Web Gear + Butt Pack + Smock vs Backpack as BOB or INCH

Certainly no harm in trying! I am always re-evaluating my kit, and trying to downsize. Personally I notice when I force myself to use a smaller / simpler carry system, everything else downsizes as well. Yes, I am guilty of the dreaded "if it fits, it ships" mentality. I'll keep adding junk to a BOB / GHB / whathaveyou until the zippers pop.

As for your personal choices of kit, they are just that - your personal choices. Go with what you are comfortable with. I know the smock system is great for distributing the weight evenly, there is some guy out west that has a prepper blog that uses a smock with an alice belt and suspenders for his 72 hour kit. So it is certainly a viable option.

As for gear, the first thing to do is identify the mission. I see about 5 days of boring rations (I use them too, but they are boring) but also hooks and traps. Are you moving fast from here to there, or getting to a lay-up point and hanging out? That would affect the utility / timeliness of hunter/gatherer setups. For my GHB I had a fishing set for the longest time, til I realized I am not going to have time for that. I am moving fast (as fast as I can move anyway) and trying to get from point A to point B. So my mission dictated that I toss the fish hooks.

(I'll probably wind up in the PAW, with a broken leg, right next to a fully stocked catfish pond. And no fish hooks.)

(interesting that this subject came up. I just ordered a new, muuuuuch smaller backpack for my GHB, for just this sort of revision)

ETA: ok, just read your post again. BOB/INCH.   Yes, traps and fishing kit is valid.  You'll want salt and pepper. 

As we hash things out in this thread I'll firm up the odds and ends, but you're quite right about the salt and pepper, particularly the salt.

Regarding the boring rations, I figure that if I'm bugging out I'll be too busy and too tired to care much about the taste....much like eating a ham & Chicken loaf MRE or deyhydrated beef/pork patty MRE when you've been up and running 48 hours on a FTE.   
Also I figure there's no way to pack more calories without having a mule train or it's equivalent to haul the weight, so I'll give myself that 5 day window to get far enough away from whatever mess I'm trying to get away from and then slow the pace enough to permit hunting/fishing/trapping/foraging.    Neither the wife nor I have any problem with eating bugs or other non-traditional <in Western eyes> foods sources, so we should be able to pick up a few locally sourced calories for free.

I can't recall if it was here or elsewhere, but someone mentioned that if you don't trap now you probably won't be able to successfully rely on  trapping for food in an emergency, and the writer pointed out that they've been running trap lines for many years and yet only have about a %20 success rate so carrying traps if you're not already experienced in trapping is a waste of pack weight.   My counter to this is that when I get far enough off the "x" that I can slow down or make a base camp I'll do a lot better as a novice trying to trap with a commercially made trap than I will with a half-assed deadfall or improvised snare.  Fish traps on the other hand are fairly easy to make from assorted branches. 


BTW, the reason I prefer an INCH to a BOB is simply that you never know for sure how long you'll have to wait to go back, or even if you'll ever be able to go back, and my position is that it's better to have and not need than to need and not have.    An INCH can serve as a BOB, but a BOB will fall short of filling the role of an INCH if things go that way.

Another thing to mention is that I don't view an INCH as a modern day set up to go play mountain man.  No way in hell will I be wandering through the forests day in and day out with an INCH on my back as a lifestyle.    I'll either get to a civilized place of safety or I'll find a spot and make a civilized place of <relative> safety.  An INCH should just give me enough tools so that in a worse case scenario I can establish a stand off distance from whatever calamity that has forced me to leave my home.   For example, if I were in the PNW and the Cascadia subduction zone let loose and the damage was at the high end of current projections I might hike far enough out from the wreckage to be clear of the physical threats of the quake as well as far enough off the beaten path to avoid the freelance socialists that come out of the woodwork during disasters and set up a base camp that would be viable for 3-6 months (assuming I didn't just keep hiking to where there was a Holiday Inn with the power still on).    
 

