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Arac Offline OP
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Do any of you do your own field dressing and skinning of large African game? What make/model of knife do you use? Do you have any use for the newer "super steels" that are made from powdered particles (like 3V, S90V, Elmax etc) or do you use the older standby like good quality D2, 1095 etc and just sharpen more often?

Arno Bernard (South Africa) seems to have some pretty nice knives available. Are they popular in the African hunting fields?

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You probably won't get a chance -- too much time wasted doing it our way when you could be adding up trophy fees.

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one reason I will never go to Africa to hunt.


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Arac,

Most of the time African game isn't even field-dressed. Instead it's transported whole back to the lodge or camp. This is partly because highly-skilled skinners and butchers do the job either in what's essentially a professional butcher shop, or in a tent that's similarly set up. But it's also partly because many black Africans like to eat all sorts of innards, which are considered a valuable by-product of safari hunting. I've seen many African game animals as large as eland and Cape buffalo taken back whole.

These skinners and butchers generally use whatever knives they can get. They'll gladly accept good knives as tips from clients, but they can do a very fine job with what many Americans consider junk. That's because the skinners/butchers of many safari operations process hundreds of animals a year, and perhaps over 1000, so get far more practice than all but a very few Americans.


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D2 is fine for a sportsman with the expectation of handling a single big animal

It's impractical for a professional in a hunting remote camp like most of Africa.

It's far to difficult to get sharp once it becomes dull. If you have the patience and planning to touch it up with a diamond hone frequently while skinning it last fairly well. However few of us do with failing light or other issues that require hurried skinning.

D2 stays sharp much longer then typical Rockwell hardened stainless steel blades. It's just awful to get sharp again in the field. I (we) prefer to carry two knives run them to dull and sharpen them again. Or have one sharpened by somebody while the other is in use.

No worries, our hunters will not touch any trophies. That's handled by my staff!


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I have some hunters that are taxidermists. At times they insist on caping. All but one has seen the work done by our skinners and said " let's go hunting"

Our skinners are processing 250 animals or more every season. Some working here 10 years have done 3-4 thousand animals. This is more then even a professional American taxidermist will do in his whole career!

They are good. Folks come here to hunt not to work. However that one guy still insisted on doing all the caping.


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On my trip they certainly did it all. However, had I asked, I don't think they would have cared if I did some or all of it. One of our guys is a taxidermist and was certain he would do the caping. He watched them doing one of mine, and after seeing how well he did it all, including the ears, he was impressed and let them do it all. They are very good at what they do and I chose to use the opportunity to watch and learn a thing or two.

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In five trips I've never seen an African animal field dressed. Unless you count the Steenbok my buddy shot with a .325 WSM.

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Buffalo giraffe rhino elephant and hippo are frequently field dressed. Eland are taken out whole. Unless we are hunting horseback in the darkensburg.

Often the problem with field dressed game at dark is the lions smelling the carcass. We do try our best to avoid that potential problem!



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Thanks for the answers and interesting information. I am curious because I assumed the thick, heavy hide on large African game would sort out the good from the bad right quick. I am considering getting a "fancier", higher end knife and wanted to see which knives worked well in the field on the aforementioned heavy game.

As JJ Hack points out, some steels can be tough to sharpen, but at the same time they hold their edge for a very long time and don't chip or roll very easily.

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When I hunted Namibia in 2009, on a management hunt, the game was field dressed there in the field, if an Oryx. Forget whether we did the Springbok out there, but believe we did, as not going back to the main part of the farm, until the day about gone, so might have 1/2 a dozen animals by then, though one day we did go by this one place and leave a couple of animals in the shade, and a call to the farm told them where to come and get them at. Year before last took the god grandson to RSA and nothing was dressed in the field except on Wildebeeste that was caught up with about dark and had to be carried off a mountain, a 1/2 mile back to the hunting truck.


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Originally Posted by Arac
Thanks for the answers and interesting information. I am curious because I assumed the thick, heavy hide on large African game would sort out the good from the bad right quick. I am considering getting a "fancier", higher end knife and wanted to see which knives worked well in the field on the aforementioned heavy game.

As JJ Hack points out, some steels can be tough to sharpen, but at the same time they hold their edge for a very long time and don't chip or roll very easily.


might want to talk to some of the guys that deal with lots of pigs here in the states....might give yah a better idea on what your looking for as far as info as hog hide is hard on a blade and IIRC a number of the guys on the forum that kill alot of hogs are also knife nuts....stxhunter and RIO7 come to mind as guys i might chat with

Last edited by rattler; 01/28/15.

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You're right Jim, they did field dress my giraffe. My bad.

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Piranta.


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This is one of my favorite knives used to skin an elephant in Zimbabwe.

[Linked Image]


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Last year in Namibia, the skinners did the task with what amounted to a fish filet knife, and boy did they know what they were doing! Very little fleshing needed. Mule Deer hit the nail on the head again if you ask me. Very little is wasted, innards included. I didn't see any animals field dressed.


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We have a big flatbed trailer that is pulled behind a Massey Ferguson tractor. We fixed a winch on this to pull game up onto it.

This is the preferred method to get big things out of the bush. Unfortunately some of the animals do not cooperate and fall in areas that make this impossible.

Most if not all the skinners do not actually "skin" the huge animals with a knife. They chop the skin free with a panga. Then once the hide is removed it heads to the skinning shed for fleshing and salting.

Of all the Species that we have, there is only one that is so critical that we stop the hunting and get back to camp as fast as possible to care for. Klipspringer seem to begin hair slip after the final heartbeat.

I taught the skinning classes and trophy Prep in Elisrass for several years to the local folks to help them get jobs with the safari companies in the area. Probably over the few years I did these classes there would have been around 150 that came to the first day, and probably 50 that actually stuck it out and completed the course. All of which were employed right away. Several were already employed by outfitters that needed more skinners, or better skilled guys.

Eventually we saturated the local market with really good skinners, and then the outfitters used them to teach their remaining staff. Unfortunately I do not speak great sotho, or tswana which seemed to be the majority of locals attending. I had enough to get by and most skinning is visual anyway. Fortunately the best of the skinners spoke good Afrikaans which made that easier.


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We skin around 300 Whitetails, and about 400 pigs every year, also do about 50 exotic's a year, a good knife is a must. I carry 2 Randell's and a Sparta, all of which i sharpen or touch up every night, I agree pigs are tough on knifes I have never had a knife that stayed razor sharp after about 4 100# or bigger pigs.Rio7

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Originally Posted by rattler
might want to talk to some of the guys that deal with lots of pigs here in the states....might give yah a better idea on what your looking for as far as info as hog hide is hard on a blade


You got that right. It isn't so much the skinning as it is splitting the hide. I have started using a utility knife with a hook blade to all the cuts to the hide.

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