gut hooks?

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I was a traditional straight-blade user for years before I switched to a knife called the Whitetail Skinner. I've used it for 3 bears and countless whitetail deer. It incorporates a large, heavy-duty gut hook, and a T-Handle which once you get used to it, gives you much more leverage that a straight handle. I've also used straight-handled knives with gut-hooks and also found them several steps ahead of kinves without a gut-hook. You basically use the tip of your knife to open a tiny hole, then hook the gut hook into it and just unzip the critter. I've never punched through into anything I didn't want to -- you just can't cut too deeply even if you try. I think you'd like them.
 
This is reallly funny timing. Just the other day i was in my Anatomy lab and we were disecting pigs. My prof, who is a good friend, is going on and on about how to make the first incision and how important it is not to cut any of the internal organs. I always carry a pocket knife, mainly out of habit, and it has a gut hook on the back of it. I've never used it because my hunting knife has been passed down from generation to generation and has gutted my great grandfathers deer. Anyhow, i brought my prof over showed him the gut hook to see if i culd just "unzip" the pig. He looked at it for quite some time and said give it a try. Sure enough flawless. I had people begging me to let them borrough it.

The knife is just a cheap wally world knock off(i can't even find a name). My mom gave it to me as a going away present last year.

I don't know much but if it works in a college bio lab it should work in the field.
 
On a knife that isn't used for anything else, they are useful. Seems to me that somebody was marketing a disposable gut hook a while back. It was mainly plastic with a little razor-blade type thingy in it. You used it once or twice, or til it got blunt if you're cheap, and then tossed it in the trash.
 
I have a little gizmo designed to slice through seatbelts that seems to work well as a gut hook. It's pretty close to disposable.

I've looked at the built in gut hooks on fixed blades, but I've always wondered if they would weaken the blade and cause it to break when going through the rib cage.
 
I use one. Like someone above said, it is just like unzipping a deer. I have cut through the pelvis of a whitetail with mine and it didn't break. Why would you think the gut hook would weaken the blade? It is out on the very tip of the knife. When I am trying to cut through something, I use the middle of the blade.
 
Once you get the hang of using a Wyo. knife, they are very very quick. Still need a decent blade or saw to break the pelvis though.
 
I can unzip a deer as fast with an ordinary hunting knife than someone can with a gut hook. Get a good sharp knife and learn how to use it !
 
Here's a couple I own. The little one was a gift from the maker. It probably isn't good for much except for maybe large fish. The larger one works well on antelope and deer. Elk are too tough for a gut hook, just gotta be good with a knife.

The larger one is 10.25 " long, the blade is 5".
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Yeah, I have a fixed blade knife made by Buck that has a gut hook on it. I think it is terrific. I have done it both ways and now am a firm believer in the gut hook. I have done the same thing with sissors: all the way from tongue to ????. I have a set of shears that I use at work that will cut damn near anything.
 
I also have a fixed blade from Buck that has a gut hook on it. I would not own another hunting knife that does not have one as it has made the process of gutting a deer that much easier.
 
This is the knife I bought: http://www.buckknives.com/catalog/detail/217/222

I didn't do any research or put much though into it. It was an impulse buy. We have a guy that shows up at random on a corner towing a trailer. The trailer is set up as a knife shop complete with glass display cases. I saw him on the corner, stopped and checked out his wares and decided to try this knife. I am very pleased with it.
 
I don't know to be honest with you.
I only own two fixed bladed knives that I have used to process a big game animal. In both cases, I have never used them for anything else. I take them out for a hunt. If I use them, I come home and sharpen them and put them away until next season. It kept it's edge good enough to process one deer. Beyond that, I don't know.

I always judge a folding knife's ability to hold an edge by how long I can carry it on a daily basis and have it remain sharp to my standards. I use the folders all the time, mainly for stuff like opening the mail and packages, but a lot of other stuff also. With the fixed blades, I basically only use them for one task and then sharpen them in preparation for the next hunting season, so they don't get any kind of long term evaluation.
 
I've used them numerous times and love 'em. I'm thinking about buying one of the Browning folders with one, but I too am concerned about how long the edge would last.
 
I have a pretty inexpensive Gerber folder that I will be using for the 3rd season, and it has kept its edge pretty well. I think Benchmade makes one also. But like 444, I only use it to skin deer and ducks, although I skinned one hog with it and those take the edge off a knife like cardboard! I probably need to sharpen it for the upcoming season, but it seems to hold a sharpening pretty good.
 
I learned a few things from Jim Sasser, the knifemaker who made the knives above. He preferred blade hardness of 57 Rockwell. Much under that and the knife won't hold an edge, much over and the average guy can't put an edge on it.

He said that mass producers of knives sometimes heat-treat their blades in bulk, kind of like in a bucket. The ones on the outside get too hard and the ones on the inside are too soft. Custom makers and top line manufacturers hang each blade separately in the oven, so they all get the same heat treatment.
 
Guns'n Labs, you say you've got a little gizmo designed to slice through seat belts?! Could you elaborate?!!!
 
Gut hooks are handy but a pain in the butt to sharpen.

Get a Wyoming knife witht he replacable blades and a good quality straight edged knife.

Happy hunting.

Smoke
 
I've got a guthook on my gerber. I use it mainly for cutting tasks the blade isnt up for like slicing shoe laces without slicing the tongue or my fingers, quickly slicing off little branches or whatnot.
 
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