Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Do you pack an axe or a saw?

It's hard to find a good saw for the weight. I carry my dads old Buck saw. Leather sheath with course and fine teeth. I like the cut it gives you on bone, not as dangerous as a hatchet. It has built many a blind and just comes in handy all of the time. I carry the weight. I have even cleared trails and roads with it, it might take awhile but it gets it done.

Outdoor Edge saws break real easy

Can't figure why anyone would carry a folder other than a BAHCO. XT7 is the blade for hard/dry wood, and the saw has proven nearly indestructible. Try cutting on the push stroke and you'll ruin it, just like any other pull style.


BAHCO

Edited to add first one I saw said "Sandvik", but never found them under that name.

You gotta weight on that BACHO?

same style, but slightly smaller.

http://www.stihlusa.com/handtools/PS30-STIHL-Folding-Saw.html

Only weight spec I can find says 4.8oz...

I haven't used a Wyoming saw, but the design looks like a good one...if you don't mind 18 oz. It should be much better than a Sven saw for bigger logs or removing antlers because it doesn't have the sharp angle to limit depth of cut. It's also not as susceptible to folding up if you try to push it through a cut. But it does weight 18 oz.

I carry a saw, have too many scars on my knuckles from packing moose with sharp bone chips that were made when the moose was cut up with a hatchet.

I still pack my cheapo Stanley folding saw that uses reciprocating saw blades. Used to be $9 or so. Haven't priced one out in a long time. But those are very lightweight and much less expensive than a lot of those outdoor models.

I most always have the Gerber slider with me. I'll bring along a small hatchet or even a small axe should conditions call for one, but mostly I just use the saw.

That wyoming saw is a truck hunting tool.... picked up exactly ONE and set it down and never looked back.

That wyoming saw is a truck hunting tool.... picked up exactly ONE and set it down and never looked back.

The BAHCO is swedish, just like 6.5mms, and is magic, if that means schitt to you.

I have been useing Corona folding saws for years.. I love them.

Corona Folding Saws

I get them from Lowes.

I back pack a light custom saw only if I hope to cut off antlers. Otherwise neither. In my vehicle are a full sized axe, a large bow saw and a folding Swede type saw.

Hatchets are a recipe for injury, with a cut radius designed to hit about the knee. Have seen two serious injuries with them over the years, one a helicopter medi-vac.

For calling stuff, predators to moose, I have garden pruners and a small folding saw in my daypack to improve the environment around my calling stand, open vistas, etc.

On a remote hunt; not a bad idea to have a saws and axe, the saw per person as parts are easily lost or broken, one axe to drive tent or if all the saws break;) I agree with Okanagan a hatchets can be a deflection danger. But an axe is a campers, hunters best friend. Meat pole, fire wood, antler removal, log jam, shelter...

when hunting I carry a folding saw, either a Corona or a cheap Coghlan's Sierra saw. I only use them for cutting wood, never had a need to cut bone.
When just on a backpack ramble, I often carry a Sven folding saw. Great saw and not much more weight than the folders, but longer.

I just bought one of those pocket chainsaws to try out, the thing is terrible I can cut twice the wood in half the time with my Gerber Exchange a Blade. I always have that with me and I like to keep a pair of pruning sheers with me. I own to sven folding saws and they cut great but I hate the design.

Usually, the axe gets left behind because of the weight.

If you're really counting ounces but trying to maximize utility, I would combine multiple functions into one tool. A saw alone would never do for me because I like the ability of the axe to be used as a hammer and a carving tool for making camp implements. The axe can even be used in place of a medium sized knife and can do a lion's portion of the butchering process.

I addressed the "weight thing" by using a smaller axe head (GB Mini Hatchet) helved long... 24" long. This thing punches waaaay above it's weight class for chopping and shaping but can still be used for food prep at a touch over a pound. Ditch the big knife and saw and carry a small axe instead. For firewood, I drag the uncut logs right into the fire. Another way to go about it is to pack in a tomohawk head and just fashion a handle in camp.

Mine is long enough to use as a monopod when seated and as a "smacker stick" to push away branches and help balance on ascending inclines yet it only seems to weigh as much as most loaded, lightweight snubby revolvers.





Can a saw make this?


Can a saw skin this?

Excellent! I have been considering having Gr�nsfors Bruks put one of their long axe handles on one of their smallest hatchet heads -- and now I can show them your picture to clarify!

I like a small light hatchet, but I have seen a couple of nasty injuries -- as Okanagan noted above, a normal hatchet handle is "optimized" to hurt you about the knee!.

That small head on a long handle does not look as funny as I expected, and if you say it cuts "above its weight class" that is good enough for me.

Besides, it has been a few years since I visited the friendly guys at Gr�nsfors Bruks (and only about 200km), so time to fix that!

John

If I were to do it again though, I'd actually use a thicker profile head - maybe the GB Wildlife hatchet head?. The GB Mini Hatchet head is actually a touch too thin and the eye too small for helving long, IMO.

The long helve can really give a lot more speed and bite with the little head. So much so that I think it actually may not be strong enough. When I do split wood, I split it lengthwise. It seems I bust the handles less that way. In my smacking the small GB around, I am finding that I am beating up the upper part of the edge really quickly. Also, I am figuring that there is a lot of torque in the small eye of such a small head. Something with a larger eye and slightly thicker profile would be my bet.

To help alleviate the strength issue of the small eye, I "wedged" the helve using a Makita impact driver and two 2" stainless steel deck screws

I don't generally carry an axe or saw for backpacking or backpack hunting anymore. I haven't run into anything I needed to do, that was legal to do, that I couldn't handle fine with a medium-ish (4-5 inch blade) knife.

I don't carry a wood stove and often we can't have open fire, so firewood gathering is not an issue. For game, I do fine taking them apart with a knife.

There's some really cool stuff out there. I collect stuff. But I find that I don't need it, so it stays home. I have a decent pile of stuff I thought was a cool idea that I really have no use for.