Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Favorite tools for cleaning deer??

Outdoor Edge replaceable blade knife with the orange grippy handle so I won't set it down and lose it. Love it. Have plenty of good knives too, but I just don't like sharpening knives anymore.

I've been getting by with a Case XX Trapper and a folding saw from Gerber for more than 20 years. See no reason to change something that has been working well. But that is just me.

Get the Gerber version, Vital I think it's called. Pretty much the same thing, but changing blades is way easier/safer on the Gerber. I have both and very much dig a small, sharp, flexibile blade for taking critters apart. I use a #60A blade in one for most of the work, but use a #70 blade in the other. The #70 has a rounded tip making it very good for skinning.

I always carry a sharp knife and a Sagan Saw. This year I used a Pendleton Lite Hunter from Cold Steel, a Harvey King small game, and an Opinel #9

If we haul them back to camp before field dressing them, I'd skip the Sagan Saw and use a pair of limb loppers to cut the pelvic bone.

Tomahawk and a filet knife or other sharp skinning knife.

The little Barky on the bottom.

I like that one too. Can skin a couple deer before blade needs changing out, and blades are fairly cheap. I keep an old Buck Vanguard for the heavy-duty cuts.

I have an 'old' Winchester brand skinner with gut hook. It's g h is on the larger size and works great on zipping the hide.
I have a Remington lock folder with a small gut hood. It's great for opening the body cavity.





The Win is a great skinner and the larger gut hook works 'better' on the hide.
The Rem gut hook is smaller and is better on the thinner abdomen layers w/o 'hooking' the entrails.

Both g hs can be sharpened with a ceramic stick.

Did two does this past Saturday with the new stonehocker spike

Also did two with a cheap kershaw just because buddy thought his cheap kershaw was as good as the spike. It ‘twasnt but still worked out okay

Never split pelvis personally. Skin and Quarter out with just a knife. Don’t need axe or saw. Some do use them and I respect that. More than one way to skin that cat for sure


Although maybe I should tell the Wife I been doing it wrong and buy a sweet hatchet!!!

Gutted and skinned 4 bucks last week with that knife.

Just for kicks, I touched the blade up on the Spyderco Sharpmaker after each deer and it only took about 30 seconds to get the blade shaving sharp again. The same blade, has been used to gut and skin 6 deer now. I know those replaceable blade knives have no "soul", but they sure are convenient. And I actually enjoy sharpening a knife.

I don’t gut them any more. Just skin them, take the back straps, debone the hindquarters and the shoulders.

Being a hobbiest woodworker, I’m a whiz at sharpening, so I do some rough work with my pocket Griptilian and then the detail work with a thin blade Browning folder.

Somewhere years ago I read where somebody no longer gutted the deer. So I couldn’t help but wonder why I was getting them, other than the fact that I had been gutting them for 40 years without ever asking myself why. So I quit doing it.

24 blades about 40 bucks. A lifetime supply.

Been 10 years or more since I opened up a deer.
Because of all the parasites and new diseases
going around, I won't eat deer innards anymore,
plus I don't like getting all that splintery smashed
bone in my hands. Way worse than cactus spines

lemme guess. Mask-tard, too?

knife, sagen saw, my version of a deer zipper. Buck cross lock as backup for all of the above.

Trying a butt out tool that was given to my by a fellow hunter in the crew. First attempt broke off some of the gut in the channel so jury is out still.

+3

I’ve done a couple of moose and a few deer with the same blade, running it over a honing steel from time to time. The nice thing about these OE blades is that they’re sturdy enough to break apart a deer sternum, and they can be sharpened a bit so you can prolong blade replacement. Blade changes are easy and safe, too. When the edge gets too dull to bring back with some honing, I swap it out. Used this way, blades are very cheap and a bulk pack will get a guy a lot of cutting.

We've always dropped our deer at the processor so we could get jerky, sticks, etc. but I'm thinking about cutting them up and doing this ourselves next year. So for you guys that process your own, do you remove all the meat in the field and bring it home in coolers or do you bring the deer home and clean it up there? If you have a nice setup for processing, I'd appreciate details and pics!

Schrade golden spike knife and a sagen saw

I prefer to gut them in the field and get them out and home whole if possible, but simply so that I don't have to deal with so much dried, crusty meat. Other people don't seem to have an issue with that though. I assume you hunt Nebraska, and if so then getting them out whole should be routine (I'd guess), vs breaking them down in the field and packing the pieces out. My critters are usually brought out in pieces though, and if it hot out then they'll go in a cooler with ice.

Regardless, any browned, oxidized meat can be ground and you'll never know the difference. I'd suggest grinding twice though. You can take all the trim and scraps to the processor for grinding, even if you cut all the steaks and roasts yourself.

Ditto what The Tinman said. He really knows his meat...

Fillet knives work well for trimming. I grind at home and also have a big stuffer that's used to fill plastic bags with ground meat as well as stuffing sausage casings. Large plastic tubs work well for putting your meat in.