[HuntingNoob]

Hey Everyone,

Noob here trying to gear up for backcountry camping/hunting in the rockies and foothills after a lifetime of car camping and using dads old canadian tire equipment.

I am looking for a serious 3 season backpack sleeping bag that will be used occasionally during winter as well. I'm looking for something rugged and light that I can add a liner to during the winter to help push it safely into 4 season territory. A bag that can reliably put directly onto the ground in an emergency whether that ground is dry dirt, dew covered grass or snow. I've been looking at bags rated from -10c to -20c. I always wear clothes to sleep and in winter would be wearing my base layer and winter gear in addition to my merino liner. Tall order right?

I'm down to two options (or so I thought) and could really use some insight or education on whether I'm pointing in the right direction here. My main options are the

-Carinthia Defense 4 (mated with a Tropen 200)

-Halo Recon 5

Both bags come highly rated and have seen rugged use in military deployments around the world for many years. I cannot find info pitting these two bags head to head.

After further research, I'm still finding a lot of sites showing sleeping bags by Western Mountaineering, Big Agnus, and Marmot to be topping the lists of 'best bags'. Because of this I am feeling really stuck in what might be the best, lightest, most durable options.

Who here is familiar with these varieties of bags? What differences am I going to see between these heavy hitting military bags vs the civilian bags? All are widely regarded but all have wildly different prices ratings and reviews. I could use some wisdom here about what might be my best option.