I can't see how you would be disappointed with the Outfitter. It does caftish and deer equally well, though it is a bit light for my tastes for deer. I have used a 165OT or 15OT for the heavier cuts on deer since the early seventies, and sometimes a 152OT for the skinning, but used the 140OT last year on a deer and was pleased. The 140OT Trail Boss, as you know, is the slightly longer fullered clip blade version of the Outfitter. A few ounces heavier and different tip design, but the same handle and steel. For the record, I also did up a deer with a 156OT (sweet little knife!), 154OT (good skinner design), and three other different Schrade Old Timer blades as a test. All performed the job, though each did different things better and with less effort.
And the sheaths are out there if yours is without one. I admit the ballistic nylon sheaths that came with these are esthetically challenged, but with the hard plastic inserts and heavy material, they were much better designed than the X-Timer sheaths which followed.
Yes, I was prejudiced against the Schrade+ steel for years. My "greenies" sat unused and ignored in my knife drawer while I lavished my 1095 carbon blades with care and used them with pride, patina and all. The 400 series stainless does require different sharpening techniques I have found. But once sharpened, if never used till completely dull, retouching is relatively painless. And it does not require a shop grinder or ax file to do it.
I admit that the fire sale prices induced me to get the rest of the series, buying four or five for the original price of one, but these knives, far more than the space debris knives, were worth their original prices as user knives....tools. Mankind's oldest tool, if I remember my years as a caveman right.
Codger
