I know many of you have too many "favorite" knives to pick a true favorite but if you narrow the task down, what would be your pick of the knives you have?
Best knife you have for gutting a deer in the field?
Best knife you have for skinning a deer in the field or back at camp/home?
Best knife you have for breaking down/deboning a deer at camp/home?
And your favorite all-around deer knife, if you have one?
Thanks, RS
I'm not real picky. I usually use 2 knives, an inside knife and an outside knife. The outside knife gets used for throat cutting and belly opening. The small knife gets used for skinning and cutting loose the anus, then going inside to finish that and cut around the diaphragm. After that, because cutting the throat has let the very front end loose already, I just reach up into the heart / lung area, grab around the wind pipe, and tear everything back, down, and out. It's slow, a bit of strain, but it comes loose. After the wind pipe comes loose and slaps me across the face
I tip the belly down, pour any blood out of the cavity, and let it drain while I cut loose heart and liver from the guts. (Those are for my father, I don't eat them myself anymore. I used to like liver but it's become an un-acquired taste.) Little knife gets put away. Big knife gets used for skinning, then cutting the lower legs loose from the upper, and quartering if necessary.
My little knife, for the past couple decades, has been a medium Gerber LST. Anything with a sharp 1.5 to 2.25 inch blade is fine. Bigger is ok but the odds go up of cutting guts as you work on the diaphragm.
My bigger knife varies. I've used a Buck General ... great knife but the longer the blade, the stronger your wrists have to be to manage it with finesse. I've used a Gerber first generation LMF quite a bit. Today my two favorites are a Gerber magnum LST which I like if I want to save weight or have a folding knife, and Buck Vanguard with the rubber handle if I want a fixed blade.
I have other knives, large and small, but mostly they stay in a "tool" sack in the truck in case I need a spare, these are the ones that go to the woods.
The funniest "knife" I've seen was one my father made on-site. He screwed up and somehow left his knives home so after he shot his buck, he beat the empty cartridge flat with a couple rocks, somehow managed to tear a jagged sharp spot on it, and managed to use that to gut the deer.
Tom
