Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting skinin knife for elk?

Glad to see some others have found out how GOOD the havels piranta actually is in use. I'm amazed that not everyone has and uses one by now.

I like the Wyoming Knive,
http://www.wyomingknife.com/knives.htm
very light, easy to replace or sharpen blade, cheap, and works like a charm. Good for skinning, I also carry an industrial kitchen style boning knife, 6" blade, flexible, easy to sharpen and long enough to dismantle deer and elk. Got the boning knife at a restaurant supply house for $14 or so, ding it, drop it, no worries.
I also sometimes carry a Swiss Army Huntsman, good blade, saw, skinning blade, all in one, blade locks, gets dirty as hell and not the easiest to clean, but it works as well.
My preference is the two above.

D.H. Russell Canadian Belt Knife
Great feel to it - steel is not as good as the days of old but makes it through a elk without any trouble.

Any 3-5" blade will work.

But elk blood is slippery so you might want a handle that feels good in your hand, that's rubber like the buck vanguard.

If you like cutting through hard things by hitting the back of your knife blade with your hand to drive it through then you must have a flat backside to the blade.

Sharpness wise you don't want one too sharp (razor's are too sharp) but you do want one that holds an edge. It's more important to get the knife to someone who knows how to sharpen a blade than to find the right steel. Harder steel is harder to sharpen but good steel sharpened correctly will hold an edge better than great steel that was sharpened badly.


Spot

Like - totally - wow.

This is the singularly most specious thread I've read in my 6 years on the Campfire...

No offence intended to anyone, but IME/O the Cold Steel Master Hunter, is likely the most overrated POS I've ever owned. Great for chopping broccoli... barely. And yes, have used it on elk.

For me, I'll go along with Bitt... my favorite elk knife is the DH Russell Canadian Hunter (mine are both stainless). I've used them for over twenty years... have two. They're not expensive, hold an edge, sharpen easily and flat work.

Mark, I've used my LST to chop up an elk too... not my favorite for the chore, but it works!

Brad

Is your Cold Steel knife the one with SanMai steel? If so and you dont like it, would you like to sell it? If so I'm interested.

Craft, heck if I know... got it about sixteen years ago. Carbon V. Unloaded it on ebay this past year.

Another Cold Steel Master Hunter user here. Great knife I have used it for the last three years. I got both of mine on sale so they where a lot cheaper than MSRP. One is San Mai steel, the other isnt.

Heard real good things about these so I just bought one. Came couple of days ago. Leave this weekend for a 2 week hunt and hopefully I will get to try it out. Carry a few other knives also but this one will get first use to see how it works out.

Any folder by Buck with 420 HC, S30V stainless. Any Gerber in S30v, 154 CM or the older ATS-34 stainless.

If you like fixed blades and carbon steel I would recommend a Marbles made between 1997-2001 in 52100 cyro treated carbon steel. Trailcraft,Fieldcraft, Mini Woodcraft models.

One of the best skinning knives I have ever used is the Spyderco Moran lightweight fixed blade, a sub 4 inch trailing point skinner with thin blade stock in VG-10 stainless.

Scapels started using that system about 10 years ago, but I don't think I'd trust that system for quartering an elk - skinning yes, quartering no. Do you guy's carry a second blade to remove the hip bones?

I use the havalon, yes I carry about 5-10 blades, they slip right in the sheath.

they take some getting used to, but once you use it as a knife and not a pry bar your good to go.

the one drawback is with a new blade they are too sharp for me to cape with! a blade that has been used some works better for me.

still aint nothin better than an 8-10" fillet knife for boning out an animal, but a guy rarely has one of those on his belt.

4" rapala is always in my pack for deboning on the fly. $40 gerber with a short blade does the rest. They are both sharp and packed right now and I hope they are signficantly duller in a few weeks.

Yesterday evening I used an old Buck 110 and a Buck CrossLock to take apart a 5x5 Roosevelt. I don't try to do an elk with one blade although the 110 would be close. Until I lost it a while back bear hunting I used a Buck Skinner. That was a great knife. I did fours cows (with some help) one season with only minor touch up. I tend to be that guy in camp that ends up working on everyone elses animals. My bull yesterday, I was all alone. Elk hunting I try to pack at least two or three knives in the butt pack all the time. I hate working on a dull knife in the middle of a job.

Good for you!

When I use a folder, I use my old Buck 500 (Duke)... works well.

Thank Brad,
Tonight or tomorrow I'll post the pictures I took and the story. That Russell Canadian is a nice looking knife, I've always liked the looks of that style. Nice to hear it's functional as well.

Great! Looking forward to it...

Well I got a couple of Green River knives and they seem to have gotten the job done more than once. These are carbon steel and I paid less than $20 dollars a piece for them back in the mid 70's.