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You'll get wet, maybe consider:

a. Sleeping in thin long underwear (wool or synthetic) with a pair of liner socks & a cap, or commando if it's really warm.

b. above, with a non-breathable sleeping bag liner inside your bag, inside the bivy. - vapor barrier sleep system. Increases warmth & mininimally helps regulate water loss thru perspiration. You'll feel like your in a sauna due to your own sweat, but will reach an "equilibrium" which will reduce perspiration.

c. Clothes your not wearing can be put in a bag, used for cushioning/pillow, or used to up the insulation by stuffing them on the outside of the bag liner, but inside the bivy.

d. Baseball cap is handy if the bivy has bug netting, but no hoop & its skeeter or midge season.

For warmer weather you may not even need a sleeping bag, or to be inside it. Can use your bag over you instead of around you to regulate heat a bit better.
 
Campmor has an inexpensive vapor barrier liner, regular & long:

Vapor Barrier Liner Regular | | Campmor

It's pretty decent. One had lasted me several hundred bag nights before the foot area stitching gave out. Could have repaired it, but it was beginning to delaminate.

I prefer silnylon vapor barrier liners, due to both weight and how they feel while sleeping. But they're pricey and not as rugged/thick as the campmor one above. I had an Integral Designs brand one that I took care of and had well over a full year of bag nights in it. Took that on a 1 year self supported cycle tour. Compresses down to about the size of a tennis ball.
 
Had to pull my silnylon vapor barrier liner out to check the tag. Integral Designs was bought out by some company called Rab. So my current one is labeled Integral Designs, Rab.

Looks like:

Integral Designs Hooded Vapor Barrier Liner :: Sleeping bag liners :: Sleeping bags, liners, blankets and pillows :: Sleeping :: Moontrail

Note: I have no idea if moontrail (linked to above) is still in e-comerce or not, just a quick Google to show you one.

The last one I bought had to be shipped from an etailer out of Canada, MEC I "think" it was.

Years ago there were a few niche ultralight gear makers who also made silnylon Vapor Barrier liners by request. They were about half the price, but had long wait times (back then). If you find one who's still at it, post it up, please.
 
The one I linked has the highest reviews and moisture didn't seem to be an issue. It's the outer shell to our militaries sleep system. Gortex material breaths. Maybe I'm missing something. I'm not looking for a liner, I'm needing something to protect me from the weather.
 
Having spent a night or two in the backcountry, bivy sacks are not what many think. How do eat inside your sack during a raging storm that could be snow, rain or mix and stay dry and comfortable ? How do you pass time in a blow, just going to lay in your sack and do what for hours? So you bring along a tarp now toting 2 pieces of kit that diminished why you wanted a single piece bivy sack. A lightweight bivy tent like Black Diamond Firstlight is a better option. An Integral Design SilShelter if you can find one in the single best light is right shelter every made in my opinion. This is the new version Element 2 | Rab® Take a carabiner and clip the apex to a tree limb, use a tree limb for a pole, multiple options to erect this in the backcountry. It is small and light, a large area so you can cook and eat in a blow, move around, read play cards to pass the time, change clothes, pee and the other all while being inside a shelter. I have set mine up over a small rock for a table, many options.

If you still want to go with a bivy sack, a few things to know. Zipper entry must be across your chest area, start around the shoulder area go down horizontal across the chest and end at your waist or lower. This will allow you to sit upright in a blow, wearing a cap with a bill will keep the fabric from your face, keep the zip open a little for fresh air, maybe a headtourch on to read and stay relativity dry with the easiest entry and exit. Never ever zip a sack up completely, for safety reasons keep the zipper open or you will breath in co2 that is deadly. Zips that go around the end of the bag are a very poor design, the opening is not where you need it for safety (air) and comfort.

A bivy sack with a single pole is another good option until the claustrophobia sets in, still can not do much but lay there all the time Vs a bivy tarp.

Always use your sleeping pad inside the sack.

If your zipper comes down to around your waist, use a short piece of garden hose to pee from your sack to remain in your sack.

You want your shelter to breath or pass vapor through the fabric out into the open air to dry any damp clothes you may have. Goretex is very poor at this. Microfiber is much better. Open bivy tarp is best.

Duct taped to the bottom of my pack is a foil emergency blanket. My preferred pack in a WT Andinista with a bivy sleeve long enough for me to get inside my pack up to my neck wrapped up in the foil blanket for emergencies, used it a time or three. All my kit had to lay in the snow or rain and get wet but better than me being wet and cold.

A contractors trash bag is another good option for an emergency sack. I have this t-shirt and slept in it all night during a snow storm. Comfy nope but I survived. Duct tape it to the bottom of your pack, cut a hole in the sealed end for your head, knees to chest, sit on your pack against the cold ground and you can trickle charge quite well. Use the duct tape to repair any holes.

