I've used 'em. Have a couple - unused now for years. There are lighter and better tools like some above examples for splitting briskets and pelvic bones. And heavier and better tools, like axes for cutting firewood, clearing trails, or pounding tent stakes. OK- I'll give the hatchet the tent stakes. And maybe splitting fine kindling off a larger piece - but a light cruisers axe with a flat back does even better. Next to pounding tent stakes, the next best use I have found a hatchet barely adequate for is splitting moose pelvic, and that's pretty messy, leaving splinters and jagged edges. Anything smaller than a moose you are better off with something else (as you are with the moose anyway).
Like most compromises, a hatchet falls somewhat short at all it's tasks, especially if neatness- for want of a better term- is a factor. A hatchet can be quicker for removing lower leg bones and skull plates than most everything else, I will admit. Pretty fast for detatching rib bones from spine on large animals also, if you don't mind jagged ends. BTDT. Don't anymore.
If you work at it long enough it might even cut down a spindly cherry tree. I cannot tell a lie.
Well, yes I can, just not this time.
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Lower leg bones are knife-detatched at the joints. If you know how to do it, it's about as quick and much neater than sawing through them. For the rest, a saw is the way to go, tho not as quick as chopping.
Depending on the chore, a "game saw", a light axe, or a machete almost always beats a hatchet, and are pretty much of equivalent or lighter weight to carry.
IMO, of course. YMMV..
If carried in a vehicle and used from same, hell, carry all three and use as applicable. It's not as if weight or space is a factor. That's what I do with my boat trips to the remote cabin. (Also a chain saw.). If hunting, a knife and a saw covers it all. You can skip the saw even if using the "gutless" method, but I wouldn't. Too handy for some other tasks, like meat hanging or cooling in the field.
A dumchit story here....
A partner once accidently shot 2 caribou with one shot (we both had permits, so that was covered. Sort of.... ). 11 miles from the road. We had to bury one in a remnant, hard pack snowbank until we could come back and back pack it out a couple days later.. Willow branches and clean garbage bags over the meat, then covered with the snow we removed completed the job.
Beating a hole through the snow 2' or so to ground level with sharp shards of rock had torn our hands up something fierce.
As we were policing up for the pack out, I picked up my Knapp saw and ran it into the snow to clean it. The light bulb went off.
Holding it up, I called, "Hey, Parker!
"JFC! I have one too!"
