kato said:
I have one. It will hold a ranger blanket,fleece liner,poncho or a guchi sleeping bag like snugpac
It doesn't have a lot of room but it will do for a patrol or OP ,personally I wouldn't buy one I much prefer their valise.
I received my compression sack and I also bought the valice (against my better judgement, more on that later...)
Compression sack: So far I am liking it. Got my snugpak bag and the goretex biv bag in there. Compressed size is about 28 cm long and 28 cm diameter with room for a ranger blanket. You can compress the length down but not its diameter. The new issued small pack is about 30 cm wide, so the compressed sack will attach nicely to the bottom of it. The compression straps are sufficiently long to get a good grip when its open and the buckle are metal, so there should be no fear of them breaking less bending under extreme stress. I am planning to carry a Black hawk medic bag overseas, and the compression sack will attach securely to the bottom of that bag as well.
On the negative side, no glaring dislikes. But there is no storm flap on the opening. So either pack you gear inside the bivy bag, or put in a waterproof bag of some sort. Of course, this will reduce the amount of compression you have because eventually it will seal any opening for the air to escape.
Valice: right now, without taking it out to the field, my first opinion is don't waste your money on it. While it has some really good ideas like a separator in the middle of the bag, and snugging straps around the circumference, it does have some drawbacks.
1. the separator inside is not wide enough to be pushed to a side. While a really good idea, especially for light roles when you carry all pers gear in the valice, and mission gear in the ruck. If you choose to not use both sides, then you are losing space and the overall capacity of the valice is reduced. Add a little more fabric, and that will work fine.
2. The circumference straps need to be secured to the bag, right now they just slide around and are difficult to really tighten.
3. Both the securing straps for the main flap, and main flap itself on the top of the bag are too short, and don't allow you to compress down the length.
Going on the plane ride overseas, you need to maximize your cargo space for all your gear. Unfortunately I still can pack more in the issued valice then the CP one.