Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Current/favorite/special game knife....

KillerBee,

The gutless method is sound.. but .. all the short/slashing cuts the fella in the video was making only introduce hair/dirt into the meat. Personally I found his execution pretty sloppy and didn't finish watching the video. He was essentially chopping from the outside.
Introduce the knife under the skin and flip it blade up, then simply unzip the critter. Works best, IME, when cutting in the direction of hair growth. This way the hair has a chance to be parted and not chopped and again introduced to the meat.
I'm no expert, but this is how I have done it on deer, elk, antelope, and bear and it makes for clean meat.
Pertinent to the thread in general, I rarely use gutless method simply because I like to get inside and see everything. I like to bring home the liver and heart too (I don't know if this was addressed in the video). I don't recall ever using a saw. I'm certain I've never used a replaceable blade.
Life is too short for ugly knives.. for proof of that statement see any post by GW.

I completely agree with your assessment, and also understand that if you enjoy the liver, heart and kidneys that you would want to open it up. I do not like the organ meat, so I leave that for the Yotes. I think he was rushing the job to make a point with the clock.

With the Swing Blade the Drop Point Skinner is amazing and works like the critter has a zipper on it lol. I take my time, because I do not like hair on my meat.

As mentioned I hunt solo most of the time, so it works best for me.

KB

The Grohman #1 is a VERY good design as a field knife for dressing and as well as a good skinner. The one I have (center) was found in a pawn shop and purchased for $20. It's an older carbon blade, not stainless.

The top knife is a Bark River Canadian that has been re-worked to approximate the Grohman but is a bit big for deer. I've used it in caribou and moose. It holds an edge better than the #1. The bottom knife is a Bark River Patch Knife. I've used it for dressing deer and it's very good at that but would be lacking for skinning.



Here's that Patch Knife with another Bark.

I've not used the top knife for anything yet, so cannot comment on it.

This should be in the knife sub-forum.

Carry a number of $10 mora's in the backpack.......razor sharp (easily sharpened), light-weight, scandi-grind, plastic. Have an almost unlimited supply, credit OCD for that......along with clearance pricing.

Lightweight, hollow plastic handle....hatchet. Same inventory as above.

Value my 'made in USA' stuff. Cheap stuff can easily suffer loss or abuse. Learned that quickly, from 5 irresponsible offspring.

Dismembered 1 bull elk last October, 3 cow elk last November.......never sharpened a knife til after the 2 December gun seasons in Iowa.....6 deer later.

They are tools, they work.....no better bang for currency, anywhere.

I agree - I discovered the $10 Mora a few years ago and I have them in every vehicle, in my fishing kit and hunting kit, I even have a couple in the cutlery drawer. They are like my reading glasses, I keep them everywhere. They also make inexpensive and generally well appreciated gifts. The best $10 tool out there.

drover