Get Home Bags – Examples of Setups

This article contains three examples of what equipment you can get for a Get Home Bag (GHB). The suggestions are based on the initial article about Get Home Bags (GHB). The article is not an exact Guide for what you should pack but intended to provide some inspiration and suggestions for what type of items you can get.

Exactly what you should pack in your Get Home Bag (GHB) depends on your own particular situation, terrain, setting, skills, health, physical fitness and many other factors. For more advice on what factors that you might have take into consideration check out the articles Get Home Bag and Building The Right Bug Out Bag For You.

Setup 1: Ultra Light Get Home Bag
Bag 0,4kg
[ ] Snugpak Response Pak 440g

Shelter 0,062kg
[ ] Lifesystems Thermal Blanket 62g

Survival Knife 0,241kg
[ ] Leatherman Wave Multi Tool 241g

Fire 0,014kg
[ ] BIC Lighter 14g

Light 0.046kg
[ ] 4 Sevens Preon 2 Penlamp (22,5g+11,5g+11,5g) 45,5g

Pocket Survival Kit 0,12kg
[ ] ESEE Izula Gear Wallet E&E 120g

First Aid Kit 0,112kg
[ ] Life Systems Micro 112g

Other Equipment 0,1kg
[ ] Roll of Electrical Tape 100g

Total Weight: 1,121kg = 2,5 pounds

Summary - Setup 1
This setup is very compact and light weight and does not contain any water or food. This can be an interesting type of setup for people how work very close to their home and primary want their GHB to work as recourse for their everyday life and during disasters or medical emergencies. This could also be used as an add-on for a larger Every Day Carry bag.

Setup 2 – Classic Get Home Bag
Bag 1,045kg
[ ] Maxpedition Jumbo Versipack 810g
[ ] Maxpedition Janus Extension Pocket 235g

Clothing and Shelter 0,588kg
[ ] Houdini Motion Wind Hat 36g
[ ] Hatch SGK100 Street Guard Gloves 504g
[ ] Coghlans Emergency Poncho 48g

Survival Knife 0,18kg
[ ] Victorinox RescueTool Swiss Army Knife 180g

Fire 0,014kg
[ ] BIC Lighter14g

Light 0,191kg
[ ] Fenix TK-15 Flashlight (155g+18g+18g) 191g

Pocket Survival Kit 0,28kg
[ ] TOPS Knives Survival Neck Wallet 280g

Water 1,2kg
[ ] Nalgene 1 Liter Widemouth (150g+1000g) 1150g
[ ] Water Purification Tablets: Life Systems Chlorine Dioxide Tablets 50g

Food 0,12kg
[ ] 4 Powerbars (30g x 4) 120g

Navigation 0,1kg
[ ] Citymap / Topographic Map 100g

Other Equipment 0,15kg
[ ] Charger for your Cellphone 50g
[ ] Rite-In-The-Rain 3” x5” Pocket Notebook 56g
[ ] Fisher Space Pen Bullet
[ ] Cash

Total Weight: 3,882 = 8,5 pounds

Summary - Setup 2
This is a classical example of a Get Home Bag, the setup is built around a shoulder bag with an additional pocket so that you can easily store some basic items like a Cell Phone, Wallet or Compass easily accessible. The setup contains some additional clothing, an emergency poncho, a water bottle, some powerbars, a BIC lighter to start a fire, a notebook, pen, city map, compass and a cell phone charger.

The Rescue Tool from Victorinox is especially built for first responders and has some special features like florescent handles, seatbelt cuter, saw for shatterproof glass, screwdriver and bottle opener in addition to a knife blade with a locking mechanism.

The Fenix TK-15 is relatively compact flashlight using either two CR-123 Batteries or a rechargeable 18650 battery. These types of flashlights has a very high maximum light output with the possibility of regulating the output to a lower level in order to extend the runtime. The main advantage of this type of lights is the relatively compact size, great light output and the possibility to use rechargeable batteries and use normal CR123 batteries making them ideal for a Get Home Bag and Every Day Carry. There are many other similar flashlights on the market like the 4Sevens Maelstrom X7, Sunwayman M20C and Surefire G2X Pro.

