Judman,
To be clear, the bull wasn't mine. I had previously encouraged a buddy to put in with me for a unit I am very familiar with. He did and drew the tag... But I wasn't so lucky. So the day before he and I hiked to all the places I have seen elk hide in this unit and finally found them in the last place we looked, about an hour and a half before dark. Sent him in solo the next morning to that spot, as I went for deer in another (and saw nothing).
This is his first elk. When he called to say he had one down I told him to gut it and I would come help with the rest. That's when I got to use the knife. His was trash, to be honest, and so I did all the cutting after he had gutted it.
I'm enjoying learning about nice knives. I have a few handfulls of them now from the makers we all know. Nothing like the extensive collections of GW, Stick, MCH, etc .. but I'm getting there.
One thing that is fascinating me is that I'm finding it's not always the ones you THOUGHT would perform best that actually do. 'Edge geometry', steel, weight/balance, etc make for some surprises, even within knives from the same maker.
Geometry, Heat Treat, Edge Finish trumps all! Most of the popular makers on here don't grind enough! Their BTE is, we'll just say leaves a lot to be desired.
