What Knife Do You Carry When Hunting?

jb4570 said:
Helps to get a good glaze on the meat (the acid in the vinegar keeps it form spoilling longer and helps to keep the bugs off). In Calif we get to hunt in the hot months and you may have to hang your deer in camp for a week or more. At least it's already aged by the time you get home to butcher & pack the meat.jb4570
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I see,,,, Hot here also near the whole hunting season. After we get the skin off, ours, the parts go straight into a cooler. Iced down within a couple of hours. kept on ice no longer than a couple of days with the water kept drained off, and then cut up and in the freezer. We do all that ourselves. Cut em into steaks, grind into hamburger, make our pan sausage. Dad even bought him a meat tenderizer. Says it makes it better for his old false teeth Kidds about charging us to use it.

No way do we send any to a processing plant. They weigh it and may or may not get back your own meat. Specially when they grind it for hamburger or sausage. They weigh yours and toss it in with everyone elses for a bulk grind, then give you back your weight. Never know how other peoples meat was cared for.... Like tossed in the back of a truck and hauled half way across the state to a processing plant.....NOT!

Is interesting all the different ways and means it is all done.
 
jb4570 said:
Trax,

To us hunters "Happy ness is having your arms up to your elbows inside of a steaming chest cavity in the cold morning air, tugging on a pair of lungs" :D .

jb4570
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The price we pay to have fun.....:o
 
I usually have a big fixed blade,at least one of the following,119,124,Akonua,Kalinga and then a 110 always.
I'm with Pack Rat on the care of the meat.
This year I'm trying out the Hartsook neck knife for everthing but cutting through the ribs.
 
Evil Eye Earl said:
I usually have a big fixed blade,at least one of the following,119,124,Akonua,Kalinga and then a 110 always.
I'm with Pack Rat on the care of the meat.
This year I'm trying out the Hartsook neck knife for everthing but cutting through the ribs.
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Hey EEE, glad to see ya.... do you really do the rib thing on Deer?? We just trim them to the bone for sausage/hamburger meat and discard the bone. There is next to no good meat between the bones themselves.

Something else I have been doing is making a couple of small neck roast after getting as much of the back strap out as I can. Usually the very last thing to separating the head so you can cut the horns off. A neck roast in a crock pot with pot roast type spices is wonderful... Yeah,, just pick the meat off..melts in your mouth.

To cut through the neck and to take the horns off, I simply put a new blade in the cordless recripricating saw and make fast work of it... Get the neck roast first and then the rack.... I know....radical....but beats the heck out of using a hack saw or bone saw.... Those hand saws beat on my old hands worst of all in the processing bit.
 
We have big deer in our part of Texas .....fat lazy ones with plenty of rib meat.

165 # field dressed.
I will have to try that electric saw.

 
Pack Rat said:
Never know how other peoples meat was cared for.... Like tossed in the back of a truck and hauled half way across the state to a processing plant.....NOT!

Is interesting all the different ways and means it is all done.
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Had some elk at my hunting buddies home this spring. Elk was taken by his BIL and field dressed, in Dec, up by Aspen. Taken to a processor the next day...worst tasting elk I ever had:grumpy::barf:. Doubt very much if his BIL got back the meat he cared for in the field.

I've always done my own and will continue because you never know:( and I enjoy it. Preston
 
having worked as a guide for 20 + years i have a few favorites i always have with me.im a flintknapper also and have used stone tools to gut and skin with and they work great a little fatigue they are hard to hold onto when they get blood on them..a piece of duct tape on a spawl helps too.i have to dull one side of the obsidian so it isnt dangerous to the hand.i have a custom knife for gutting made by a friend and knife maker its a sparks,and i use a cold steel to reem the rectum out and prefer a small cutting blade while gutting 3-4 inch maximum..for caping i use a microtech scocum with a tnto point ,small but stays sharp ..there is something fun about using a stone to take care of your critter,kind of a primal feeling ..i also use flint arrowheads to archery hunt with ..be glad to answer any questions ...Paul
 
damnwright said:
having worked as a guide for 20 + years i have a few favorites i always have with me.im a flintknapper also and have used stone tools to gut and skin with and they work great a little fatigue they are hard to hold onto when they get blood on them..a piece of duct tape on a spawl helps too.i have to dull one side of the obsidian so it isnt dangerous to the hand.i have a custom knife for gutting made by a friend and knife maker its a sparks,and i use a cold steel to reem the rectum out and prefer a small cutting blade while gutting 3-4 inch maximum..for caping i use a microtech scocum with a tnto point ,small but stays sharp ..there is something fun about using a stone to take care of your critter,kind of a primal feeling ..i also use flint arrowheads to archery hunt with ..be glad to answer any questions ...Paul
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Got any pictures of your tools.I know obsidian is sharp!!:D
 
Pack Rat said:
I see,,,, Hot here also near the whole hunting season.

No way do we send any to a processing plant.

Is interesting all the different ways and means it is all done.
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Pack rat,

The temp in the Sierra's in CA during October is a high of about 70-75 and drops to the low 30's-40"s at night. In that temp range the meat will last for a little over a week if kept in the trees out of the sun light (no spoilage). However, so years we get a hot Indian summer 80+ and the meat must go into a local meat cooler the same day it was taken from the field.

I don't let any meat cutters near my game meat. In CA we have Black Tail and Mule Deer. The Back Tail is small 70-100 lbs and the Mule Deer 135-200 lbs. The last time I used a meat cutting service was when I took in a small Black Tail that was field dressed at 70 lbs and got back the same amount of meat as the 165 lbs Mule Deer that was processed the year before :grumpy:. The next deer I butchered myself and could not believe the amount of meat I had:D .

jb4570
 
Evil Eye Earl said:
We have big deer in our part of Texas .....fat lazy ones with plenty of rib meat. 165 # field dressed. I will have to try that electric saw.
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Nice Rack!!! Best we have field dressed is about 130#. But Racks may be similar.

meg2.jpg


The one with the tall tines was taken by the 14 year old Granddaughter...Wide one by her mother. Grrr,,,she got mine...

