I was a little surprised to learn that field techniques vary so much. But, it makes sense.. one guy shoots his in the mountains and bones it out right there so he can pack the edible stuff out, and another guy shoots his at the edge of the field and drives his tractor directly to it to take the whole thing straight to the barn to do everything. One guy thinks he has to hack open the sternum or pelvis with his knife or an axe, I'm not one of them. My knives never touch bone except by accident.
That being said, I gut mine out in the woods to lighten the load for the drag back to the house for processing. I've experimented with a lot of different knives over the years and I keep coming back to the Buck 103 skinner as a mainstay, and pairing it with something a little longer and pointier for a few other tasks. Usually a Buck 117, 119, 212, or 105. I also don't much care for a folding knife because of the mess it leaves inside the knife.
Couple years ago now, I started smoking meat for the first time in my life, and in doing so, I've learned about another category of knives that I never really fooled with before- kitchen knives. I'll probably use a couple of those for cutting up the meat. Two that jump out are the Cold Steel Slicer 9" in their "Kitchen Classics" lineup, and the Victorinox 47602, with a curved, flexible, 6" blade. Both of those knives are available for around $20 and do a very nice job.
