Hunting knife photo request

J

jmarston

Joined
Dec 6, 2010
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454
Greetings all. I have been looking into some of Buck's hunting knife options in S30v. Unfortunately (though usually fortunately) I live in a very remote location without access to a store with any reasonable knife selection and thus am forced to purchase onine.

My current favourites are the Buck Open Season Skinner and the Small game in S30V. The Vanguard in S30v is also a very strong contender. As much as I would love to purchase them all, I can only afford the one premium knife. My uses for this knife will be limited to skinning and quartering moose up here in the Yukon. Sometimes in the wet, often in the cold. Chores around camp will be done by other knives. This is a pure game processing tool.

Might one of you lovely gents provide me with a photo comparison of the above mentioned knives so I may get an idea of their feeling in hand? Length, handle thickness most importantly but any angle that yo would feel would assist me in my decision. Also any feedback and experience with the aforementioned knives would be a plus along with other suggestions in a similar price bracket. Compared to eachother or even side by side with something very common like a 110 or a 119 as those are available here.

Thanks in advance!
 
I do not have any Open Season knives to give you a comparison but do have a picture of the 691 Alaskan Guide Zipper with a Titanium Nitride coated S30V steel blade. These are exclusive to Cabela's. I can relate no first hand use experience but do have some insight about the handle. The handle is made of Kraton rubber which has the property of not getting slippery when wet. It might afford a better grip in the wet and cold. I just checked the Cabela's website and the current version offered with the Kraton handle is the Vanguard version without guthook or serrations.

691AGZipper001_zpsb7370121.jpg


691AGZipper003_zps8f6b3c92.jpg


691AGZipper004_zpsea10a31f.jpg
 
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Thanks for the information. Unfortunately I am having a tough time finding some scale for the open country small game. It seems as though it may be too small for me hand.
 
I Also don't own any of the open season knives. The knife that Desotosky posted the Vanguard has a large handle and should fill most men's hand well.

Here is a photo of many of the Cabela's AG series knives.



JB
 
I have a few comments. I use the Vanguard with the rubber handle and no gut hook. The handle is large and squared off. My experience with it is in field dressing, skinning and butchering two whitetail deer. Steel on my knife is the standard 420HC. The knife comes sharp out of the box, but I take it to a razor edge with my steel. On a moose, you'd have to steel the edge several times, but it takes less than a minute to put it back to razor in skilled hands. The S30V version would likely hold up well. For quartering, you might prefer the 6" blade of the 119 or the leather grip version Buck calls the Brahma. My experience is with deer, and the Vanguard is a near perfect knife in the wet and cold. I also like the nylon sheath, as I carry it in my day pack and wash and disinfect it and the knife after use. The leather sheath is best if you belt carry, as people really like the way it carries the knife and keeps it out of the way.

Joe
 
Thanks gents. The Vanguard seems closer to what u am looking for. I think the open season will be too small in hand.
 
The 119 is also available in S30V from copperandclad.com . They also have the 537 Open Season in S30V.

You live in a beautiful place. I still miss it all.

There’s a land where the mountains are nameless
And the rivers all run God knows where;
There are lives that are erring and aimless,
And deaths that just hang by a hair;
There are hardships that nobody reckons;
There are valleys unpeopled and still;
There’s a land—oh, it beckons and beckons,
And I want to go back—and I will.
Robert W. Service—Spell of the Yukon.
 
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On cold, Minnesota January nights, I like to read these lines by Robert Service:

You know what it's like in the Yukon wild when it's sixty-nine below;
When the ice-worms wriggle their purple heads through the crust of the pale blue snow;
When the pine-trees crack like little guns in the silence of the wood,
And the icicles hang down like tusks under the parka hood;
When the stove-pipe smoke breaks sudden off, and the sky is weirdly lit,
And the careless feel of a bit of steel burns like a red-hot spit;
When the mercury is a frozen ball, and the frost fiend stalks to kill-
Well, it was just like that the day when I set out to look for Bill.
 
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