This picture* is fairly close to what I'm thinking about, just add a butt pack and keep or toss the small pack-like bag shown above the belt.








Funny how things come round again after time goes by, as this really seems to resemble a modernized version of the old WW2 British web gear I mentioned earlier in the thread.

Aside from trying to get the weight down, or at least more evenly distributed, I like the idea of modularizing my load in separate pouches. 
Especially food, as being able to detach that and string it up in a tree while keeping the rest of my gear strikes me as a good idea in bear country or even just to keep it out of the greedy hands of raccoons.



*Not me, and pictures from HPG's forum.

I'm going to post the contents of my bag, with pics, and THEN start going over some of the discussion points LowKey and others have started on...  It will help me organize my thoughts better, and hopefully allow for more input from you guys as far as my bag (or give you some ideas if you're looking for them).

First of all, this is a GHB.  The intent is to be able to sustain myself and my bride for approximately a 130 mile foot movement across flat or moderately hilly terrain consisting of woods, farmland, and small towns/cities.  The distance and terrain considerations are what would be involved in getting me from my most distant immediate relative's house to my house, or vice versa.  My assumption is that we will already be wearing weather appropriate clothing and good footwear (I'm kind of a Nazi about this any time we're going farther by car than our routine around town activities - - my wife is very used to me asking "did you put your zombie shoes in the car?" when we're leaving town).  It is intended to also serve as a credible 'get me started' bag if we were stranded out of town for any distance greater than the 130 miles.

Here's the bag, loaded.



It is a Tactical Tailor brand, bought used, and I'm not even sure what model it is (or if this model is still being made).  Pretty no frills.  Weight of the bag with everything loaded in it is 25 pounds, an amount I could pretty much carry indefinitely in almost any situation I can imagine.

Here's the contents spread out over my kitchen table:




Starting at the top and going clockwise:

2 Nalgene bottles + Dromedary bag + MSR Miniworks (bottle of water purification tablets included in the Miniworks bag)
Ziploc with food supplies
FAK, ziploc with purple medic gloves
Things that go bang
Extra poncho
Ziploc with extra socks and a pair of Dewalt work gloves
Blue stuff sack with headlamp, Grundig G8 multiband radio, extra batteries for both
Yellow stuff sack with official USMC issue woobie/poncho liner
Blue 10x10 tarp with 100' of paracord (red cord in the ziploc)
Ziploc with writing materials, compass, whistle, and AO road maps
Green bag in the center is a catchall bag, contents to follow

Here are the contents of my FAK:




The only thing which isn't probably immediately recognizable is the plastic lipstick looking thing underneath the roll gauze.  That's a tube of Dermabond (super glue for your skin).  Good for cuts that are deep enough to need sutures.  The green package is an Izzy bandage, and the band-aid products are XL versions.

Here is the contents of my food pouch:




This is wholly insufficient at this point, mostly because the Mayday bars are out of date and I've been eating them here and there as snacks.  I used to have 4 of them, as well as more Clif bars.  More on this later...

Here are the contents of my 'catchall' bag:




This includes an emergency bivvy bag and emergency blanket, wet wipes, glow sticks, a Gerber tool, another headlight, canteen cup, OFF wipes, a portable phone charger and spare charging cord.

I will be adding more info to this post, and would love input.  I don't know where the hell my firestarting supplies are at, I used to have a ziploc of matches, lighters, firestarters, etc.  No idea.  Suffice it to say I'm not unhappy with this kit and contents, but not particularly thrilled about it either.  Gotta go for now, more to follow.    

Hmm. On the longer term side of food procurement, what are your thoughts on the utility of a gill net?
Obviously not for sports fishing, and they may not be legal in all areas, but if you're having to use a BOB/INCH and forage for food I doubt TPTB are going to freak over a gill net.
Also they can apparently be used to catch birds and small game.