• The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
    Price is $300 $250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
    Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.

  • Today marks the 24th anniversary of 9/11. I pray that this nation does not forget the loss of lives from this horrible event. Yesterday conservative commentator Charlie Kirk was murdered, and I worry about what is to come. Please love one another and your family in these trying times - Spark

119 users?

Lots of good info here on what and how folks use their Bucks.

I'll toss out some more about my uses and methods. First, I will say that I haven't ever used a 119 because I don't have a "user". I use the 110 for the initial field dressing "gutting" and when I remember to lay it out ahead of time, I use a Western brand muskrat, which is a stainless verson of a Schrade 77OT.

The clip blade on the 110 works well for me for the initial cut to open the stomach cavity. and then trimming some of the inside lining to get at the heart and lungs. But at that point, I have my hands inside the cavity and will pick up the shorter western knife as I have cut into the wrong things in there with the larger 110. Yeah,,some of this is by feel.

Use the western to separate the guts from where it is attached to the back bone and then just roll it all out one side and finish separating the linings from it.

Now, I talk about the Western, simply because I have a handfull of them. and I love the two identical blades that sharpen up like razors. Get one dull and you are still in business with the other.

However, the 301 main blade is so close to the same length it will work as equally well and probably hold and edge better than the western. I just haven't ever had a 301 user in the field with me.

Just previous to last deer hunting season I picked up a 105 and then after playing with a set of fixed blades I bought (Bucks) I got to comparing the 105 and the 121. Nearly identical blades with the 121 being half an inch longer.

Tried the 105 and 121 when it came to quartering and boning the meat into the ice chest and quickly favored the longer 121. Even over the 110. It was much easer reaching in to quarter the hinds and shoulders, and it did a much easier job of trimming out the backstrap and loins.
Sure, you can do this with a 119, 105, 110 or even a 301. It's just a matter of evolving to what works for you. I am going to make it as easy as possible.

I even use a long handeled pair of limb nippers to remove the legs and a long blade in a battery powered recriprocating saw to cut off the head and remove the antlers. That hack saw got to be a killer for me. old age sux...lol

Down side to the 121 is the steel, because I had been using the AG s30v 110. And the 121 dulled faster... so I just got a couple more of them...lol

I will say that I get a little particular when quartering a deer, in that I try and get every piece of meat off that will make a small cutlet, or go in sausage or hamburger meat. As a result it takes me a bit longer than the son in law that wants to get it cut up, in the ice chest and headed back to camp.

Back in camp, we process our own, all the way to the freezer. I use the 105, 121, 470, or a 471 to gt the meat off the bones and sorted as to what I want to do with which parts. Whatever is handiest, but the 121 is becoming a favorite for that chore.

Then an electric knife makes quick work of making chops out of the backstrap and steaks off the rest that isn't roasts, sausage or hanburger meat.

whew,,,I guess I drifted this a ways....sorry
 
Sounds like small blade for field dressing larger blade for final processing. Cool. I have plenty of small blades. Lots of old pocket knives I have used through the years. So my old 301 or Case minitrapper and my AG sounds like will be plenty. Still will get 119 and 105 (may use them or just make googlely eyes at them). But the 119 sounds like it might be good for quatering (easier to find then 121)

This has been highly educationaly. Not just on knife use but differant ways folks process deer. Humm, maybe I need to get several deers to try differant ways to process...
 
121?? Pack Rat what is a 121?? I was thinking 120 when I read your 121. 119=Special, 120= General, 124= Frontiersman. 121=????
 
ok. I just went on ebay. 121= fishing knife they use to make. So 119 may not be as good for processing as I thought you were saying. Sorry it was my ignorance.
 
kyhunt said:
ok. I just went on ebay. 121= fishing knife they use to make. So 119 may not be as good for processing as I thought you were saying. Sorry it was my ignorance.
Click to expand...

So many numbers to keep track of....lol....

