My kit consists of:
A large ALICE style backpack (Green)

1st external pocket in plastic baggy:
-AA Maglight
-Plastic match case w/matches
-Snap light
-Blastmatch
-Military face paint
-Arkansas soft whetstone in leather pouch
-Silva Landmark
All of this is for quick access.

2nd external pocket:
-Large camo poncho

3rd external pocket:
-Military plastic Canteen


Inside main compartment:
-Large Maglight 3D style
-How to stay alive in the woods-new edition with rubber like cover.

Following are in large military fanny pack:
-100 feet of green paracord
-Large angle head military flashlight
-2 more green snaplights
In individual baggy:
-Esbit stove w/ a lot of extra fuel
-Matches

In individual baggy:
-Chapstick
-Bottle of Bactine
-Roll of Gauze
-Roll of Tape
-Bottle of various painkillers and vitamins
-Several Band-Aids and sterol pads
-Iodine bottle
In individual baggy:
-7 matchboxes some regular some waterproof
-Magnesium fire starter
In individual baggy:
-Repel 29 DEET bug spray
-Several bottles of Potable Aqua
-Wire saw
-10 or so safety pins
- Pocketknife
- Spare bulbs+Bateries for AA Mag.




-Roll of Military Snare wire
-Small bag of lint
-SAS Survival flipbook
-2 long burning candles in baggy
-How to stay alive in the woods-1962 edition in baggy
-Military Compass
-Standard fishing kit in pill bottle (20 yards of line, several small
Hooks, 2 large hooks, 3 feet of paracord, 5 safety pins…)

In addition to all this I have a Web belt w/ BK7, and several pouches that goes with the BOB.

This concludes my BOB; I feel that it may be insufficient in some areas such as signaling and 1st aid. I plan to soon get a Mini world radio to comlete that area.
I also have a Buck knife and a AG Russell Hunter in the bottom of the bags.
Any suggestions would be helpful.

I must be missing something here. You have an empty main compartment and no shelter, clothing, food-prep, inadequate water prep.

I think of my BOB as what I might need if I was sleeping naked in bed when the siren went off and All I could grap is the BOB before I fled my burning house.

I would add:

sylnylon 2 gallon water bag
Large sylnylon tarp 8' X 10' minimum
Expedition weight wool socks
Leather work Gloves and Polypro liners
Watch cap or PolyPro balaclava
Wool Sweater
Tyvek jumpsuit or a full-on set of BDU's depending upon space, weight and budget. (I have a ski suit coverall - thinsulate and cordura)
Sleeping bag
Silk Long-Johns and Silk undershirt
More tinder (vaseline soaked cotton balls in small mint-tins or sealed into drink straws)
3 mini-bic lighters (one for each of your bags listed)
Innova X5
Wallyworld led headlamp
signal mirror
Small am/fm/tv/sw receiver with earbuds preferrably one that can be cranked for recharge
Ham lisence and triband HT
bundle of Zip-ties (larger is better)
eye-shades and ear-plugs (very helpful if you are trying to get some sleep in a public shelter)
Dust mask and goggles
1 to 3 larger lawn&garden trash bags
Moleskin
DuctTape
Folding saw
small hatchet
E-Tool
Antihistamine (benadryl)
Anti-diahrea (immodium)
Anti-naseua ( dramamine ?)
CPR training and CPR shield
latex gloves - 2 pair minimum
Gelled alcohol hand sanitizer.
soap
sewing kit, gear repair kit
Coat hanger wire (At least one thick green wire coat hanger - almost as useful as duct-tape)
Some form of entertainment dice, cards, pocket chess set (things will be messy for a while but there will be long periods of waiting for things to get better as well so you might as well have something to pass the time in the shelter)
Something inspirational bible, koran, teachings of the Buddha in small, abbreviated form or perhaps simply a item for meditative focus such as a cross or star of david etc. again depending upon preference, space, weight and budget.
Papers - Identification, lisences, certifications, insurance cards (health, home, life and auto), bank account numbers, credit-card, phone card, pictures of loved-ones, etc.


What I would consider dropping from your list

Any and all non-led flashlights (you can get leds that are just as bright though they cost a bit. LED will outlast in battery life and bulb life and are a fraction of the weight especially when you consider the weight of the extra batteries to make up for the shorter battery life of traditional lights)

Pare down your survival book library to one book then get the pocket edition with small print and a fresnel lens for reading it

Dont bother with so many matches. If you want some in your BOB certainly don't bother with anything short of Colemans storm-proof and the nato would be better. These need to work when you need them as you won't be into your Bob to light a cig but rather to save your but when your home is unavailable for extended period. 1 minibic will outlast 7 boxes of matches and can be dried out reliably if it gets wet and can light fires by spark after the butane runs out.

Don't bother with the snap lights the usefull life is short and they are single use and thrown away. Gone the first night!

Military face paint seem unnecessary to me but I suppose it depends upon the scenario you are preparing for.

MiniMe,my mistake, this is not my primary BOB at all, have a larger much more complete kit in a Kelty Redcloud pack that has shelter and cothing sufficiently covered. This bag that i descibed was more of a secondary BOB but nevertheless it is very lacking in some areas which using your suggestions i hope to improve.

Rusty,
Glad to hear it. I was actually somewhat surprised at the total lack of clothing in your list. Would love to see your complete BOB list sometime. I am sure there are somethings you have thought of that I am probably missing.

If you had to cook WITH the Esbit stove, what would you cook IN. I saw no mention of any cookware or metal containers (but I could have missed it).

You really only need two lights.

1) LED light. The RayOVac Sportsman ($10, WalMart) is a good general-purpose light. It throws a good beam for a short distance and is enough for working and walking while being a battery miser. Useless over 20 feet or so.

2) A "long-throw" light. This is what you would use for long-distance work (100 yards) or for signaling at night. The Mag would work OK, but there are much better ones out there. An LED light bright enough for this would would be at least $100, but go for it if you have the bucks. Otherwise, I would recommend a Brinkman Legend LX ($20, Walmart, but often out of stock). It uses a pair of CR-123A batteries (camera batteries). It is not much larger than a 2-AA light, but it is brighter than most D-cell lights! Do NOT look into this light while turning it on! And a single pair of spare batteries shoud last you just fine, considering that you should use the LED for most of your work.

3) A "photon" or other mini-light might also be handy as a backup for #1 above. Some are about the size of a couple of quarters.

If you expect to be in the woods, a can of pepper spray for hungry critters might be useful.

A diamond sharpener might be better than the stone.

Looking at the double redundancy of your bag (being the back up to your actual BOB) I would dump the military compass (unless you just have it hanging around) and the face paint. I would add a couple of trash bags and some old clothes, sturdy gloves and maybe some sort of hammer and pliers, maybe some dust goggles and a dust mask.

thats what I would say, and that is whats going in my rubbermaid tub in the garage!

Garrett