Huntin with your Traditional Knives

johnny twoshoes said:
So far I’ve field dressed and quartered a big doe with this one and now skinned a smaller doe with it. The knife is too sharp at this point and is extremely unforgiving on the hide and meat, when it starts cutting it doesn’t want to stop.

The knife is still hair shaving sharp, but I still strop it on a leather loaded with green compound. It keeps the edge clean and cutting well. I’ve been using GEC’s 1095 for hunting for nearly a decade now, I’ve had great results.

Last year I field dressed four different deer, skinned 5 and quartered 2 with this one, by the end of the season it was ready to be touched up, but it could have gone farther.
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Hello Johnny !!! You are a Walking Advertisement for a GEC 73 my friend and I agree that they are great knives . I enjoy your insights and stories very much .
Be safe and keep well my friend .:):):):thumbsup:

Harry
 
A little archery hunting today with a Bret Dowell Trapper in my pocket and this hunter in W2 steel from Josh Fisher. Didn’t have to use either but that’s ok, there’s lots of season left. Saw a couple of small bucks and a few does, plus a coyote. All still running lol.

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Old Engineer said:
Hello Johnny !!! You are a Walking Advertisement for a GEC 73 my friend and I agree that they are great knives . I enjoy your insights and stories very much .
Be safe and keep well my friend .:):):):thumbsup:

Harry
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The #73 is a favorite of mine and I don’t mind telling anyone about it haha. You know as well as I do how nice they are, your #73 is as beautiful as can be and I’m sure it would preform flawlessly in the field as well.
 
So I quartered that doe up earlier today and I used my #73L for everything. Normally I like to cut the lower leg and hooves off with a bone saw, but I couldn’t find it so I went ahead and cut through the tendons and ligaments and just gave them a little twist.
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I was figuring my edge would be pretty dulled down from this activity as the edge was on bone quite a bit.
After cleaning it up with hot water and a little Dawn soap on the blade, I went ahead and attacked some note paper.
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The pics aren’t great, but you can see the cuts were a little jagged as it made it’s way through the paper. My first thought was that maybe I had a decent burr rolled from the edge to bone contact, but I’m thinking it could have been deer fat loaded into the steel as well.

I stropped it a few times and retested.
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It cut cleanly from tip to kick after being stropped up. I had no issues with the edge while actually quartering the deer, I just wanted to test on paper to see how cleanly it was cutting.

It doesn’t need to be extremely sharp to split hide and quarter deer, but I like a sharp knife and I think the edge is holding its own quite well after busting the joints and slicing through the thick tendons.

So far this season, field dressed 1, skinned 1, quartered 2.
 
I got my Grandfather’s old Ruger 77/22 boat paddle back from my brother a couple weeks ago. I had to take some range time and make some adjustments before it was shooting at sub squirrel MOA. It was back on track very quickly.

I went out Wednesday morning around 7:30 AM; the weather was perfect for squirrels, no real breeze, nice and sunny. I still hunted my way to the Ghetto and outside of bumping up a big doe, I didn’t encounter a single chippy, let alone a squirrel which really surprised me.

I tucked myself into the stand and sipped some strong coffee. It wasn't long before the morning proved itself to be a perfect squirrel day, but that coffee was too strong because I proceeded to shoot like hot garbage.

The first squirrel I spotted was a medium sized gray at about 30 yards. He was tucked up against an old oak sitting neatly on the base of a broken limb.
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Yes, somewhere in this picture is a squirrel about to get a lucky break. My trigger control must have been lacking on this shot, I have no excuse, but I touched off a round just to watch it slam into the bark of the tree. The squirrel spent no time allowing me to redeem myself and made haste.

At the shot the woodlot exploded with squirrels scurrying and barking, I was glut with opportunity. I lost focus and proceeded to not shoot a limit and a half of squirrels that bounded before me.

One squirrel inparticular was po’ed at my shooting and began barking in a rhythmic and annoying manner. I searched the trees to find this squirrel and end his unpleasant attitude. surprsingly he was only about 10 yards off the end of my barrel barricaded behind the thin limbs of a growing maple, a big fox squirrel, one I have been hunting since the start of the season. I carefully turned that growing tree into a toothpick by shooting three limbs off of it to allow me a clear shot, not surprisingly the big fox squirrel didn’t care for my marksmanship on the maple so he sauntered down the tree and made an escape.... slowly, proudly, almost confidently that I couldn’t hit him, he was right. I never got the crosshairs on him.
 
A small gray must have noticed my confidence was shaken as he took rest on a limb about 15 yards away, a perfect shot for someone who can shoot.... his gamble on my shooting being complete crap that morning took a bad turn when I sent the 22. LR through his ears. He fell into a heap on the ground and I sipped some liquid energy.

