Ok, now we are getting somewhere. Here's some questions and comments that may help further the discussion.

First a little clarification. No military/combat situations, I'm just an average joe with a son in cub scouts trying to make sure we are ready for the first round of spring campouts that are just around the corner. With these campouts there are usually hiking opportunities as well. DS and I both have our own "bugout gear" if you will. If DS gets lost or separated from the rest of the boys and/or myself I want him to be able to signal for help, make a fire and shelter for the night, and otherwise be safe and comfortable until help arrives. Of course there are practical applications to other aspects of our lives. My hope is that the same gear can be tossed in our car in case it breaks down (the trip to Grandma's takes us through several stretches of road where there may be up to 30 miles between exits) or we crash in a ditch, etc. DS is also old enough and enthusiastic enough that we are planning several weekend camping/hiking/fishing/any other outdoor activities we can squeeze in trips this spring and summer to complement/supplement the scouting trips. It would be a lot more convenient IMO to have one set of gear to serve these purposes, rather than build separate kits for car, scouting, home, etc. Is this naive on my part? I am envisioning a rather portable pack or some kind of modular system that can be added to or stripped down as the situation dictates. My thinking is a mini-PSK on our person when additional pack items are not neccessary (say for a short hike close to home or for EDC); add a daypack with additional items for something like a longer day-hike at one of the local state parks or with the scouts; transfer to a full pack for overnighters. But again in all three circumstances, be it EDC, day-hikes, or overnighters, I still question how much redundancy is neccessary and how much is too much?

It also seems I have been misinterpreting redundancy. If I understand unimogbert and nighthiker, if I am carrying a signal mirror, whistle, big orange poncho, and firemaking items, then I am carrying 4 layers of signaling items, right? Redundancy doesn't neccessarily mean carrying one whistle around your neck, one in your pack, still another on your keyring and a final one in your pocket. So if I am carrying a heatsheet blanket or bivvy AND a poncho I am 2 layers deep for shelter. And so on. But it also seems I should still have some redundancy in the critical specific items like firemaking. The reason I say this is I am not confident in my ability to make fire with a bow drill or magnifying lens. Don't get me wrong I understand the basic concepts. Just no practical application to back it up. One of my biggest weaknesses I am afraid. A lot of theory with little practical hands on experience. I hope to correct this shortfall over the next several years but for now I have a long way to go.

I am starting to see some patterns. The amount of redundancy everyone carries seems to be relative to:

- environment
- skill set
- mission

Also the items most people are redundant in are relative mainly to environment. Those in cold environments carry more fire and shelter items; those in the desert are redundant in water and shelter items; and so on. I suspected from the get-go this would be true. At least I was right about something. Personal experience also seems to play a part but this can become dangerous. A person could go years without needing a particular item, thus they leave it out of their kit. Or worse they come to the conclusion they don't need their kit at all. Then one day they need it and they don't have it. But I digress.

Buckeye your gear choices seem to mirror much of my own except for the steel wool and tarp. Unimogbert, as little as DS and I have done we already have several boxes of extra stuff so you can keep yours. AFLM, no junk. We've got eQ headlamps (the DR version), heatsheets bivvys and blankets, PSPs, and similar quality stuff. MH I am always reevaluating, just emphasizing in this case if I need to reevaluate the redundancy issue for the sake of a lighter pack or if I need to spend more time at the gym before spring arrives. I want to trim the pack, just not too much, hence the original question. I have checked out the thread you mentioned and it probably helped my decision to start this one. I was hoping the question would have an easier answer but then nothing in life worth having is easy, is it? Just the chance to peek into everyone else's redundant gear is priceless and I really appreciate the contributions to the discussion thus far. I also appreciate the different perspectives from EDC to wilderness gear and everything in between. Feel free to break it down by category such as EDC, Day Hike, Cross Country, Car Kit, etc. Sue, the pack weight is exactly part of the problem with DS and his gear. It has in it what seems to be just the basics yet it's still too heavy. I separated it into what he would likely be carrying on his person and what would remain in the pack. Some redundancy occurred. That's another factor that made me think about starting this thread. Check out Wildman's thread on "building a BOB for an eight year old" to see the contents. Exactly Ken, but on the flip side of this discussion, when does less become too little? I guess that would be either the thread on the Ultalight hikers or possibly food for another thread, but it is not entirely unrelevant to the current discussion. I digress again. This post is getting really really long so I will try to conclude. Byrd has a point about an emergency kit being sealed until it is actually needed (imagine using up your supply of kit matches because you kept them in your pocket as EDC instead). Epirider it is not if something isn't working (as in the lighter is not catching wet tinder) but rather if the gear fails completely you have a backup (lighter inadvertently ran out of fuel but I have a cache of matches or another lighter in reserve to back it up). Sorry this was so long. Hope i get some more input. Thanks again.