The 121 went through some blade evolutions and evolved from a thin flexible blade maybe with scalers on top, to a stiffer blade almost identical to a 105. 105 has a 5" and 121 has a 5 1/2 inch blade. Which I liked a tad bit better.

Nah,,,I wasn't talking bad about a 119 because I have never used one. So don't have any hands on. Just talkin about what I have evolved to... fwiw

Dad did try using one of the hex head Air Force survival knifes for a while till I took over his guttin chores... He kept sticking that thing in the wrong places. I have it right over there in one of my drawers now. Is a collectable. . He has a nice new Idaho 110, a 121, a 470, and something else...forget what.... oh yeah....a 373 that I got in some lot trade.

There can't be only one....hehehe....but if so....it would be a 110

I did a thread of all the 1xx series numbers and lengths here quite a while back. Can't remember if I stuck in a pic or not. I know I took one of the whole series. If I remember right, the Goose said he was going to keep it for reference... Maybe he will pop in with a reference.
 
Thanks. I think that photo that Gossman knives has on his fixed blade collection has one of the 121s. There are 2 knives on there tahat look like 105 but one looks a hair longer. Thats a good photo for referance.
 
kyhunt said:
Thanks. I think that photo that Gossman knives has on his fixed blade collection has one of the 121s. There are 2 knives on there tahat look like 105 but one looks a hair longer. Thats a good photo for referance.
Click to expand...

yup,,,,the 105 has what I think is called a penetrator tip, 121 doesn't .

Here is a 121, 105, and a 118



click it twice ..might make it larger each click...
 
kyhunt said:
Thanks. Does that penetrator tip chip or break easier??
Click to expand...

Maybe someone will kick in on that one... I donno...dont ever use it. But no doubt it will if you try hard enough...:o right knife or axe for the job kind of thang...lol
 
I have both a Pathfinder (105) and a Special (119).
I prefer the Pathfinder because it is easier to get my thumb out on the back of the blade for control. I have never had chores the 105 couldn't handle, though I admit I've never tried chopping with it. I carry a hatchet for that sort of work. But you're right. The Special is a pretty thing. That's why I bought it. I just find the Pathfinder more useful. YMMV.
 
Thanks for the help PackRat. That is what I was getting at.
Good luck kYhunt.
Jeff:thumbup:
 
I'm on my way to Cabelas and bass pro. Hopefully for a new knife. See ya.
 
Plans feel through. Metal coolant hose broke underneath van. So I will be spending the day working on that instead. Bummer I wanted that 119.
 
I use the saw blade of my Leatherman for that much-discussed pelvic bone. You don't want to be a-slammin' around in there with a hatchet or a big knife. A surgical strike is what's needed.

A four-inch drop-point blade is good for a lot of the work involved in opening the deer up, but I find that I often go to my little Buck 444 once I'm reaching around inside the body cavity (cuttin' around the diaphragm etc.). It's real handy.

You need something substantial to split up beside the breastbone (allthough I've started to use that saw blade of the Leatherman for this, too, and it works good for me) and up the throat and then something small is again handy to cut the esophagus.

The trick to that is to reach up as far into the throat as you can and pull down hard on the esophagus and then take your little knife and cut it off as high up in the neck as you can.

Then you just hang onto that esophagus and drag it and the rest of the guts (cutting a little along the backbone wherever things don't pull free) right on down to that storied pelvic bone (which you have already split) so you finally drag out everything all the way to and including the rectum, and lo and behold, you have relieved the deer of all those nasty old guts (hopefully, with no leaks or spills, if you've been careful).

Your 119 (or even your 120) should have been on your hip all this time, waiting for heavier tasks or the sudden attack of a pack of wolves, a bear, a couger or maybe a lost and confused pit bull (or all of them at once if your imagination is truly a good one).

By all means, buy plenty of big knives. They're fun. But don't ever try to use them where a smaller knife works so much better.
 
In my neck of the woods it would be the pitbull or an angry chipmunk that attacks. I do think the 119 or 120 would do a good job beheading the chipmunk.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top