The woods were now dead as I had shot half a magazine of rounds into the bark, the ground and finally a squirrel. I sat another hour and passed on a few squirrels too wirey to try my smidge of confidence at. I decided to collect my conquered quarry and left the stand.

Making my way down the steep hill I found the woods to be quite alive; thankfully the wet leaves allowed me to silently sneak into position as three grays searched, collected and buried a dozen and a half hickory nuts into the Forrest floor. A small garbage tree about 2” in width hid my 5’11” 250lb girlish figure from the squirrels below.

After tracking a medium sized gray through my Burris scope for 25 minutes he finally came to rest on a fallen branch 30 yards away. I took a breath and let it out just as I touched the Ruger off, much to my surprise that squirrel also crumpled up from a headshot. I started to half slide half walk down the steep ravine to fetch this bushytail when my eye picked up some slight movement.

There was a strange looking limb hanging vertically off of a small oak, with a quick review from my scope I realized this limb to, in fact, be a big fox squirrel. Not wanting to risk my chance at bagging the biggest member of the squirrel family I slid the crosshairs behind the shoulder and watched as it tumbled to the ground and slide down the hill about five yards.
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My game bag was heavy and it was nearly 11 o’clock. I decided to call it quits and leave on a good note as I was beaming with delight having a big fox squirrel in my vest. Halfway up the hill a small gray was barking for attention to be added to my game pouch. I found his beady little eye in my scope and watched as my bullet sailed wide right, the bark spit off the tree, I believe if it could have it would have spit in my face. The squirrel didn’t move and continued to bark mockingly at me, I was defeated and called it a day with the easiest shot a squirrel hunter could ask for barking at my exit from the hollow.
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I’ll probably head out after I get home from work and see if I can’t redeem myself.

The Frontier stockman from @315 is the perfect squirrel skinner and a wonderful companion in the woods. I’ll use it one last time hopefully before cleaning, sharpening and packaging it up for its next mission.
 
No long story or dead game to speak of but I did carry these two all weekend lol. The amount of rain we keep getting in the NE is producing a lot of colorful fungi and mushrooms in the woods.

Josh Fisher Hunter in W2 steel and spalted maple along with a Dowell LC in A2 and royal walnut.

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Old Hunter, what caliber Winchester 88 is that? My favorite rifle in the world is a 88 in .243 that my dad bought at a garage sale in the 80's for $65. Came with a Redfield scope, a sling, and 5 boxes of ammo. How's that for a deal? I've got much nicer things in the gun safe than that rifle, but it's still my favorite. And to keep this knife related here's one I carried in my pocket last weekend while in the bow stand. Not for deer, but because I feel weird without a folder in my pocket. The BRK Nomad on my hip was for the deer that didn't show.


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My Winchester is chambered for the 308 WIN Maverick; it's also my favorite rifle. I have two nicer pre-64 Winchester M70's (308 WIN & 30-06 SPRG) and a custom 270 WIN built on a pre-64 action, but the M88 is the one I grab most often to hunt with. I need to put my best scope on it as I am getting seriously challenged in low light, even with the very good Leupold Century LTD that is mounted on it now. And to keep it knife related, I can put the Buck 117 away as I found my lost box of old Bucks and have restored my old Buck 118 to it's rightful place in my hunting pack. OH
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Maverick299 said:
I completely forgot to include my knife in the photo, but I included a "after" picture. Hopefully it counts as a traditional style knife. BRK Nomad and some meat in the freezer taken with a traditional wood recurve bow and traditional wooden arrows. Seems to be a pattern here.

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Bonus points for the use of traditional archery equipment.
 
Maverick299 said:
Old Hunter, what caliber Winchester 88 is that? My favorite rifle in the world is a 88 in .243 that my dad bought at a garage sale in the 80's for $65. Came with a Redfield scope, a sling, and 5 boxes of ammo. How's that for a deal? I've got much nicer things in the gun safe than that rifle, but it's still my favorite. And to keep this knife related here's one I carried in my pocket last weekend while in the bow stand. Not for deer, but because I feel weird without a folder in my pocket. The BRK Nomad on my hip was for the deer that didn't show.


9vnbNb7.jpg
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Great knife !! What is the model number, please ?
 
Went deer hunting this morning with my longbow, and then rabbit hunting with a hickory selfbow I made, and no luck either time. Saw 4 does but they were too far to shoot. Saw some squirrels but I dont like shooting up into trees. So overall, it was a great morning :) my belt knife was a custom hunter today. Not super traditional. But my pocket knife was an Opinel number 8.
 
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