In reality, for what the knife is used for, neither have nor not having a choil or talon hole are big positives or negatives.
I'll state up front, I bought a choiless version. If they only came with the elf choil, it wouldn't have deterred me in the slightest.
Now, if it has a choil (at least the elf choil, I really see no use for the large choil except looks), it's no big deal to me,m since I almost never use the blade right next to the ricasso. In fact, the only time I cut anything that far back is if I loop a strap or rope to cut. Then it sometimes does get stuck in the choil if I'm not precise in where I put the blade. Really a choil is only a problem if you're obsessed with your knife being able to push cut, which is one of those "abilities" I never take advantage of, even when a knife can do it, and never bother to sharpen it back to that point later.
If it has no choil, it's still not a problem, IMO. You CAN sharpen right up to the ricasso -- you just scuff up the front of the ricasso. And I really don't see why it's imperative to have that last 1/2mm sharpened anyway. I don't know of anything that needs it to be sharp that close to the ricasso. If you're used to a choil, you don't have that part of the blade there normally, anyway, so you end up with more usable blade than you'd get even with the elf choil anyway.
This is one of the few times that Jerry has given the choice of what you want.
For the guys complaining at the price because it's an LE model, if you had participated (or at least read) the threads on the Busse forum about this knife (which started when the CG BOSS Street came out), you'd have seen that what was overwhelmingly asked for was a satin finish (comes on LE and SE only) for slicing ability.
And to beat all, it's not much more than the much loved Bark River Knives, and many customs, so. . .
