Hunters, help me decide

Hmmm...decisions decisions. How good is S30V, really? I didn't realize I could pick up a standard Vanguard for < $50 on the bay of E. I wonder if premium steel is worth the extra $50.

I appreciate your advice about the 110. I just can't really imagine how a folder could be better than the Alpha. I like the drop point blade, and love its fit and heft in my hand. Plus, it has the much desired rubber grip option.

I might end up having to liquidate some other assets and just go with both a Vanguard and a Solution. I'll keep you posted when the mailman comes...
 
kunegos said:
Hmmm...decisions decisions. How good is S30V, really? I didn't realize I could pick up a standard Vanguard for < $50 on the bay of E. I wonder if premium steel is worth the extra $50.
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Somehow, someway I have managed to get through my many years of hunting...many animals/birds and various knife chores with the 440C, 425M and 420HC blades on my Bucks. I sharpen and maintain and good working edge...any knife if it's let to get dull will be a pain to use and sharpen.

I don't think that the newer steels would be around and get the praise that they do if they didn't deserve it...many were developed just for knife use. Try all that you can and decide what's best for you. Preston
 
kunegos said:
How good is S30V, really? ..
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Whew, I am getting to be a real blabber mouth here....

My Dad is getting on up in years so this past season I cleaned and processed his deer as well as mine. Using the new 110 Alaskan S30V, and the vanguard, best I can recall, I cleaned/quartered 5 or 6 deer with those two.

Previously I would have used three different 110's and a couple of 470's or would have been sharpening blades constantly.

The S30V held its sharp wayyy longer than the 420/440 blades. In all honesty, the ATS34 on the Alpha wasn't up to its best edge at the time due to not having had it long, me not spending enough sharpening time on it, and it not having an edge when I got it used. So it didn't have a fair test.

The two Alaskans were new with factory edges.. They will become my hunting users. Oh,,, I left out the 5 turkey. They don't beat up an edge much anyway.
 
Hello All,
Newbie in the forum here.
I would like to react on the Buck Vanguard being full tang or not. I bought one in 2001 and recently while travelling back by plane from a hiking trip in the Scottish Highlands I saw my backpack x-rayed before boarding. The man behind the machine had a question on a fuel bottle for my msr burner and called for me. I answered him on the bottle but at the same time I saw my Vanguard knife as if transparent! And to my dissapointment I wasn't full tang. It went pretty quick so I am not sure how far it went into the handle, but I don't believe it was all the way to the but cap either.
Don't shoot the messenger!!
pby
 
Welcome to the forum PBY. Some of the guys are going to have fun talking about your handle.

Unless you are going to be banging around on the butt of a vanguard, I wouldn't worry much about it. But should it manage to fail, Buck has probably the best warranty in the industry. They set the standard!

I am sure one of the guys will be along to answer you on the tang. I don't know.
 
Hahaha, when I re-read that last sentence there I see what you mean. Oh well, bring it on! ;)
 
Welcome pby5a. I'm fairly certain the tang goes all the way to the butt cap on the Vanguard. There was a discussion a while ago about what it would take to do a custom re-handle operation on one and I think this was confirmed by a Buck representitive.
 
I wish I could have had an x-ray picture made again, I would love to show you. I heard once of somebody that made an xray picture of a saxophone mouthpiece to make a clone that this is very expensive (yes, I have weird friends indeed), so I probably won't do this.

I bought this knife for bushcraft when I didn't know much about knives. I think I will buy another one from swc, with a sheat for a firesteel. I like the vanguard, but I doubt it is strong enough. If I look very closely at the point where the blade enters the handle I can see the tang becoming just under 16mm, from the 24,2mm it acually looks like to be. The tang is also 3,6mm thick, and I rather have it at least 4mm and really full tang. And, although a hollow grind is great for cutting and slicing, I rather have a more sturdy convex or a Ray Mears style grind. But I am side tracking.
 
Thanks for that link. Actually what he J. Hubbard sais is not much different as what I ment. As it seems from that thread the tang goes indeed all the way to the buttcap. Which means that the tang is full length. I do admit that was the one thing I was not absolutely sure about. But what I am sure about is that it isn't full width, not even close unfortunately. (By full tang I ment full width, correct wording no?). If it would be the handle would/should be seperated. And also, if you are able to screw the buttcap onto the tang, then its at least round at the end, though this doens't say much of the rest of the tang it sure raises a bit of suspicion to me. I sure wonder why they reduce the tang at the fingerguard from 24,2mm to 16mm. With these sizes of knifes I choose a strong knife, not a light knife, but I could be alone in that.
 
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