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Is your knife ready for hunting season?

Ok, so you bows are all tuned, you have checked them to 40 yards. You have also checked your sights for that favorite old rifle. You have checked the blinds, made certain you have scent cover. Have you even looked at the knife your taking? Was it sharpened, cleaned and ready to prep a deer when you put it away last year?

Show what is going out in the field with you and tell me how you prep your knives for a season!

Tags: Is, for, hunting, knife, ready, season, your

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by allanm on September 22, 2016 at 7:49

I can show and tell some time, but for now I will simply tell. :-)

I am an IT geek, but I'm also a converted redneck after a friend who freely calls himself a redneck got me started hunting again a few years ago. IT people will immediately associate DR with Disaster Recovery. I carry a DR kit in my truck. But that stands for Deer Recovery. It is my usual hunting bag, just a plain, simple black backpack, with my 5 yards of paracord and a carabiner to raise and lower rifles and bows into tree stands, rubber gloves, "no cry cut resistant gloves" (kind of knitted kevlar - after I came back with many nicks and cuts last year!) a plastic bag with squares of paper towel, hand sanitizer and many other things.

But the most important ... a Havalon Piranta Bolt with 4 or 5 spare blades (brand new from Christmas), my trusty old Buck Omni 10 point folder that has now helped me with all field dressing and a good bit of skinning and quartering work on two does and three buck, and a new Gerber Freeman gut hook folder.

I also carry a tarp and some large plastic bags and other rope. So why is all this a DR (deer recovery kit), and why am I a redneck, and always carry it with me? Because if I ever see a fresh roadkill, rest assured, I will be stopping to see if anyone needs any help, and if I can help dispatch if necessary, and remove that carcass!

Preparation, the Buck Omni and Gerber Freeman have both been checked out, honed and repacked. I also have my two plastic "tote" hunting boxes of clothes and other gear packed, and one of them contains my Smith and Wesson camp set (also new from Christmas) for the butchering - which has a nice cleaver with rounded end which also helps a lot with skinning and not piercing the hide, a fixed blade skinner/guthook, and a smaller paring knife maybe also known as a caping knife.

Tonight we have a knife sharpening class at the shooting club I am a member of (Hampton Roads ares of VA), one of the guys is giving a free lesson so I'll be going along to see what I can learn. I'm always open, and I'm sure he will pass on a lot.

Permalink Reply by allanm on September 22, 2016 at 7:54

I forgot to say - yes, the bow is set up and sighted. Last year I hunted black powder. This year I bought an Excalibur Matrix Bulldog recurve crossbow. Like everything, we'll find divided opinions, but I liked the idea of the simplicity of the recurve and less to potentially go wrong than a compound. And I can replace a string without needing a fancy bow press or going to a pro shop. 280lb draw which I may regret but the rope cocker helps reduce that, 400 feet per second in theory but I have not used a chrono to prove that. Sighted out to 40 no issue, tested out to 60 and I don't think I would generally ever take shots that far. Maybe my own skill level and confidence, it seems just a bit far to me.

Permalink Reply by John Bamford on September 22, 2016 at 10:43

That crossbow sounds like it will do the job Allan , though if I had the chance I would like to go with the black powder . I have always had a craving for a Kentucky Rifle , though I don't know if that is the correct title .

Permalink Reply by allanm on September 22, 2016 at 11:07

Not sure about Kentucky Rifle being correct / common John - I used a CVA Optima v2 black powder last year and brought home 3 buck, an 8 point, a 4 point and a button that I thought was a doe otherwise I would have left him running loose.

The Optima v2 is a modern "break action inline" black powder, not traditional style flintlock. I still uses old style black powder or "pellets", and a projectile stuffed down the barrel with a ramrod, and still makes a lot of smoke.

I decided this year I wanted to try the crossbow for the extra few weeks and quiet before bangs freak them all out so they know the "hillbillies" are back. :-)

Permalink Reply by John Bamford on September 22, 2016 at 11:17

See I am an old fashioned fellow at heart Allan and though that Optima certainly looks effective , well ......

It's all academic I know as the chance of me hunting again and especially with a black powder weapon are rather slight but I do like the one above !

Permalink Reply by allanm on September 22, 2016 at 11:42

I know what you mean John, and there is definitely a good amount of appeal in a traditional old style rifle like that - even if a modern replica and not an original. But I'm also practical and I want success over asthetics!

And realistically, many today may still disagree - I suspect that will not be the most comfortable rifle either. I'm not big, at 5' 9" and 163lb or so, but I think that very tightly curved stock is less than ideal. I have a friend who is around 6' 2" (he used to be over 6' 6" before parachute malfunctions while in the US Airborne Rangers, and later special forces) who has one like that. He says he likes it for the traditionalism, but it is terribly uncomfortable for him because the curve at the back of the stock is just too small and rounded so he ends up with bits poking him.

This is the same friend who converted me, according to both our wives, into a redneck like him. :-)

We're generally bigger than people were a few hundred years ago.

Permalink Reply by John Bamford on September 22, 2016 at 11:54

I am sure you are right Allan and I have only used modern bolt action rifles and that was a long time ago , probably 30 years or more . The nearest I get now is watching "Hickok 45" on youtube !!

FeaturedPermalink Reply by Charles Sample on September 22, 2016 at 15:11

I have used this Buck Omni Hunter in the past to field dress deer. Will most likely use it again. I have sharpened it. Tried to sharpen the gut hook but I think I may have done more harm than good.

Permalink Reply by allanm on September 23, 2016 at 8:53

Ok - it's anybody's guess if an image will actually embed here since I'm sneaking in via our proxy in the office this morning ... even though I see, and I am using the image upload button.

Here is the contents of my "DR kit" backpack. More knives than I really need, but well, can you ever really have too many knives? :-)

Edit ... it didn't work, the proxy kind of allows me to do text, but chat and image uploads fails. I'll send it from home later this evening!

Permalink Reply by Jan Carter on September 28, 2016 at 18:05

LOL, I keep coming back looking to see that image

Charles, how did you sharpen the guthook?

FeaturedPermalink Reply by Charles Sample on September 28, 2016 at 19:00

I used a round rod sharpener but I didn't do it any good.

Jan Carter said:

Charles, how did you sharpen the guthook?

Permalink Reply by allanm on September 28, 2016 at 19:08

Sorry Jan :-) Life has been busy with work, preparing to head out to camp on Friday, a work party at camp checking stands and trails over the weekend almost 2 weeks ago now ... so this is a little overkill for my backpack sharpies, but still ...