Knives For Hunting

[watchmaker]

KNIVES FOR HUNTING

Many of us hunters of long have a love affair with the tool of a successful hunt; the knife.
In our minds, we have this idea of the perfect knife that will fit our hand like a glove; that will perform surgery like a scalpel; that will not need to be sharpened ever, and will remove a cape as well as field dress and skin anything from a deer to a moose.

In our search for the perfect blade, we accumulate many of them that are probably as good as the best knife ever made, but in our search for Nirvana we keep adding new blades and hoping to do enough hunting to test all of them on game.

On the other hand, some hunters are not interested at all in the tool. My friend Frank that has probably field dressed at least fifty deer with the same Buck hunter knife in the last 20 years removes it from the pack once every year in hunting season to field dress a deer or two, and the blade goes back into the same pack to wait for next year’s job.
Perhaps his father being a butcher has something to do with it. He was taught how to field dress a deer early in life, and to him it is just a necessary job that has to be performed. To others like me it is a culmination of all our efforts and should be done as elegantly and as clean and bloodless as possible and with the most effective of tools.

I have found in my long search for the perfect blade that many of today’s knives in the market qualify as superb blades for the job. A good knife blade of 3 ½ to 4 inches will be plenty for most chores. Preferences in my case are for the drop-point blades, but I have had good service from clip points or other shapes.

Some of us like a fancy wood or antler handle or perhaps some engraving on the blade. Those I label dress knives and are a great way to stir a conversation between fellow hunters. I am one with that type of taste and will always appear at camp with a fancy blade. The truth is that I perform all of my field dressings with a plain one that I keep hidden in my pack.

Here is one of my fancy blades, the Browning model 122 one of one thousand, and the one that does the actual field dressing, a Buck 192 Vanguard.



Best wishes

Watchmaker

[Dom]

Pretty fancy Browning there Watchmaker!! Nice. I kinda got a thing for knives, though I haven't bought any in a while now.

I have a folder (similar to Puma, German Solingen type) that I carry on my belt, does the job for most of what I need it for. It has the field knife, saw, gut blade, and a bird hook. I basically only use the field blade and sometimes the saw blade on larger animals to get thru the pelvic. And then in the truck I have a larger fixed blade, I think a Schrade, which has good weight to get thru the rib cage on larger animals. I do have a drawer full though, just those are the ones I'm using now. I was up in the Yooper (Michigan's Upper Peninsula) several times, got a nice Marble Hunter and also a couple Wolverine Knife Works blades. Kinda have collected a few, but there's really only so many I can use!! I must have a small pocket folder in every shooting vest I have, just to have one handy. Most I've won at shooting competitions, so don't remember what all I've got.

Speaking of how to field dress a deer, yes you can do it in a suit and tie and not look like a butcher!! Anus to snout, can be pulled out, wash your hands and you're done, Waidmannsheil, Dom.

[GoodOlBoy]

I still use a scharade sharpfinger for alot of my skinning work. I also use a folding camilius hunter, and for bigger game I use a USMC Kabar.

I am thinking about aquiring a buck folding hunter to carry all the time.

GoodOlBoy

[watchmaker]

Years ago I was invited to join a German hunting club in the Catskills, which had access to huge woods and was managed for quality deer. The members hunted from hotchsits and performed the "last meal" ceremony in the deer they got, all very proper and traditional Teutonic customs.

To "fit" in I dusted off my Mannlicher style Mauser 30-06 rifle and bought a White Hunter II Puma knife.

Here is it.



Best

Watchmaker

[razmuz]

I'll bet your really fast. Hunting with a knife is a real challenge. Me, I always use a rifle. Good luck.

[gold40]

A 4" drop point fixed blade knife is enough for me, Sometime I substitute a similar folder.

The past few years I often carry a Leatherman while hunting. The extra tools have come in handy many times.

[8X56MS]

While I have a couple of boxes full of knives, the one that I reach for every time I go afield, is this Randall #11 Alaskan.

[jmarriott]

That is one fine looking randall.

I love randall knives but have never been able to afford one. Some day.

[buckhunter]

Like most of us I have a drawer full of knives. Some are a little pricey and some are downright junk.

The one I wouldn't sell for anything is a handmade knife made by my former Brother In Law. Made from a leaf spring of a car and the handle is from a horn of a 14 pt buck he shot. I have never used it nor will I. One of my daughters will end up with that one or one of his kids.

The one that goes everywhere with me is what was called a Buck Lite folder. 3 1/2 blade. plastic handle. Not purty but just perfect for a field knife. Just like the darn thing.

I have a Buck 110 and a Uncle Henry's folder which are good also althought I hardly every carry them.

One of my bud's has a Randall that he uses. I has a 7" blade. I give him crap about the machette he carries and his reply has always been. Hey, I'll cut a lot more bread than deer. I see his point.

We all have our favorites.