags, Kits and Vehicles >  Sleeping Bag with tent

## hunter63

Not sure what you call it....but as a young man had a sleeping bag that came with it's own tent head cover or tent.
Anyone remember or use one?

I think is was a cover for a milsurp mummy bag...that how I used mine......actually worked pretty good.....but about the time you got all settled in....had to get up to pee.
Have not seen one for a while.

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## kyratshooter

That was a very common setup when we were kids, the seeping bag with its own lean-too, which also served as the cover for the bag when it was rolled up.

I was a poor kid, I only had old quilts and ragged blankets salvaged from Mom's throw away pile.  They always had a bare spot or a big hole in some vital area.

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## randyt

I bet Herters had one for sale.

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## hunter63

MF worked to the DNR....didn't call it that back when.
Anyway...but they got a lot of milsurp gear....all sorts of stuff.....in crates.

Seems that where I got a lot of my stuff......MF worked for the state ...a good job back when.

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## hunter63

> That was a very common setup when we were kids, the seeping bag with its own lean-too, which also served as the cover for the bag when it was rolled up.
> 
> I was a poor kid, I only had old quilts and ragged blankets salvaged from Mom's throw away pile.  They always had a bare spot or a big hole in some vital area.


Kyrat....This you?

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12 year old made it 8 days with a sack...
http://www.myrecordjournal.com/Archi...spx#gallery-18

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## kyratshooter

That looks like the sack my Mom gave the dog!

Mine was not nearly that nice.

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## madmax

I had a bag like that.

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## Rick

I cannot remember having a sleeping bag or a sack when we were in the woods. We just spent the night. We carted our stuff out in milsurp rucksacks but I don't remember anyone having a bag of any sort. We were kids. I guess we didn't care. I slept on the ground until I was in my forties. I got to where I used a drop cloth. My boys thought I was crazy. They had to have a tent and a bag and all the fancy stuff. After that ground pads became mandatory and I slowly moved into tents and all the rest. These days the bed looks really nice.

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## kyratshooter

Yep, I started with a $5 surplus pup-tent and now have a 6x10 foot trailer crammed with gear and the overflow filling most of the extra space in a 27' RV.

Went from ragged quilts on the bare ground to a 4 poster full sized bed with down filled mattress and comforter.

The wife did set her comfort level pretty high.

I retained part of those habits and when I have the vehicle access to camp I will have the big double sized inflatable bed, propane heater and sleeping gear I never dreamed I would have back when I was 10-12.

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## crashdive123

Heavy canvas Army pup tent with wooden poles and metal tips.  Didn't use a ground cloth or sleeping bag till the Boy Scouts.

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## hunter63

> Heavy canvas Army pup tent with wooden poles and metal tips.  Didn't use a ground cloth or sleeping bag till the Boy Scouts.


Actually picked up several shelter halves (real cheap) ...I use them for shade awnings on the tractor shed.......as well a couple complete with poles and ropes.
Not real sure what I gonnad do with them....but was too good of a deal....LOL

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## Rick

My friend (I should say friends. They were Catholic and there were a few of 'em in that family. Maybe 12.) had one of those big canvas military tents set up in their yard. Hottest blastest thing every made. If you opened the flap on that thing in July you would just wilt. I'm not so sure it wasn't puffed out from the heat. I don't remember spending too much time inside that thing but I sure do remember how blasted hot it was. I have no idea how those poor guys in Africa use those darn things without looking like a raisin.

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## Antonyraison

> My friend (I should say friends. They were Catholic and there were a few of 'em in that family. Maybe 12.) had one of those big canvas military tents set up in their yard. Hottest blastest thing every made. If you opened the flap on that thing in July you would just wilt. I'm not so sure it wasn't puffed out from the heat. I don't remember spending too much time inside that thing but I sure do remember how blasted hot it was. I have no idea how those poor guys in Africa use those darn things without looking like a raisin.


Those army Canvas Tents are damn hot in Summer.  In winter They well A lot nicer.
only our military would use things like that, normal camping people no ways too darn hot, most summers nights you don't need anything here, you can sleep right out side under the stars with nothing, not even a fire.

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## crashdive123

In the summer here (Florida) you better be sleeping under something because of the humidity - tarp, tent or some sort of covering.  If not, you will wake up soaking wet.

