Picking the Right Hunting Knife
By Chuck De Bruin
There may not be any one particular hunting knife that can perform all hunting chores, but there are a few that are much better than others in performing a number of hunting tasks. Therefore, those who are just getting into hunting, or have found the off-brand knives they?ve purchased are botching the job at hand, there are some superb knives that will serve quite favorably in numerous hunting situations. Remember, America?s great pioneers like Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, Daniel Boone and others wouldn?t settle for second best in their selection of knives. Neither should a hunter.
A good hunting knife has to have that certain ?feel.? Some prefer folding knives while others demand fixed blade knives. A large variety of both types is available and serves equally well. The one advantage of a folding knife is that the smaller ones can fit into a pocket while fixed blade knives need to be carried in sheaths. However, most lock back folding hunting knives come with sheaths, as well.
Folding Knives
When seeking a folding knife for a variety of hunting uses, a lock back knife is recommended due to the safety factor. A top quality lock back knife won?t accidentally close on a finger, or an entire hand, when pressure is applied. If the knife is to be used for deer and small game, a blade length of at least three inches is usually preferred.
A favorite of many hunters is the Buck Folding Hunter, or the Buck Folding Hunter, Finger Grooved. Both have a 3 3/4 inch blade length and natural wood grain handles. They come with a black leather sheath. There are other Buck folding lock back knives that have specialty handles, and even some with gut hooks including the Buck Folding Alpha Hunter. They?re all excellent hunting knives and are effective for gutting and skinning the 30 subspecies of white-tailed deer (including cous), the seven subspecies of mule deer (including black-tailed and Sitka), pronghorn antelope, and for field dressing just about any game bird in North America.
Other excellent lock back hunting knives include those made by Kershaw, Camillus, Ka-Bar (a familiar brand to those who served in the military), Gerber, and Cold Steel. Prices will range from about $20 to hundreds of dollars. It?s the hunter?s preference and amount of money he or she wants to spend that will probably determine which knife will be purchased. Browse through the Fern Knives website under ?Hunting? to find those that would be compatible with the type of hunting being planned.
Fixed Blade Knives
The same holds true for fixed blade knives. There are many who prefer to carry a fixed blade knife in a sheath that can be worn
on a belt rather than a lock back knife that has certain limitations on length of blade. The fixed blade knives made by the aforementioned manufacturers along with Western, SOG and Becker are all fully capable of meeting the challenges offered in a hunting camp and when the game animal is down. A four inch fixed blade is usually sufficient for most field operations.
Style Can Have Benefits
Just about every knife making company has a unique style, whether it?s in the blade, the handle or the way it operates out of the sheath. Some lock back knives can be opened almost as quickly as a switchblade. Others have special non-slip handles made from various materials that can be extremely handy in wet conditions, and that doesn?t only mean when it?s raining or snowing. It can also be when the hunter is straddling a downed deer or antelope and finds that things are getting a bit messy and pretty slick once the initial incision has been made to open the animal.
Bigger Can Be Better
The basic lock back and fixed blade knives can handle just about any game animal including deer, antelope, rabbits, squirrels, other small game and birds.
But there are times when more than the basic hunting knife is needed on North American game, and that?s when the prey is elk, large mule deer, bighorn sheep, moose, black bear and/or wild boar. Since most hunters consider the basic hunting knife to be one that can handle all field dressing tasks, most knives already described in this article will do well on even the larger animals. However, bigger can be better when dealing with larger wild game.
In the case of bear, mule deer, bighorns, moose and elk (and even some whitetails), these game animals can be quite large, and they hang around areas that are difficult to access. That means they may have to be quartered or sectioned before being transported out of remote areas. In the West that would include coulees, breaks of deep canyon rivers, roadless wilderness areas, high and low deserts, treacherous high altitude locations, thick forests and marshlands. In Canada, there are huge tracts of wilderness where a hunter would have to pack out deer, elk and moose in individual packages. In the Midwest, the East and the Southeast, deer hunters oftentimes prefer to quarter their deer, and even skin and bone them, before leaving camp.
So, what does this have to do with a hunting knife? Well, a hunter with a basic knife will probably be able to only accomplish certain tasks when a big game animal is down such as field dressing, skinning
and caping. When it?s time to break through bones, most hunters prefer some type of game saw or a hatchet. For those who already have a favorite knife or knives they take along on big game hunts, the simple solution is to buy a hatchet or a game saw, or both. Fern Knives at www.fernknives.com has many available. However, people who are new to the sport of big game hunting or want to start over with the right tools, there are a number of combination packages capable of helping the hunter perform multiple jobs. One is the Gerber Big Game Cleaning Kit that includes the Gerber Back Paxe (an axe), a Gerber Exchange-A-Blade saw, a Gerber Drop Point Gator knife, the Gerber Diamond Knife Sharpener and a carrying case. Another good choice would be the Western Gut Hook Knife and Axe Combo.
Game Bird Knives
Game birds come in a variety of sizes.
When field dressing pheasants, quail, forest grouse, chukar partridge, Hungarian partridge, mourning doves and other relatively small game birds, a good quality pocket knife is sufficient. The Western Bird Knife is a fine example since it incorporates a Turkish clip blade and a fowl hook. The Buck Cadet is another excellent choice since it has three blades; clip, spey and sheepsfoot. But when hunting for geese or a tough old wild turkey that has finally come to a call, a larger lock back or fixed blade knife may be desired. Bird hunters may also want to have a set of shears on hand to cut through wing joints. Kershaw, Gerber and Buck all make superior quality shears for the field and shop.
Serrated vs. Non-serrated
Serrated knives have a ?mean? look to them.
They just look nasty. However, owners of these serrated knives often misuse them thinking a sawing action is needed to get an effective cut. New top quality serrated or partially serrated knives already have extremely sharp edges, and should cut through hide and other tough substances just as easily as a so-called ?straight? blade. There is a down side to serrated blades, though. They need special sharpening accessories to restore a sharp edge. These accessories are available, and some manufacturers even claim their sharpeners will sharpen both straight and serrated blades. Users of manual sharpeners such as those made by Lansky can purchase special rounded or angled stones that will sharpen serrated blades. Also, many companies that make diamond impregnated sharpeners develop them in a way that they?ll sharpen fish hooks as well as serrated knives, but the knife-sharpening chore may take a while with a single rounded or angled stick. Cold Steel recommends a kit made by Spyderco even though the knife making company claims its blades are so good they may never have to be resharpened. Gerber has a product called the Multi-Quick Sharp it claims will sharpen both flat and serrated knives. Another option is to have a professional perform the task of sharpening both serrated and flat knife blades.
The Right Knife
There is no such thing as the perfect knife that will do every hunting chore to everyone?s satisfaction. Instead there are a wide variety of excellent knives from which hunters can choose. But whatever the choice, quality should be the prime consideration in choosing a knife. That?s not to say a knife that reads on the blade, ?Stainless, China,? is deficient, but it may be. Stay with the top brand name manufacturers with the experience to make great blades from high carbon steel and fit them with the right handles to give a hunter that special feel.
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