Knives For Hunting

[black bear 84]

KNIVES FOR HUNTING

Many of us hunters of long have a love affair with the tool of a successful hunt; the knife.
In our minds, we have this idea of the perfect knife that will fit our hand like a glove; that will perform surgery like a scalpel; that will not need to be sharpened ever, and will remove a cape as well as field dress and skin anything from a deer to a moose.

In our search for the perfect blade, we accumulate many of them that are probably as good as the best knife ever made, but in our search for Nirvana we keep adding new blades and hoping to do enough hunting to test all of them on game.

On the other hand, some hunters are not interested at all in the tool. My friend Frank that has probably field dressed at least fifty deer with the same Buck hunter knife in the last 20 years removes it from the pack once every year in hunting season to field dress a deer or two, and the blade goes back into the same pack to wait for next year’s job.
Perhaps his father being a butcher has something to do with it. He was taught how to field dress a deer early in life, and to him it is just a necessary job that has to be performed. To others like me it is a culmination of all our efforts and should be done as elegantly and as clean and bloodless as possible and with the most effective of tools.

I have found in my long search for the perfect blade that many of today’s knives in the market qualify as superb blades for the job. A good knife blade of 3 ½ to 4 inches will be plenty for most chores. Preferences in my case are for the drop-point blades, but I have had good service from clip points or other shapes.

Some of us like a fancy wood or antler handle or perhaps some engraving on the blade. Those I label dress knives and are a great way to stir a conversation between fellow hunters. I am one with that type of taste and will always appear at camp with a fancy blade. The truth is that I perform all of my field dressings with a plain one that I keep hidden in my pack.

Here is one of my fancy blades, the Browning model 122 one of one thousand, and the one that does the actual field dressing, a Buck 192 Vanguard.

Best wishes
Black Bear

 

[Jenner 515]

For twenty years the hunting knife for me was a Buck 110. Because I probably didn't know any better. Still when I strapped on the sheath, ran some cleaning wads through the 870, or threaded .308 rounds in the belt for the Model 70, or even dusted off the spinning reel and graphite pole, I knew that that knife had transported me into full hunter-gatherer mode.

For the last ten years I have used other knives for hunting, but it was the Buck 110 that started me off.

 

[Amos Iron Wolf]

Interesting how when people talk of actually using their fixed blades, 3 1/2 to 4 inch blades in a basic pattern show up as a recurring theme. Good to hear again.

Black Bear, I like the way you view the knife in the whole experience. Using a good knife you've chosen thoughtfully to be the tool that gives final honors to your quarry is a fine thing. Carrying a nice knife, and using it, can be another way of honoring your prey, be if furred, feathered, or finned. With such experiences, just handling that tool later can bring a sense of place and remembrance of your being a part of the cycle, at least for those times.

Okay, so we wax romantic on our tools. Nothing wrong with that from my viewpoint.

Nice blades btw.

 

[rfbadger]

My hunting knife for 40 years has been the Buck Pathfinder. It's served me well.

 

[ashtxsniper]

I have used almost all of these knives and quite a few more for either dispatching or cleaning wild game that ranges in size from rabbits to large deer. I never have found that one knife to stick with.

 

[Guyon]

Fancy knives? Nope, I prefer functional. I've tried the following blades so far. All are good, useful knives.

Cold Steel Master Hunter (Carbon V)
Buck Vanguard (ATS-34)
Swamp Rat Safari Skinner (D2)
Bark River Highland Special (A2)

I have a smaller Geno Denning hunter in ATS-34 that I'm looking forward to using this fall. Or I might try a Buck 110 in BG-42. As many 110s as I own, I've never cleaned a deer with one, as I prefer the easy cleanup of a fixed blade.

 

[pinetree]

Buck Big Sky for me.

 

[JimM]

Fancy knives? Nope, I prefer functional. I've tried the following blades so far. All are good, useful knives.

Cold Steel Master Hunter (Carbon V)
Buck Vanguard (ATS-34)
Swamp Rat Safari Skinner (D2)
Bark River Highland Special (A2)

I have a smaller Geno Denning hunter in ATS-34 that I'm looking forward to using this fall. Or I might try a Buck 110 in BG-42. As many 110s as I own, I've never cleaned a deer with one, as I prefer the easy cleanup of a fixed blade.

I've carried a smaller Geno Denning blade for the last couple of deer seasons. I really like his knives, and the sheaths are top notch too. Having said that, a Cold Steel Master Hunter handled the job quite well before I got the Denning.
Jim

 

[black bear 84]

Hi guys,
Here is another of my hunting blades, a Browning model 65 (one of one thousand).

I love those stag handles, I have several knives with them.

And here is a detail of the file work in the handle.

Cheers,
Black Bear

 

[kdstrick]

+1 for the CS Master Hunter in Carbon V ... I did 4 whitetail with mine before touching the edge... a little touch-up with a soft arkansas and it is back to hair-popping sharp.

 

[VCM3]

I prefer smaller blades.And if not for field dressing game,these would all work fine for utility,and or food prep,too

[/IMG]
This particular knife,with a bit longer blade,would do well as a hunter-fisherman

[/IMG]

[/IMG]

 

[kyhunt]

Here are my two newest.

 

[rprocter]

Ashtxsniper, i don't understand why you use such big fixed blades for downed game. i have done at least 40-50 deer, about 20 elk and 6 (i think) moose; including de-boning to pack out. my Old Timer Sharpfinger (152OT) has done many of these, as have a couple of large (~4 1/2 in.) trappers. i also carry a gigli (sp ?) saw; an old orthopedic tool, basically a wire with teeth and a finger rings at both ends. for me a big knife is too "clumsy" for this work. cheers, good hunting this Fall; i'm watching 2 big whitetail around my house, but like always they'll disappear by sept. 1st, opening of bow season. roland

 

[ashtxsniper]

I have cleaned a lot of deer with a Buck 110 and several time with assorted 2-3" pocket knives. I use whatever I am carrying at the time.

 

[tobyrogers]

I've used a 152Ot for hunting and trapping since it came out.Always served me well.Arnold

 

[puukkoman]

I usually use my Bark River fixed blades.
Wolf River is my primary skinner.
For Cracking pelvic bones, I use a Settler.
Sometimes, if I want a smaller blade, I use my IMP.

 

[rprocter]

i like talking about hunting. 22 days 'til season opens. i live in the best (not easiest) hunting area in the Kootenays. about 1/2 the elk and deer came off my own property. all around is true wilderness for days and days of travel, on foot over mountains, there are no roads; too steep for horses. so it's not always easy;can't sneak up on anything in that terrain. so i hunt a lot for what i get, but then, i'm hunting as soon as i look out the window. roland

 

[desmobob]

My favorite tool for field dressing whitetails was an old Western fixed blade (about 3 1/2") with a stacked leather handle. It was a gift from a favorite uncle when I was still too young to hunt. The sheath started to rip one season, and before I got around to repairing it, I lost the knife!

Since then, I've used similar knives, as well as a small Schrade stockman, a Spyderco Native and Native IIID, a Fallkniven F1, a Benchmade mini AFCK and others I'm certainly forgetting. I carry a folder when treestand hunting (safety reasons) and a fixed blade when hunting on the ground.

This fall, I hope to try out my new Helle Harding on a deer.

Stay sharp,
desmobob

 

[Eyegor]

but effective. Wyoming Knife.

 

[U.C.O.K.]

VCM3 what knives are they in the #1 picture? Cheers!

Frids