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

Thanks for all the responses. I guess the axe is staying home (although I still think it's cool to have along).

I agree about the Gerber sliding blade being a POS. I picked up a 2-blade folder from Braindead recently. That's what I would plan to carry.

For antlered only hunts in Idaho, the antlers have to come out with the meat. I'm not about to pack a whole head out so a saw is a must.

Link to the company in Canada that makes the saw
http://www.trailblazerproducts.com
You can check around they go for 29. with wood blade they are about 9oz. and 15 inches long- Great little saw
For those in Montana Bob Wards has them sometime.

Just trying to return the favor to all that helped me over the years.

Silky Saw- some fast cutting SOB's for such a small saw, out cuts my Sven saw and doesn't have the top support bar to get in the way. I take the folding BigBoy for moose camp for cutting wood not bone. A super fine might work on bone but I have not tried one. It has no problem zipping through 5-7" stuff.

The Silky Pocket Boy is very nice for a pack saw.

Ben's Backwoods sells the Bahco Laplander/Kershaw for a fair price-around $28.00.

It is much sturdier than the Gerber and cuts amazingly well

Blades are a little spendy [$18-22] but available.


http://www.bensbackwoods.com/servlet/Detail?no=420

This is the best deal I have found on the 1# Estwing hatchet that I pack.

http://www.dynamitetoolco.com/Estwing-E14A-12-inch-Sportsmans-Axe-with-Sheath-p/est-e14a.htm

The 1 lb Kershaw hatchet is also rather nice. They both have steel handles which cuts down on breakage.

I have the "Buck Saw"... honestly I can't recommend it. Not near as useful as a folding saw IMO.

As I mentioned, I have an older Gerber "Exchange-A-Blade" saw. The newer ones are pretty much junk from what I've heard.

IMO, and what I carried for years and will go back to when the Gerber gives up the ghost, is the inexpensive Colghan's Sierra Saw.

About as good as it gets...

http://www.coghlans.com/products/sierra-saw-8400

If I were going with the more expensive Bahco, I'd get the bigger tooth model:

http://www.bahcostore.com/item/396-jt?referer=folding-saws

I always carry my Sven saw. It's bow saw that breaks down to one piece when not in use. I replaced the blade easily once after a few years of heavy use. Sometimes I carry my Fiskars axe, but always the saw.

I carried a Sven Saw in the 70's. A bit heavy by today's standards, and a little less easy to use than a folder, but a good little saw!

My partner carries one of these folding saws by Stanley. The best part is that it uses standard reciprocating saw blades so you have a big choice of blades readily available. Standard length blades will fully retract but you can easily remove the longer ones if you don't want the point sticking out.

This?
http://www.stihlusa.com/handtools/PS10-STIHL-Folding-Saw.html

That one's the Sierra saw with a different name and a slight change in handle shape.

+ another one on the Sawvivor. I ALWAYS pack mine, with a wood blade, and bone blade. With both blades its around 11 Oz. Lately, I also pack a Gransfors Bruks small forest axe. Which isn't really an axe, and its too big to be a hatchet. It goes 9 Oz more than the little Gerber/Fiskars axe, but its a real axe

Jordan can tell you about all the dead standing lodgepole up the North Fork, I'm sure. a 4" round can be close to 100 years old, and can make a hydraulic log splitter grunt. Its against my mountain man standards to not utilize that fuel. I'm not burning a stove in a tent yet... and I like to drink 100 dollar a 5th whiskey around a fire in the middle of nowhere.

Any other NW Montana guys looking for a Sawvivor, hit up either one of the Army Navy stores in the Flathead. They stock them, and blades...

I like having an axe and saw around camp... I know that carrying 4 Lbs of axe and saw doesn't jive with the whole "backpacking light" theory. But I'm a hillbilly and refuse to be a statistic. I especially don't see a problem if there's two or more heading into a camp. I can ALWAYS make fire, ANY TIME with my saw/axe and Fireworks bag.


That was a pic taken on the way into "The Bob" We poled out whats in the truck to burn at the trailhead that night in about 10 minutes.

If I had to run solo all the time, I'd just settle for twig fires and pack a GB sportsmans hatchet.



There was a few of these at Ed T's back country skills camp. Patrick said it was 11 oz. and they hit a helluva lot harder than you'd think.

I always take a Sven saw too. After you try one you'll throw all your folding saws out...

Not me...

Years ago I had a folder that was sold in nurseries. Had a quality steel(maybe swedish) saw blade that cut amazingly fast and easy. Have not seen one like it since. Sven saws are really nice if you want a BIG fire.

I used to have a Sven saw but it was pretty much useless for cutting off antlers. The angle between the back and the blade is so tight that you can't cut anything as large as a skull. Because of the tight angle, you only have a few inches of draw length on the blade. On larger wood, be prepared to bust your knuckles. The 21" version would be infinitely better than the 15" size but it still has the sharp angle that limits its use.

I have used a pile of saws over the last several years for cutting off antlers and wood for fire.

Have found the gerber pack saw the best compromise between size/weight/ and function for both sawing off antlers and bucking up firewood. Both wood and bone saws on the same saw. No building the saw or anything, just pull it out and get to sawing.

Probably will never haul along a hatchet on a backpacking trip, just doesn't serve my needs ever.

That's the one.