This is worth exactly what you are paying for it, good luck!
 
Yup, I do tend to prattle on sometimes. Apologies.

Seems like a very decent one. Pretty much doesn't matter though, as much as how much it weighs & how much room it has. That one seems roomy (great if you roll around, or side sleep), didn't note specified weight though.

...anyways, most bivies are made of some brand/type of breathable...

You will still get wet, or moreso your bag will (that's the thing to avoid). How wet depends on a bunch of factors. I was trying to give you a tip on how to not have that happen is all.

Best case you just haul around the extra weight from the moisture in your bag, worst case your bag loses loft (that can be dangerously bad).

I'll prattle on for another bit on the non-breathable liner, should you decide to consider it. You can make a lightweight, reasonably durable one out of 2 contractor weight trash bags. The extra contractor bags in the box (if you bought a box), will have any number of uses at home especially if SHTF. Also makes a decent mat underneath to help protect your bivy fabric from the odd sharps and pokie things.

-out-
 
I have the Goretex Bivy sack, and a Rothco Bivy tent, and a Catoma Improved Bed Net System bug-bivy.. of these three, the Rothco did not come with a rainfly, or poles (replaced poles myself).... and of these three, I have to say the combination of the Catoma IBNS instant bug shelter and a 10x10 tarp works GREAT for me. SUre the combo is a little heavy due to heavy duty fabric and the fiberglass pop-up structure on the IBNS, but they're durable.
The goretex bivy sack is also decent, but it IS claustrophobic, and is best served if you also have a tarp overhead, or a poncho overhead. In fact, all 3 are best used with tarps overhead. The Goretex is the warmest of the group, but the Catoma is the roomiest and airiest, best for warm-hot weather IMO. The IBNS is designed to be lashed to a cot, but can be used on its own.

With the USGI Goretex bivy sack, you can either put pad inside, or outside, though I seem to recall the recommendation being to put the pad on the outside, and use the rest of the MSS mummy bags inside the bivy sack; Although the 80s Intermediate Cold Weather bag and a poncho liner will get you warm enough past freezing inside the bivy sack and on top of the sleep pad....

I have yet to use the Catoma or the Rothco on an overnight, but the MSS Bivy Sack has been used a few times, and it's pretty good at keeping the bags dry and acts as a wind break under an open tarp... my fiancee has used the sack alone with her red down bag out in Sisters in great weather, she said it was warm enough, but just a little odd for her to wake up inside the bag and not see anything out
 
A poncho over the MSS Bivy Sack will do a lot of good in providing a place to get your dirty wet shoes/boots off, and also a place to cook/eat/look outside for a while.... with poncho set up in a lean-to configuration on the windward side, you would be able to block most of the wind and rain, and the bivy sack will protect your bags, and be OK. Poncho set up in a sort of tunnel A-Frame, you'd be protected from 90% of the weather, but you may not have as much space to sit up. A larger silnylon tarp would benefit here, as there are many ways to configure the tarp into a well protected shelter, and the bivy sack can act as a simple sleeping bag cover to protect the sleeping bag and pad from the ground.
 
I'm looking for a bivy for my EDC/Bugout bag. I've never owned one although I camp a fair amount. This would be for emergencies where I would crawl in with my cloths on. In an ideal situation I might have a tarp for a makeshift tent. I've been looking at the SOL and the military issued one. Is their a better choice out there? This is the one I'm eye balling: Amazon.com : Woodland Camouflage Waterproof Bivy Cover : Bivy Sacks : Sports & Outdoors

for a pound and a half more you could have a lightweight 2 person tent (like a Sierra Flashlight) that hardly takes up any more room. I have a gore-tex bivvy as well as the Flashlight and only used the bivvy bag when mountaineering since you can't always find a place even for a small tent. The Flashlight or similar tent takes only about 2 minutes longer than a bivvy bag to set up. Too bad they don't come in camo or at least a muted color.

A good thing about a tent from a bugout perspective is that an outsider can't see what you are doing inside it or even if you are inside, and you have room to store some of your gear including weapons.
 
There is that.
A good thing about a tent from a bugout perspective is that an outsider can't see what you are doing inside it or even if you are inside, and you have room to store some of your gear including weapons.

I've also used just the rainfly of a commercial dome tent, with a small tarp on the floor..... the dome tent brand I think was the Orion II with a full coverage rainfly.... the poles and the rainfly alone, made it much lighter, much easier to setup, than the whole tent.
Advantages of that setup is that it looks like an ordinary tent, and no one would be the wiser as to whats inside it....also easy to move around if needed after setting it up.
 
