Favorite Hunting Knife

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Dexter Russell Green River Sheath Knife. I believe it's the only hunting knife I own. I look at new ones all the time, but I have to remind myself that this is all I've ever needed. The Hunter version does look pretty nice, though.

The Green River handles the primal cuts when the animal is hanging. My Victorinox boning knife takes cares of the rest in the kitchen.

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Rock 62 by Woox is now my favorite hunting knife. Picked it up this summer for strictly a hunting/woods knife. Wicked sharp and holds its edge extremely well. Sleipner steel is pretty amazing. Cleaned my first deer of the season last weekend with it. Such a breeze gutting, cutting and skinning. I have my eye on a Lionsteel with sleipner steel next but it is out of stock.
 
My everyday knife is a carbon steel Case Trapper. It's the only knife I have in the woods. It's perfectly capable of skinning and gutting a deer but I've never used it for that.

I wear a belt knife for deer hunting but I carry a pocket knife every day. There have been times over the years where I've not had my belt knife and used my pocket knife to dress deer.

The smallest pocket knife I've used was a 1970s Schrade Stockman ("slenderino"). One that worked so well that I used it a few more times on purpose was a Spyderco Native. One I didn't like using was a Benchmade that had their excellent Axis lock. I think it took me as long to clean the knife later as it had taken me to clean the deer...
 
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I wear a belt knife for deer hunting but I carry a pocket knife every day. There have been times over the years where I've not had my belt knife and used my pocket knife to dress deer.

The smallest pocket knife I've used was a Schrade Stockman ("slendrino"). One that worked so well that I used it a few more times on purpose was a Spyderco Native. One I didn't like using was a Benchmade that had their excellent Axis lock. I think it took me as long to clean the knife later as it had taken me to clean the deer...

I always loaded my deer up whole and drove the five minutes to the house to dress and butcher
 
My favorite for years has been the Buck Omni Hunter fixed blade. Unfortunately it’s no longer made. Mine is blaze orange like the one pictured below.

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I like this design so much, that I had a contestant on forged in fire make me a Damascus blade patterned after the omni hunter. County line forge if anyone is interested. Here it is with lacewood handles next to my Schrade 158OT. This is now my favorite and I have passed my orange omni hunter on to my oldest daughter.

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I should have never started this thread. I knew it would cost me $$$$. On sale at Fleet Farm.
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You won’t find a better option in the price range. I love a good mora. I have two. I have had 20 or so in a lifetime. They tend to disappear. I stash them in vehicles and go bags.
 
View attachment 1114357 I’ve used these benchmades for over 20 years. The old one has been in my pocket for every day of all these years. You can see how small the blade has become. I retired it from hunting a few years ago with the new black knife. These knives field dressed at least a dozen elk and many deer but also completely boned out every animal afterwards, cut up and wrapped the meat.

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View attachment 1114359 I’ve used these benchmades for over 20 years. The old one has been in my pocket for every day of all these years. You can see how small the blade has become. I retired it from hunting a few years ago with the new black knife. These knives field dressed at least a dozen elk and many deer but also completely boned out every animal afterwards, cut up and wrapped the meat.
 
I like my Canadian Belt Knife a lot.

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Is that the stainless or carbon version? I've heard less than stellar things about the stainless that they use. Supposedly carbon is where it's at. I looked heavily at getting one, but I'd really prefer stainless if it's a nice steel. The design looks absolutely perfect.
 
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Bad photo! But, I should have included this with my other pic. Imperial "Kamp-King". This has been in my pocket for as long as I can remember, on every back-pack, hunt, trek, anytime I've been in the woods or wilderness. Keeps my other knives sharp, and I keep it on a tether so I don't lose it, even after I've fallen off a cliff, been attacked by grizz, eaten by wolves, drowned in the river or been lost for 40 days and 40 nights. It's always been there.
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Works great for eating sardines and "sprits" too.
 
I’ve got other good knives, but this (discontinued) CRKT has become my go-to hunting knife for all the reasons mentioned by others: durability, fit, razor sharp, ease of sharpening and holds its edge well. It also has a sturdy belt case.
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Buck 110 with a drop point and a Russel Lock-Back with drop point. Too many knives in the shop!

I've been using the Buck 110 for about 30 years and I wouldn't consider anything but a folding knife. Fixed blade knives have a way of cutting the stitches in a leather case or even coming out of the case. I spend a lot of time sitting on the ground or laying down to slide under a barbed wire fence and I have always been concerned about a fixed blade knife cutting my leg. Also, walking in the dark without a flashlight creates a concern about falling with a fixed blade knife that cuts the case stitches or comes out of the case.
 
I have found that the best place to carry a fixed blade, especially the larger ones, is strapped to the right leg below the knee. (for right-handers, opposite for wrong-handers) It looks "dramatic", but really really works. Easy to access, don't feel the weight even with the big ones like my "Jungle Commander". I also stop a lot, sit on the ground, watch trails, make coffee (!!!!) and that carry method eliminates any "pogo-effect" from things dangling from the pistol belt. Try it, you'll like it!
 
While I often refer to my dexter-russell carbon steel blades as my favorites, they aren't always along in the field.

My deer hunting duds are almost always bibs unless it happens to be a rare warm day. Since it is just weird to wear a belt over bibs :scrutiny:....I usually hunt with a large folding knife. This old cheapo 'Remington' folder is actually a good knife and it gets clipped to the front of my bibs. 20220425_175310.jpg 20220425_175731.jpg

This year I may upgrade to this new Kershaw Volt folder as a hunting knife.
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These knives are general purpose as the real skinning and butchering doesn't start until the deer is back in my shed hanging up.
 

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My camp bag has a Buck 102, 105, 110 and 112. As well as their filet knife. I like Buck.

The bag also contains an old CASE 4" folder and Winchester Bowie (gift from son), a very good knife and handles heavy chores very well.

My first custom knife resides on my hip.

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EDC is a Uncle Henry yellow 2 blade folder
 
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