Setup 3: Comprehensive Get Home Bag
Backpack 1,34kg
[ ] Exped Mountain Pro 40 Backpack 1340g

Shelter and Clothing 0,3kg
[ ] EXPED Bivi-Poncho UL 380g

Survival Knife 0.854kg
[ ] Fixed Blade Knife: Ontario RTAK-II 854g

Fire 0.083kg
[ ] Lighter: Solo Storm 53g
[ ] Tinder: 6 Cotton balls soaked in Vaseline inside a small plastic bag (5g per ball) 30g

Light 0,124kg
[ ] Petzl Tactikka XP Headlamp (60,5g+11,5g+11,5g+11,5g) 95g
[ ] 4Sevens Preon 1 Flashlight (17g+11,5g) 29g

Pocket Survival Kit 0,14kg
[ ] Adventure Medical Kits: Pocket Survival PAK Plus 140g

Water 2,346kg
[ ] Water Purification Filter: Aquamira Frontier Pro 56g
[ ] 2 Water Bottles: Nalgene Wide Mouth 1 Liter (145g+145g+1000g+1000g) 2290g

Food 1,3kg
[ ] 1 Real Field Meal; 24 Hour Rations from DryTech (Contains 3 Freeze Dried Meals, chocolate, biscuits, energy drinks, snacks and water purification tablets; 5000 kcal) 1300g

Stove and Cooking 0,302kg
[ ] Vargo Hexagon Titanium Stove 120g
[ ] Vargo Ti-lite Mug 750ml 140g
[ ] Vargo Long Handle Titanium Spoon 14g
[ ] Proforce Folding Cup 28g

Navigation 0.109kg
[ ] Suunto Clipper Wristband Compass 9g
[ ] Citymap / Topographic map 100g

Total Weight: 6,898kg = 15,5 pounds

Summary - Setup 3
The entire setup with Backpack, Knife, Bivi-Poncho, Pocket Survival Kit, Equipment to Start a Fire, Headlamp, Flashlight and the Compass has a weight of only 2,715kg. This setup provides two Fixed Blade Knives, Multiple resources to start a fire, Two sources of light using AAA batteries, A Multifunction shelter that can be used as a Poncho and a Light Weight Cooking System.

The cooking system enables a person to use small pieces of wood or debris to cook water on the titanium mug and the long spoon is perfect to eat from the bags for the freeze dried rations. The 24 hour rations from DryTech contain 5000kcal, more than enough for demanding activities. The rations contains 3 freeze dried meal per day and additional chocolate bars, crackers, instant coffee, water purification tablets, energy drinks and so on. The main disadvantage: All items are packed in paper and plastic making the rations quite bulky and the rations are quite expensive. The advantage: You get basically everything you need in one package and you can eat some of the content without having to heat it or add water when you’re on the move.

The Headlamp from Petzl uses 3 AAA batteries and comes with a number of lenses so that you can get red, blue or green light if you would like so. The compact flashlight from 4Sevens is light weight and an excellent backup light for any setup or for Every Day Carry.

This is another example of a Get Home Bag that can be a good alternative for people how live in a setting where it is easy to find fire wood to use as an alternative to a normal stove that use gas, kerosene or fuel tablets. A Kelly Kettle can be a good alternative to the Vargo Titanium Stove. A Storm Lighter in combination with some cotton balls soaked in Vaseline works well as a Fire Starter in almost any setting and the some extra matches is also included in the Pocket Survival Kit from AMK. This type of setups can be a good alternative for people how work quite a long distance from their homes.

Conclusion
In this article I have presented three suggestions for Get Home Bags and some items that you can use when building your own setup. The setups represent an ultra light approach, a medium approach and a more comprehensive approach to the subject built around three different types of platforms. I hope that the readers have been able to find some useful information and inspiration.

Similar Articles:
Get Home Bag (GHB)
Building The Right Bug Out Bag For You
Light Weight Bug Out Bag
Light Weight Bug Out Bags – Examples of Setups
Every Day Carry (EDC)