Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Knife design for boned out meat?

Rapala 4" fillet knife.

Too much flex for boning anything bigger than a trout.

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Get one of these from victorinox.
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They work pretty well for skinning if you're careful and for gutting (grind about half an inch of the point off sort of parallel to the back of the handle so you don't have that sharp point curving down into the gut cavity if you want) perfect for boning out meat.

Most hunting knives are a compromise. Professional butchers use the long skinny boning knife and a skinning knife made for the job. A good skinner will have a deep curve to the blade. It takes the hide off beautifully but isn't worth much for anything else.


That said, I've been using this Schrade Old Timer folder for at least 30 years. I've long since lost track of the deer and elk I've dressed with it. It's a decent skinner and a pretty good boner. It'll take a very sharp edge but does need some touchup occasionally when skinning an elk.

I'm assuming he's talking about on a backpack hunt. Last year I boned out over 5 bucks using Ingram Knives. Works great. To skimp on oz's this coming year, I'm going to try to use a baby vicky. I think they come in at around .8 of an ounce, compared to 6-7oz for an Ingram.

For deer and sheep size critters, I carry the plastic handled havalon scalpel holder (need to weigh it - it's pretty light) and a few extra blades for skinning and caping. I do meat removal with a baby victorinox paring knife. El-cheapo tiny ceramic cross-stick sharpeners touch up the vic well enough to make it through a large animal (moose). Not needed on a sheep. Cape gets removed with the havalon and fleshed/scraped with the now-dull vic. Significant cutting of flesh from cape done easily with still-sharp havalon.

As much as I like my Ingrams, it's hard to argue with a couple vicky parers, especially when going light.