The German army version of the Carinthia Defence 4 sleeping bag. In short, a modern three season general purpose bag. This here is a reliable choice, designed for very demanding use!

Comes with a compression bag, which is compressionable both height and lengthwise.

Bag model

• The mummy shape: Here the criteria of stuff size, weight and warmth are most important. The tapered foot section reduces weight and stuff size. The main advantage is, however, that from the knee downwards there is increasingly less internal volume to keep warm. The foot section should not be so small that the feet cause the layers of insulation to poke out. A trapezoidal foot section has proven to be ideal. A wedge shape, declining evenly in width from top to bottom, does not fit the true proportions of the body.
• Two-way zipper: All Carinthia military sleeping bags are equipped with a two way zipper. The glider on the top does not snag, allowing a quick step out if necessary (in case of alert for example). The glider on the down side does stick and can be opened for ventilation.
• Trapezoidal foot section: Experience has shown that the trapezoidal cut provides the ultimate foot space. In a normal sleeping position, the feet do not poke the insulation outward, avoiding cold spots. There is also enough room to store a shoe bag or extra clothing.
• The outer shell fits loosely over the bag innards, providing an extra insulating layer of air. This also eliminates heat loss due to seams combining the shell with the fillings. Overall this feature enhances the bags performance considerably!

Materials

Whereas the standard Carinthia bags have a bit more water repellent outer fabric, these have a lighter "normal" one that's not water resistant at all. It's not necessarily a bad thing, this breathes better and if the bag gets wet from the inside, it dries faster too. Need water repellency? Get a separate cover or rig a tarp over your head.

The rest of the materials are pretty likely standard Carinthia stuff:

• Shelltrans lining - a soft to the skin ripstop reinfoced polyamide with excellent moisture wicking capabilities keeps you comfortable through the night.
• Thermoflect, a very thin, very lightweight aluminium material which reflects body heat. Thermoflect raises the sleeping bags heat retaining capacity by about 11 %.
• G-Loft filling - Carinthias own, in-house "hollowfiber", made in Austria. Highly compressible, excellent weight-insulation ratio and also moisture resistant, meaning that it will work even under long term use in damp conditions.
• Defence 4 uses double layered G-Loft filling. Two G-LOFT Plus insulation layers are arranged in such a way that the quilting is offset. The shell is attached afterwards, creating a further layer of air between the quilted insulation and the shell. With no stitch perforations in the shell, it is relatively water and airtight.

Temperature recommendations and size

Comfort -8.8 °C, Lower Limit -15° C, Extreme -35° C, good enough for pretty much around the year use; when it gets really cold, just add a liner or shell bag (we recommend the Defence 1). Please note that being used, these values might not be exactly as high anymore, but in any case not far behind. Moreover, it all depends on a number of other factors but you get the idea of what this thing is designed for.

Available in two sizes: for people up to 185 cm (weight about 1650 g, full length 200 cm) and up to 210 cm (weight about 1800 g, full length 215 cm).

The size question isn't THAT critical - the most important aspect is of course whether user will fit in or not. If there's a lot of extra room, it will take up more time to warm the bag up. With 15 cm difference in sizes this is pretty marginal.

On washing

Washing sleeping bags should generally be done as little as possible. If the need arises, do it at 40 degrees Celsius. However, we suggest using a separate inner cloth liner bag to essentially remove the need to wash the main sleeping bag. If the bag gets wet or is washed, open the zipper and hang dry.

Genuine Bundeswehr surplus

Although used, these seemed to be in very nice shape overall and good to go - the zippers work and apparently they have been washed before selling the lot off.