Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters BEST hunting knife for $100 or less?

Buy a Cabelas branded Buck with that steel. Buck will service them.

Luckily, you and I passed reading comprehension aptitude tests...

And we can both spell they're.....

czech1022,

BEST? Why are you asking about best on the Campfire, especially without a list of qualifiers/features two paragraphs long?

I have a drawer full of hunting knives, but the two I use most are Victorinox knives, because they can also do a lot of other jobs. For deer-sized game the Swiss Army Camper model I always have in my pants pocket does the job, but my daypack also contains the Victorinox Hunter lockblade mentioned by dan oz, essentially a larger version of the same SA knife. It would probably be sufficient for building a small log cabin if the need arise, but works great on elk and similar-sized game.

A lot of guys have trouble when there in a hurry. So their.

David

Havalon Piranta.

I'll throw in a vote for Anza
http://anzaknives.biz/store/index.p...p;zenid=5898a6673d098bbb4460392967b677f3
They are made out of old files and are great knives for the price. I've had a LP since 96 and I love it.
Edit to add: I've got several of the carbon steel Mora's that I bought cheap on Amazon. I keep one in the truck in case I suddenly need to field dress something LOL. Mostly it cuts cheese and spreads peanut butter when I'm out doing whatever and break for lunch or a snack. I have used it to field dress game and it works as well as anything else.

Lots of answers and not one of them is wrong! We're blessed with an abundance of knives now, and anyone who can't find one to suit them is either far too picky, or they don't really know what they want. For a "hunting" knife, that usually means something to skin with and that can serve for most anything else that might come up, like cutting up meat and survival, ad nauseum. For an all around hunter, the "wood craft" type blades do an awful lot well, but none of them "best," so it really WOULD help if I knew by what you meant by "best" in your original question.

For a woodcrafter/all-around knife, it'd be hard to beat Mora's "Buscraft" model for $45-40. Then you'd have money left for their hatchet, and still be out only about $100 or a smidge less, after shipping. The afore mentioned ragweedforge.com is probably the best place to find these. Good prices and good service. Just got several from them for myself and the grandboys and some friends. "Ragnar" (his nickname) is the proprietor and is a really neat guy.

As to good LOOKING knives, let me warn you that MANY good looking knives have less than the best grade of steel in them, and it's the steel and the heat treat it's given that MAKES the knife, in actual use. You'll see many knives advertised as being made of "440C," for very attractive prices, but those prices are due to their having received little to no real heat treating, and thus, they won't hold an edge worth spit. I've made some knives from 440C, but had a bonafide knifemaker custom heat treat them in his oven, and it's a whole 'nother animal when it gets a real, full and very good heat treat. You wouldn't even believe it's the same exact steel, and you can't see the heat treat, so you just have to go by the company's reputation, mostly, in buying knives.

We live in a time when everyone wants more for less, and where people often convince themselves that you CAN get a really good knife for cheap. I know of nowhere else where that's LESS likely to happen than with knives. Good steel, and good heat treating requires lots of energy to get done right and fully, and that makes the really GOOD knives more expensive than most think they should be, but they've never researched what all is entailed in producing a really good, tough, edge-holding blade. They mostly just have the attitude that there OUGHT to be some way to get a really good knife at a dimestore/big box price. Ain't likely!

For my money, Mora, Benchmade and CRKT probably make the best knives out there for the money, and I think you can depend fully on all but the cheapest of CRKT's knives, and even those are passable.

Schrade also, I think, has a new "bushcraft" type blade out there for less than $100, but its blade may be longer than needed for a purely "hunting" knife, but it'd do, and if you ever got caught out in the cold and unable to come in, that and a firesteel or other means of making fire could conceivably save your life. That's no small thing to some. Here in Ga., even, where we're not much known for "cold weather," you can die of hypothermia very easily.

Much of making a knife work for most tasks it'll ever have to serve for is really just knowing how to use it, and there are some pretty decent videos (and some real ringers) on youtube that may help if you've never had much opportunity to really use a knife much. Spending an hour or two at a deer processing facility can be a real education as well. Watch them cutting the meat up too, if you can, but don't stall their work. They're on the clock, so just observe and take in all you can. Note where they start the cuts, and where they end up, and how they angle and use the knife in the middle. It can be a real education if you let it be.

I just got a Benchmade Hidden Canyon in S30V, and it's a really neat "hunting knife" in my view. The blade is only 2.6" long, but has good belly, and is a skinner's dream for those who know how to use a blade. It's short, and stows in the sheath on your belt sideways, and takes up very lettle room, is very light, and just plain fits my hand any way I'd normally grasp it. Most of the time in skinning, you'll have the hand well up on the blade as far as you can get it, with the index finger along the back of the blade. This helps apply it with precision when skinning. I expect this blade to go through no less than 6-8 deer without needing refreshing the edge. But that was MY solution, and yours well may be different. Just research the company and be sure to get a good BLADE, with good steel, and good heat treat, and you won't ever be sorry. Plus, if you happen to put a little more in it than you originally planned, you'll never regret that, either. I also just bought the Benchmade Bushcrafter, and had absolutely NO intentions of doing so when I went to the gun shop. He made me a deal I just couldn't refuse after I made the mistake of asking to see it. That's another really "special" blade to me, now, and I've already forgotten what I paid for it.

At least you can rest assured that, provided you get something with a really good blade, there really isn't any "wrong answer," and that's always reassuring.

That's a waist of Heinz ketchup

Your absolutely write.You're post is hard to say know two.......

...or someone will say...."if you throw in an extra $300 you can get"......

Havalon piranta and a lifetime supply of blades....

Now that I"ve done 2 complete moose with never sharpening a blade.... I'll never go other route... though a big green river skinner for the hide only or a cotton bale knife would be an addition...

Even my custom knives stay home bound these days.

rowlin hear !

Jerry

Sea? Eye told ewe sew!

FC

Irregardless, its a mute point.

David

A knife I purchased recently that I like is a boker plus version of a Dozier drop point. they are pretty nice knives for the $$ about $60 on the web. Just google boker plus Dozier and you should have it pop up. I have two with both the green micarta and the black. I tend to prefer the black but YMMV .

Buck Vantage Pro with S30V steel, G-10 handles and under $60 shipped on Amazon.

You can get the same knife with 420HC steel and plastic handles for under $25.

I don't think its a mute point that your able to spell there,do to the fact that we both learned fonicks in school.Their was a spelling Bee they're once, and I one it!

Been in the Friday night hooch again, huh?

I thought the point is moot