I have slept in this and carry it in my get home bag. I highly recommend if you plan on carrying this type of thing to pick a day much like today to practice in it. You'll get a good idea of how warm and comfortable you will not be. However, compared to nothing, it is way better.

U.S. Military Surplus GORE-TEX Bivy Cover, Like New - 96457, Sleeping Bags at Sportsman's Guide

96457m2_ts.jpg

It will keep you dry, so long as your inside it and not sitting in an exposed area. In other words yes if your sitting in the middle of a clearing and it is dumping you may get wet. If your tucked in under an under pass or under a tree our some shrubs, you should be alright. I carry this with a 4x6 camo tarp and the tarp helps create a better outside area around the bivy. I wrap the tarp around the bivy as it should be set up first. Both together are roughly 6" in diameter and 16" in length. Fits nice in my duffle I carry in my truck for work. I have thought about a tent, but I have broken a pole before hiking from taking a spill, so I wanted a pole free set up.

I figure I'm at most two to three days away from home in my furthest delivery stop so I likely will not be taking my clothing off to sleep in this. I'm likely not going to be getting much sleep anyways as depending on the reason I'm walking back home, I'll likely be resting during the day and walking at night. Another reason for the camo. I don't really wish to be seen or bothered, again more tin foil hat stuff.

I also carry a good set of wool socks and good warm when wet thermals. They will likely be put on immediately when something stupid happens. Sleeping in them with my jacket and pants ain't so bad. If your boots aren't top dirty, they make a makeshift head rest slash pillow. As does your bag. I usually put my bag in a trash bag and set it away from my camp for practice. Out of sight. If you get spotted, best to have little to nothing to have to risk giving up for your life. Hopefully that doesn't happen though.
 
If your boots aren't top dirty, they make a makeshift head rest slash pillow

I turn a stuff sack inside out and put my boots in them, then put them at the bottom of my sleeping bag (I get tall sleeping bags just for this reason). Boots are nice and warm in the morning and don't have to check for snakes or other critters. I use the stuff sack that has extra clothes for a pillow.
 
Is their a better choice out there? This is the one I'm eye balling: Amazon.com : Woodland Camouflage Waterproof Bivy Cover : Bivy Sacks : Sports & Outdoors

Gatewood Cape is a tarp tent that doubles as a rain poncho. Weighs less than a pound and takes up less space in your pack. Crawl inside and wrap up like a burrito in an emergency blanket and you will stay warmer and dryer inside with the room to move around/change clothes whatever... you will be out of the wind.
Gatewood Cape

made in Oregon if that matters.
 
Poncho tarp setup over USGI Goretex bivy; "tunnel" shape for the green poncho tarp.

7x9 tarp I think, folded in half, and with USGI bivy as bag cover.

same 7x9 tarp but setup half pyramid over a blue 5x7 tarp, tied to branch of douglas fir tree in yard ; this would be ideal for bivy shelter, as it provides a LOT of room for cooking, changing clothes, et cetera.

DSCF0850.JPG DSCF0849.JPG DSCF0852.JPG DSCN2287.JPG DSCN2289.JPG DSCN2285.JPG DSCN2217.JPG DSCN2215.JPG
 
Poncho tarp setup over USGI Goretex bivy; "tunnel" shape for the green poncho tarp.

7x9 tarp I think, folded in half, and with USGI bivy as bag cover.

same 7x9 tarp but setup half pyramid over a blue 5x7 tarp, tied to branch of douglas fir tree in yard ; this would be ideal for bivy shelter, as it provides a LOT of room for cooking, changing clothes, et cetera.

View attachment 348923 View attachment 348924 View attachment 348925 View attachment 348926 View attachment 348927 View attachment 348929 View attachment 348930 View attachment 348931
thats they way to do it, Id rather have a tarp shelter than a bivy sac anyday...
 
Bivy sack can be good if you aren't carrying a ground cloth and need to protect your sleep system from dirt and stuff; but yes a tarp overhead is always optimal. I need to setup a good tarp shelter over my recently bought Catoma IBNS bug bivy.

c739a28f27c66944559a1a5bac740a67.jpg

It's a pop up bug-bivy, great for the mosquito seasons... made to go on a cot or similar, but works good as a stand-alone shelter underneath a tarp.

EDIT: I usually use a hammock for the most part. I might need to see how this thing works inside a hammock..... two hammocks under a 10x10 tarp in Sisters area; and one hammock underneath a mixed color (gray woodland and olive) self-made tarp; the tarp in the picture packs down into an ALICE M16 triple pouch; for the amount of space it gives, it is really compact. Silnylon ripstop fabric from ripstopbytheroll. 20160724_074353.jpg Short Mega Ogee 4.jpg
 

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