58 pattern sleeping bag.

[fluoxetine]

Bought a 58 sleeping bag off of Ebay for £15 (plus the £5 postage) and it arrived today. Good size, zip works well and just the right size for me. Thought I would buy one for nostalgia for when I was in the army.

Only 1 problem....

Not enough packing of feathers to make it a all year round sleeping bag as to what it was intended for. So with that, has anyone done any refills of a bag to bring it back up to standard? Not only the top where the zip needs doing, but also the back as that is nearly down to the floor with very minimal or non existent filling.

Any help would be welcome.

 

[MikeLA]

Wish I could advise, hope someone can just posting because I have good memories of using them in the 80's they weren't as bad as some say and I slept out in some cold places.

 

[mountainm]

Tumble dry it with 5 tennis balls. Brought mine back to life.

 

[fluoxetine]

It will need a refill of feather or stuffing it with hollow fibre. It is so thin on the back you literally can tap the floor with it.

I may get some feathers from ebay that is used for pillows and put them in. Hopefully after some sewing (may have to watch BBC2 to pick up how to sew on that TV show) will get some in.

 

[Old Bones]

Have you washed it? Nikwax/Grangers down wash, a bath, and then a big tumble dryer with dryer balls/tennis balls on a low setting for a long time, and it might really loft up. https://www.alpkit.com/support/stickies/cleaning-down-sleeping-bags

£15 is very good value (Endicotts starts at £22 for Grade 2's), but if the down reall has gone, restuffing looks to be a bit of a pain from the DIY point of view. LSR doesn't restuff, bit these guys do: https://www.scottishmountaingear.com/down-services_refilling.asp - no idea what they are like, but obviously you have to think how much money your throwing at an army surplus bag that cost you £15..

 

[Tonyuk]

The problem with these bags are that the internal liners are very thin and over time the feathers (a mix of down and standard feathers, 20% down roughly) poke through and fall out, its not uncommon to be covered in a few feathers every morning you wake up. You would be better spending a bit of money on the newer 95 pattern bags since these don't suffer from that and are rated higher than the old 58 bags. About £25.00 should get you a very good grade 1 bag for a surplus shop, or cheaper on ebay.