Does anybody actually use a guthook?

[SleazyRider]

I was wondering if these things really worked in the field, or are they unneccessary appendages that sell knives? I've been using my Schrade LB7 for decades to field dress deer, but came across the Kershaw Zipit guthook that they claim is a "must have" tool.

Does anybody here use a guthook routinely?

 

[headoftheholler]

They work exceptionally well but if you are only gutting one or two animals a year any normal knife will do the job just fine. When I was gutting 13 or so deer or 20 tree rats when I was younger, it comes in handy.

 

[klcmschlesinger]

I usually use mine

I use mine most of the time. Like the previous poster, when I am cleaning lots of deer, it just seems to work well and speed up the process. The deer camp I used to go to, it was like a game of chicken. By 9am opening morning there would be 7 or 8 deer laying on the ground near the cleaning station. But nobody would get up to do it. People would just sit down on the porch and act like there was nothing to do. Being how I am, I would lose this game because I just couldn't let the deer lay there, and I would clean them. I would also take the urine from the does, and wouldn't share it (that is how I paid myself). But, they need to be sharp. I have one that has dulled over the years (cheaper knife overall) and I won't use it again until I get it sharpened.

 

[hdbiker]

Every time I gut a deer. hdbiker

 

[25cschaefer]

I find them clumbsy when gutting and skinning, I just try to be carful with a regular drop or clip point. My Gerber Gator's hook is too small for most elk and fatty deer. I do use it a lot for cutting cords and sharpening sticks for roasting marshmallows, cut three sides at once.

 

[SleazyRider]

i appreciate the comments. I'm lucky to field dress only one deer per year, so I suspect the guthook would only get in the way the other 99% of the time.

Thanks for your thoughts!

 

[birdshot8's]

I use mine to make the leg cuts as well as a "gut hook."

 

[Texan Scott]

I use one, but not on a knife- it's a stand alone tool. If it gets dull etc, it doesn't affect my knife... I just go to the hardware store and get another $10 gut hook.

 

[Yo Mama]

I use one, but not on a knife- it's a stand alone tool. If it gets dull etc, it doesn't affect my knife... I just go to the hardware store and get another $10 gut hook.

Same here. I use a Benchmade 5W hook. Carried on one of my pack's straps, I don't know it's even there. Not opening sensitive organs inside a dead animal I plan on eating makes it worth attaching to the backpack.

 

[AJumbo]

A Wyoming Knife is in always in my field-dressing kit. Apart from it, I own one other guthook knife, a damascus skinner from Bear-MGC that is a fine, very usable utility knife. The WK does it's job so well that I scarcely use the other, but I don't find that the hook gets in the way at all. It's great for cutting cord, as well.