Favorite Hunting Knife

Finally got around to taking a picture, but too late to edit.
Top down is Anza LP
Cold Steel All Terrain Hunter
Knife I made last spring. It worked well on my elk.
1095 carbon steel. Edge retention was only OK.

Sometime in the 1980s or 90s I bought a Randall #5 Camp and Trail knife. I put it in drawer to keep it "safe". I saw it laying in there after owning it for 10 plus years, and I had never used it. I realized hiding it was BS, and I have used it for dressing deer for over 20 years. I mean what is the point of owning a fine tool if you are not going to use it? The carbon steel blade discolors a bit after field use, but Flitz brings back a respectable shine by the time next fall rolls around.

After dressing out my deer, I loaned it to companions to use on their deer without attention to the edge. It was returned to me with the comment, "Nice to know someone who knows how to sharpen a knife." It's not difficult with good steel; two or three strokes on each side with a soft Arkansas stone, then centering the edge with a plain smooth butcher's steel.

They are listed in Randall's catalog for twice what I paid back then. Which is irrelevant. It stays in the family from now on.

Nice, J-Bar. Hunting season is the time my Randall gets out of the drawer and into the woods.

About all I carry in the field any more is a Case hammerhead folder (similar to a Buck 110) and a multi tool. I have sacrilegiously retired most of the good knives I have carried in the field for many years. The reason is that now I do all of my gutting, skinning, quartering, etc. at home, so no need to even bring those knives with me hunting. Mrs. Fl-NC gave me some of those ugly outdoor edge knives with orange handles and I am really stuck on them- the folder takes disposable scalpel blades and the filet knife and skinner sharpen up very easily, and my Gerber gut hook also takes disposable box cutter blades. For turkey all I need is the folder that takes the disposable blades, which goes in my vest, with the Case still on my belt.

The short machete is for clearing a shooting lane, place to sit, lie down or dig a hole. The Russell Green River and Old Hickory Nesmuks are my current working knives. The Green River buffalo skinner modified this way is very similar to the Farmer's Sheep skinner. The Herter's and DH Russel Canadian knives I've been carrying since the 70's but have fallen slightly out of favor to the Nesmuks lately. Not pictured is my stainless bird/trout knife, a Gerber Pixie.

This old Western F66 "Black Beauty" is hard to beat, going strong for over 50 years.

I love those old Westerns. I had one as my first fixed-blade knife; the model 648B. An uncle who wasn't an outdoors kind of guy won it as a raffle prize and gave it to me when I was a young teenager. It sat in a drawer for years until I started deer hunting. Unfortunately, the sheath came apart and the knife was lost while hunting. I made several attempts to find it but could not.

I can't believe the prices those old Western knives command bow and days.

Buck 119 gutted every deer Ive killed since my first.