Meg1.jpg


And she was using a thutty aut six :D
 
Yep that is usually the way it goes....girls get the big Bucks....I think I hunt too hard.....or sleep while i'm hunting....snoring ,scare off all the big Bucks.....
Very nice deer.
I always
get the field dressing chores ..... they say I do a better job....it's easy with a sharp knife.
 
pjsjr said:
Had some elk at my hunting buddies home this spring. Elk was taken by his BIL and field dressed, in Dec, up by Aspen. Taken to a processor the next day...worst tasting elk I ever had:grumpy::barf:. Doubt very much if his BIL got back the meat he cared for in the field.

I've always done my own and will continue because you never know:( and I enjoy it. Preston
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I think care of it in the field is the most important part. We never eat any bad meat that we care for. Had a friend at my parents one time that just swore he would not eat nasty tasing deer meat. Mom and I just grinned at each other and she went to the freezer.

Her big meal is at noon time and we got there and dug in... Little small fried steak cutlets, mashed potatoes, Gravy, some veggies... Huge pile of those small steaks... He cleaned the platter... Well,,, right behind me....

Wanted to know how she cooked it.. so she told him... he wanted to know what cuts of meat, so she told him some come come from the back strap and some from the hindquarter... Took him a few minutes to figure out it was venison... We just laughed... he asked for more the next day...

Just all in taking care of it..
 
Pack Rat said:
I'll give a quick shot at this....

Hang them by the neck tight up against the ears. Not by antlers unless you want to take a chance breaking one.

You have already cut from sternum down, now just slit the skin from sternum up to the rope

Slit all four legs around the first leg hoint (elbow?)

Cut a long slit on the inside of each leg up to the open cavity or to where you have already cut from neck to pelvic. Pretty much as you would normally skin one

go up to the neck and start skinning it back to the point you can put a baseball size rock, or a baseball if one is handy, under the skin in the middle of the back up high just under the neck. .

With the rock under the skin, work the skin around it to the point you can loop another rope or guy wire type cable around the rock and pull it down tight. Now you would be looking at the inside of the hide around the rock.

Tie the other end of the rock rope on a vehicle and begin pulling,,,slow.

If you made the cuts right, this will pull the skin off completely without tearing up any meat at all. Wayyyyy faster than skinning one. And it won't tear up the hide if you want to keep it. Watch out as the deer will swing back as the hide is being pulled off....

Maybe you get the picture...
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Packrat does that work well? So we could hook up an atv to the baseball/rock and it's foolproof as opposed to skinning?
That's a great post and I'm going to quote your method in our hunt camp newsletter if you don't mind. The boys love that stuff!
 
TerryM said:
Packrat does that work well? So we could hook up an atv to the baseball/rock and it's foolproof as opposed to skinning?
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Why do I think that getting hit by a flying deerskin while on an ATV is not a good idea???... :D

..."WHAP!!!"..."Oow!!!... ;)
 
chickentrax said:
Why do I think that getting hit by a flying deerskin while on an ATV is not a good idea???... :D

..."WHAP!!!"..."Oow!!!... ;)
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Maybe Pack Rat could invite Buckaholic down and he could use his Harley!:D
 
chickentrax said:
Why do I think that getting hit by a flying deerskin while on an ATV is not a good idea???... :D

..."WHAP!!!"..."Oow!!!... ;)
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LOL, thats to funny.

jb4570
 
Pack Rat said:
go up to the neck and start skinning it back to the point you can put a baseball size rock, or a baseball if one is handy, under the skin in the middle of the back up high just under the neck.

With the rock under the skin, work the skin around it to the point you can loop another rope or guy wire type cable around the rock and pull it down tight. Now you would be looking at the inside of the hide around the rock.
Tie the other end of the rock rope on a vehicle and begin pulling,,,slow.

If you made the cuts right, this will pull the skin off completely without tearing up any meat at all. Maybe you get the picture...
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ratman,

I think you should print your instructions and include the rock. You could sell them like this contraption from Cabelas:D . It could help you pay for some new knives.

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/t...&parentType=index&indexId=cat20778&hasJS=true

jb4570
 
jb4570 said:
ratman,
I think you should print your instructions and include the rock. You could sell them like this contraption from Cabelas:D . It could help you pay for some new knives.
jb4570
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Those gimmics come and go... Never have seemed to work for me and quit trying them...

I haven't ever seen the skinning trick we use printed up. But it has been in use in South Texas for years and years on the big game hunting ranches. Dad saw it once when he was invited to one. Of course the hired hands did all the work, including the field dressing part.

Oh yeah,,,, I could definitely include a rock. Just when pet rocks have gone out of style, we have 300 acres of them. I call the place the Rocky Cedar Ranch... nutin but rocks and cedar, well the juniper ash that locls call cedar. Smells like cedar tho..

We have a deal with anyone that wants landscaping rocks. If they pick up any they don't like, we will gladly replace it 5 for 1. :D and they can keep the 1...
 
chickentrax said:
Why do I think that getting hit by a flying deerskin while on an ATV is not a good idea???... :D

..."WHAP!!!"..."Oow!!!... ;)
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Besides Trax.... you aint gonna get whacked by no deer skin,,, it took off behind the atv... Ur gonna get wacked by 115 pounds or so of deer swinging back after the skin separated... Visualize, visualize.... :D
 
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