Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Hunting for Stories 1 - No Knife

So, has anyone found himself staring down at an elk 5 miles from the trailhead, having discovered that he'd forgotten or lost his knife?
Let's hear about it.

Gutted a Buck with scissors once.

Dat's a lonngggg story.................(grin)

I got time.
(and no Origami stories!)

Guide I worked with dropped his pack on a stalk for a bull moose. I sat up on the hill and kept an eye on the moose with a spot scope. They got him, nice 64 incher, so I went down to offer congrats and take a few pics, turns out I was the only one with a camera as the guides was in his pack. He went back to get his pack while I took a few more pix with the hunter and his quarry. Finally comes back, can't find his pack, so I loan him a knife and we go to cutting, we get near the end and he goes back to look for his pack and I hump 1 front quarter back to camp. He finally comes struggling in about dark:30 NO Pack! He endured some serious ribbing, we went back to the kill the next a.m. and I packed the moose to the river so we could float him down to a landing for the airplane on a gravel bar. He spent the rest of the day looking, still no luck, now he's getting worried. Finally found it the next day, he hadn't been looking high enough. He told me numerous times he was glad I was there, the idea of gutting a moose with his teeth and fingers just wasn't real appealing, let alone packing it out without a pack. 1ak

Hey, I was saving the "ways to con someone else into doing the pack work" for another thread!

Spent the single most miserable night of my life huddled back-to-back under a space blanket in pea-soup fog and rain high in the Talketna Mountains back in about '80. Dropped our packs for the final stalk and could not find them when the fog came in.

Took a day for the fog to leave so we could find the packs. Many people have commented since about my absolute refusal to drop my pack anywhere, EVER!!! It is all I have and I'll be dipped if I ever even come close to losing it again!
art

I droped my pack to stalk a buck on a muzzle loader hunt in Kansas. I killed the buck then spent three hours looking for the pack. If it had been an evening hunt insted of morning, I would never have found that pack.

Also went to my deer blind one evening with no ammo for the rifle. Saw some nice bucks and felt foolish doing it.

I spent a morning in a deer stand THINKING that I had a round in the chamber. At least I was being safe <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

It is absolutely incomprehensible to me that ANYONE out in the boonies, whether hunting, hiking, fishing, etc., would EVER be without a good knife, folding pocket knife or small fixed blade.

I've heard many excuses, but the three most heard are ...

"I don't like anything on my belt, so I carry it in my day pack (which is often shucked, and then not found)."

"I forgot to put it in my day pack."

Or, "A small fixed blade knife is way too heavy and unnecessary so I don't carry one. As I never carry a pocket knife either except for hunting, I forgot it and left it in camp... or home."

A couple of years ago, I attended an elk calling seminar put on by a large sporting goods company here in Boise. The speaker/caller was Cody Jacobson, a RMEF World Champion elk caller. He told a story how he had guided an archery elk hunter who shot a good bull, but the bull ran way up a mountain before he died.

Jacobson and the hunter climbed a very difficult and rough moutainside to get to the dead elk. When they got there, Cody said they'd better clean the elk. Oh no!! The hunter had left his pack... and knife back down the mountain, about 1,500 feet straight down, so he had to hike back down to get it. It was a long time before he returned, exhausted, with the pack and knife.

I asked Jacobson, "Why didn't you just use YOUR knife to gut the elk.?"

He looked at me as if I'd fallen out of a tree and answered, "I didn't have a knife. I'd killed my elk the day before, so I didn't need one." As if no one in his right mind would ever carry any kind of knife, unless actually hunting at that moment.

Notwithstanding his considerable talent with an elk call, and also as an elk hunter, I found it almost unbelievable that he would not have had at least, a good pocket knife in his pocket. Too heavy, I suppose. Idiotic, however, in my opinion.

Although I always have a good four inch fixed blade ON MY BELT, in the boonies, I have not been without my old Camillus Stockman folder in my pocket, since 1950, when my father gave it to me for my thirteenth birthday. That includes when I was in the Army and also when travelling overseas. (I haven't flown since 9/11, so know I could no longer carry it aboard a plane, but that's different from everyday carry.)

So, sorry boys, but you'll get no sympathy from this child, if you do not have your knife with you when you need it. If a good, small fixed blade, or good pocketknife is TOO HEAVY and UNCOMFORTABLE for you to carry, then I suggest you stay out of the woods, 'cause you're in such horrible condition you shouldn't be there in the first place.

Afterall, aside from your knowledge of "outdoors", a good knife is THE MOST USEFUL object you can carry.

FWIW. L.W.

L.W. Now don't be too hard on the boys. Folks don't carry pocket knives now like they used to. Though like you, except mine is a Schrade Old Timer, if I have my pants on there is a knife in the pocket. I got better game knives one of which I keep in my haversack. I don't use packs. If worse came to worst I bet I could field dress a freaking elephant with my pocket knife. Probably take a while though. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

BCR

I'm less comfortable without a knife than I am to be wandering around with my fly open. %#$&* airlines and no pocketknife, I bought my first mini pocketknife just so it wouldn't freak out the airline people and now they won't let me carry that. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" /> I'm with you LW, knife and matches or stay the hay at home. 1ak

I agree with ya LW! A man without a knife during hunting season or without a pocket knife daily, ought to stay home with the Mrs.! Maybe put in a romantic movie and just cuddle. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> They don't have any business in the woods.

I aways have a knife or 5 on me or in my pack. I hate having to touch up a blade during the field dressing process. If my knife loses it's edge,I just break out another and sharpen them all later.

Broke a blade on a solo hunt once, only 2 miles from the truck, where I had another knife. Now I carry two on solo's, and make darned sure my partner(s) each have at least one when not solo.

The 4 mile round trip was an improvement over trying to finish dressing that moose with a 1" stub, but at least his guts were out and the hide peeled back so he could cool while I beat feet. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I also have carried two compasses for 15 years or so, with nary a problem. In the last two years, I've had a compass go down both years. For once (well, twice) I was ahead of the curve!

I am not ashamed to say (over the internet) that I have lost: my knife, my map, my compass, my only fishing rod, AND my pack on hunts/trips.

I'm into multiple blades for serious trekking.

Boggy, the fellow who put me on my first buck has skinned over 600 deer I am confident. I have helped him on many occasions. It is no problem to reduce a whole deer to a cooler full of meat in 10 minutes (at the skinning shed, not in the woods). He has done it in 5 minutes on a bet. I've been with him when we cleaned 9 or 10 at a time. His tool of choice?

Schrade Old Timer, sharpened with a mill bastard file. He keeps several so when he leaves one in the woods he dosen't fret it.

My hunter safety instructor told us the neatest job of field dressing he'd ever seen was done by a first-time hunter -- who happened to be a heart surgeon.

The sloppiest job he'd ever done was by his brother, who'd forgotten his knife. I think he said the exchange was like this:

"Damn, what a *&%%$ mess -- what did you do that with?"

"These," his brother replied, holding up the keys to their Ford Fairlane.