For field dressing a deer, you don't need much. I think I would vote for a Marbles Woodcraft. The nice pointy tip makes it easy to cut around the anus to tie off the bowel for removal. With chronic wasting disease now looming its head, this is the preferred method as opposed to cutting the pelvic bone. Cutting bone is taboo in areas where CWD has been known to occur. You just have to be carefull with the Marbles when opening the vent but this is usually not a problem if you use two hands, one controlling the knife and two fingers to lift up the hide as you make the cut. I like the tip on the Woodcraft to make the initial cut just below the ribcage and then use the gutting blade on the SAK hunter to rip it open. Best gutting tool I've ever found. You don't really need it but it's handy. I've used it on everything from squirrel to deer.
A better knife for gutting would be one with a hump near the tip, like the Lamb Skinner mentioned by Bruce. A 5" Old Hickory Butcher would work well for this once you sharpened it up some. Drop points are good also and come in second place for ease of gutting, imo. Still better to use two hands with drop points but with a hump blade, this is usually not necessary.
Anyway, lots of knives will do this job with ease. Just get one that is thin and very sharp. The Dozier General purpose hunter is another great one. It has a pretty reasonable pointy tip for penetration and a nice hump near the tip for gutting. Good skinner too. Could be the best all around field knife for hunting. It's the one with the red micarta scales.
A better knife for gutting would be one with a hump near the tip, like the Lamb Skinner mentioned by Bruce. A 5" Old Hickory Butcher would work well for this once you sharpened it up some. Drop points are good also and come in second place for ease of gutting, imo. Still better to use two hands with drop points but with a hump blade, this is usually not necessary.
Anyway, lots of knives will do this job with ease. Just get one that is thin and very sharp. The Dozier General purpose hunter is another great one. It has a pretty reasonable pointy tip for penetration and a nice hump near the tip for gutting. Good skinner too. Could be the best all around field knife for hunting. It's the one with the red micarta scales.
