Hunting Knife

[Big Red 250]

Originally Posted by Big Red 250

Buck, fixed blade. Can't remember model off hand.

Buck Woodsman.

[fallen1817]

Havalon gets my vote. I used one blade to field dress, and two to skin and quarter my deer.

I used my larger Bear Grylls knife (I hear these have a bad reputation, but worked fine for me) to cut through the tougher parts of cartilage on my deer. All went smoothly for my first time.

TL;DR
Get a Havalon Piranta.

[Robmcleod82]

I use a knife made by Ruana in Montana love it. My first hunting knife was a buck Omni it worked really well for the money. I think a grohman would be pretty slick but I've never used one, the design is solid and tested though.

[Deer Hunter]

Buck Vanguard is a very good knife for the money

[Stinky Buffalo]

Originally Posted by Deer Hunter

Buck Vanguard is a very good knife for the money

X2 - That is my go-to knife as well.

[Ricko Swava]

I have a drawer filled with knives but I don't use anything else but havalon!
They r the best!!

[7mm12g22lr]

Mora companion for low $
Gerber gator
Kabar
Buck 110
You do need to hold one and the one that speaks to you can be the first knife you can use....you may have to try/own a few before you can decide which is your favorite

[cutthroat666]

I will add to my earlier post.

I have a Buck 119, a few Outdoor Edge knives, a drop point I made myself, a couple of Victorinox knives, a couple of Gerber knives and a few that I can't remember the brand name of. All of them work well when sharp but I still keep pulling out the Havalon for field dressing deer. I typically field dress and quarter an entire deer with one blade and then throw that blade away. I'm sure I could do more but after dealing with an entire animal I'm usually going though my small pack to ensure I have everything together for the next day of hunting. It seems like a good time to change the blade.

cutthroat

[korie83]

I just got a Steel Will Gekko 1513 as a gift. It's a beautiful knife, amazing craftsmanship and feels great in the hand. Going to be a fantastic skinning and general hunting/camp knife.

Otherwise I have a collection of kershaw skinners, buck folders, and my go to are the knives in an Outdoor Edge kit.

[Jay Kyle]

What I like in a knife is:
1. Drop point so it's easy to unzip the chest
2. Long and narrow for ringing the anus deep in without disturbing the bladder - I never split the pelvis until it's on the butcher table - just my style.
3. Drop point on the blade axis so while ringing the anus i know where the point is
4. Strong enough to split the brisket right up to the neck - lazy and easy way to reach in and clean out the insides
5. Not too long as it gets cumbersome inside the cavity (conflicts with #2 a bit)

I'm not a fan of folders only because it takes more to clean them. I have a havalon but it's more of a backup knife or for a buddy to use.

..and I do like sharpening them by the campfire after the hunt - something therapeutic about that.

Jay

[Okotokian]

I think the possibilities and number of good knives are endless. HOWEVER, I don't want to carry multiple knives on me in the field. If I have only one it's not going to be some fragile number with disposable blades or a folder. It's going to be a sturdy full tang fixed blade with high quality steel. Drop point with decent belly for skinning, 3 1/2" to 4 1/2" or 5" blade. Doesn't have to necessarily be stainless in our dry climate. That's just me. YMMV

[RancheroMan]

If the job is limited to dressing game, that is not a difficult task for pretty much any knife. When I first got into hunting, I bought a Gerber Gator fixed blade for like $30 and it has dressed and skinned tons of animals.

I wouldn't trust that knife to do any hard "bushcrafting", for that I take a Fallkniven F1 but opening and animal and slicing some internal tissues is easy work for a sharp knife.