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## Antonyraison

> In the summer here (Florida) you better be sleeping under something because of the humidity - tarp, tent or some sort of covering.  If not, you will wake up soaking wet.


heheh that can happen here too.. Depends where in Southern Africa, but yeah I have spent a few nights out with pretty much no shelter.
If its inland in the highveld and a clear night, no wind no rain, you pretty much fine.
If its A high-veld thunder storm, you would think the world is about to end though.. hahaha

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## madmax

So nobody has mentioned those cheap tube tents.  First snow camp I did was with a buddy in a corn field in one.  We froze our feet and heads. My boot laces were frozen.  circa 70's sometime.

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## Alan R McDaniel Jr

> I bet Herters had one for sale.


If it could be imagined, Herter's had it.  If it hadn't been imagined yet, Herter's had it on sale.  

Alan

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## Alan R McDaniel Jr

I never got one but always wanted one (still do).  The pickup bed tent.  The last ones I saw were from J.C. Whitney.  There are some others that are more lightweight now.  The ones I liked were the old heavy green canvas.  

Alan

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## hunter63

> If it could be imagined, Herter's had it.  If it hadn't been imagined yet, Herter's had it on sale.  
> 
> Alan


We had a Herters Outlet Store in Beaver Dam, Wi.
Making a road trip with MF, FIL, BIL was a guys day out...like a religious experience or Christmas for guys.....something to be saved up for..throw in lunch and a few beers was a perfect bonding day.. 

Kind of a sale over stock, returns etc....again being one of the first in the outdoorsman business....
G.L Herter's ideas for outdoor store, started as mail order buiness...and made it the forerunner of most all outdoor catalog, store...and now internet sales.

The idea of contracting products but world wide contractors with Herters name on it was used extensively...with personal comments , reviews and anecdotes written  by George self.
"The best", "the favorite of presidents" ....being examples....and may had had some truth to the claims.

His catalogs cookbooks and life views on the world are classics......and still has a cult following....

Can't say if I recall that style of sleeping bag....but I'm sure they most like likely sold them.

The name is still used by Cabalas (I think)....and their  products are very good....
Clothing seems to have been designed but hunter, trappers, fisherman, and all out doors activities ....with all the little details one finds as answers to the " I wish someone would make a turkey vest with zippered reversed so they open back to front....on both sides.

I think that Gary Olsen of Sportsman Guild kind of come close to the product types and personnel review made supposedly by him...LOL

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## kyratshooter

The thing I remember about Herter's was that you could get good quality gear at very reasonable prices.  

They also covered the entire spectrum of price and gave good quality at every level.  If you wanted a rifle they had military surplus rifles, or surplus converted to sporters at only a few dollars more than the surplus rifle cost, or you could buy a nicely finished custom rifle on the next page.  Many of their production rifles were from FN and BSA.

Back in the 1960s I bought my first reloading press from Herter's.  It set me back $15 and 50 years latter it is still reloading cartridges for the guy I gave it too so he could start reloading.

I bought a set of .38spl dies and a set of 9mm dies.  Cost of a Herter's die set was $10.  I still have both sets and they still work fine except I wore out the resizing die of each set.  That was back before they made carbide resizing dies.  After a few thousand rounds the resizing die would be scared beyond use and you had to lube each and every case as you resized.  As they wore out I went to carbide resizers, but the seating and crimping dies were still good.

I have both sets set up in separate turrets for my Lee Turret press and still use the seating and crimping dies due to their better performance than the Lee products.  50 years good performance for $10 is a pretty good return on investment.  Lord only knows how many hundred thousand rounds those dies have cranked out!

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## edr730

Hunter, yes, Herters had the bags with the covers as you described. I bought one when I was 14 or 15 when I was old enough and strong enough earn enough. I had worked before that but it always was so little that I could not afford such things. Mine was a 12 pound bag for very cold weather. Like many here, us kids would camp in the woods back then. That bag solved the sleeping in the cold problem. The food would freeze but we wouldn't. I can't say I ever used that cover though. We always were looking up at the stars and watching the falling ones. That was about the time we discovered plastic sheeting. It also helped us alot and was much better that stripping off bark to make shingles for our make shift shelters.

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## hunter63

I guess I missed this back when....LOL

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