Duck Down vs Goose Down

[Wandering Daisy]

I am considering buying a lighter summer bag. I currently have a perfectly good 5-degree goose down bag. Hard to justify the $$ to save one pound. But there are some less expensive duck down bags. Are these just as good? Do they maintain loft as long? What about the new "dry down" which is duck down? Do they have the same loft ratio to weight?

[markskor]

You want high grade goose down! Duck has less percentage of the light-weight quills and feathers...(less of the 850/ more of the 600)...not as warm for the weight.
Plus, when duck gets even a little wet, (just my personal observation now, garnered from my limited backpacking experience), it emits a distinctive aroma...a gamy fowl/foul smell. You might not be happy...I wasn't.
New "dry down"? Not convinced that adding a coating to wispy down makes any difference.

[AlmostThere]

I have a quilt with the Dri Down -- it washes and dries about the same as any down item.

I'd go with goose down as well. There seems to be a lot more pinfeathers poking through on the duck down quilt we have on the bed than we ever get with the backpacking gear we have, which is all goose 850-900 fp down.

[Wandering Daisy]

Thanks. That is sort of what I thought. I wonder how many people buy the duck down without really knowing that it is different from goose down? You usually have to look way down the label or specifications to see that it is duck, not goose.

[Tom_H]

I remember you saying elsewhere the make and model of your SB and think I have the same one that you do except one length up. It is in a storage pod until we get our new house built in WA. It is not much used and I would be very happy to sell it at a good discount.

If interested, send me a PM or an email if you still have my address.

[Wandering Daisy]

Thanks Tom, but a regular length sleeping bag just does not fit me. I really need a short. Better yet, I would like to get a women's-specific bag. My current bag, WM Super Antelope is a mens short; they did not make women's specific bags when I bought it. My current bag is way too big in the shoulders and I think that is part of the reason I get cold- I have to stuff my down sweater around my shoulders and neck to stay warm.

I have been cleaning out our "outdoor" closet. We had ten tents, only three which are even usable for backpacking, nine sleeping pads, only which three are usable for backpacking, twelve backpacks, half of those are going to Goodwill, more day-packs than you can believe, most broken and worthless. So many "backpack gagets" given to us as gifts, that are basically worthless (how about a pump "mister" to cool yourself along the trail Not sure what to do with three boxes of climbing gear. I donated all but one pair of technical rock climbing shoes to the local climbing gym for their youth climbing team.

Yeh, it is hard to part with this stuff. I is an admission that I will not be technical climbing in the future, and a historical perspective on how the "Best" item in any one year quickly gets replaced by something better. One item that is classic and I still use is my old 1969 Kelty frame. It is still my load hauler when I have to be the sherpa.

[paul]

Differences between duck down and goose down are moot, as long you have fill power numbers. 800 fill power down is 800 fill power down, regardless of which kind of bird it came from. It's perfectly possible to get crappy goose down and great duck down. In fact, the best down in the world is from a duck, the Eider Duck, but that stuff is effectively not available in commercial quantities. I would ignore any references to duck or goose, and look at fill power numbers. Any down article, whether clothing or sleeping gear, which you find advertised without fill power numbers, should be assumed to be low quality down which will have a low fill power and thus be significantly heavier for the same insulating capacity.

[rlown]

Gertrude would be very unhappy if she read your reply. Yeah, the duck in "Journey to the Center of the Earth."

[Wandering Daisy]

I do not pay as much attention to fill power as to the official temperature ratings relative to the weight of the bag. (Sorry I cannot remember the acroynm used for the offical rating.) If a duck down bag had an equally good temperature rating, I may consider it. The "smell" factor is concerning to me, as I am very sensitive to smells. Bottom line is that the bag would have to weigh 2 pounds or less, otherwise the weight savings is not worth the extra money spent and it would have to be about a 35-degree rating. I need to do some more reading on duck vs goose. I have a synthetic 45-degree bag that weighs 2 pounds- not a bad bag but I get too cold in it. It is my "warm-wet condtion" coastal hiking bag.

[AlmostThere]

Since the convention is that higher fill power means it takes less down to keep you warm, paying more attention to the weight means you'll end up with high fill power bags anyway.