All About Pocket Knives

I am looking for me a gut hook knife I don't know what Brand to get. I looked in cabelas Cutlery calalog at the ka-bar but don't know that much about ka-bar knives

old timer are you going to use this for skinning a deer or other animal? I'm asking because if you haven't ever used one they are basically useless IMO. They fill up with hair and that's all the cutting until you clean it out (and they fill up fast). Everyone I've talked to that has used them has had the same experience.

Of course if you have used one before, then you must like it and the above post won't apply.

I have never used one before. What would be a good knives to skin a deer

I've never dressed a deer, but I don't know why this would let you down, givin it was sharp.
With the enough experience you could probably use a lesser knife.

A guthook is a gimmick and not worth having... Having said that, I have dressed out dozens of deer with a Case Trapper. That is all you need.

old timer I've dressed out (field and quarter) lots of deer and my favorite knife to use was a Case folding hunter. I FULLY agree with oldblinddog on this, when dressing out a deer...LESS is better! I live in deer country you might say and every year every city dude that can lease some land or slip in on someone's land, cover us up. More often than not they will have these BIG OLE bowies strapped on their side that you could cut a car up with....and probably more suited to "dress down" a car than a deer. You don't want anything extremely pointy but more of a small curve, doesn't have to be much. The pointy knives in my experience go through the hide more than "skin" it. My advice is to get the smallest knife that's comfortable in your hand.

Does anybody has any experince with the buck paklite I looked at one for 17 at walmart

old timer1990 wrote:I have never used one before. What would be a good knives to skin a deer

I use pocket knife to gut 'em and a pick-up to skin 'em. A pocket knife will separate the pelvis IF you know where to cut. You can feel the cartilage on the inside of the pelvis with your finger. Take your pocket knife and lay it on the ridge and slice it back towards the rear.

All you have to do after you've gutted him, is make a cut down or up the middle and around the neck. Pull the cape back on the back of the neck about 8 to 10 inches Then make cuts on the inside of the legs out about halfway, then cut all the way around the leg where you finish that cut.

Find a rock about the size of your fist. Take the hide around the neck that you cut loose enough to slip the rock under the hide and then tie a rope around the rock. Tie it tight with the rock on the underside of the cape. The rock holds the rope to the hide. If you haven't already got the deer hanging from a decent tree limb, string him up by his head with another piece of rope. Take the rope attached to the rock and tie it off to a trailer hitch or the bumper and gently drive or back away from the deer. That hide will pop right off and you'll have a hanging carcass to do with as you please.

If you've got everything laid out and limb and truck handy, it will take about 10 minutes to undress him. After you've done it a few times, 5 minutes max.

Learned that trick from an old poacher.

I've NEVER had any luck with a "gut hook" knife.

I read years ago in Blade magazine about how the gut hook on knives got it's start. A custom maker was asked to put a notch on a custom knife for his customer to lift his coffee pot off the fire by the handle in deer camp. After that someone got the idea to sharpen it and use it to gut deer with.

Don't know if that is true or not as I don't believe everything I read.......But that is the way I remember the story.

I've never seen the need for a gut hook. They just get in the way.

Pretty much worthless, except for what knifemaker mentioned. "Gut Hook" is deceiving. The intended use has nothing to do with guts. It's made to slip into a small incision that you make on the animals belly then you simply slide it upward to open the cavity without puncturing a gut. Anyone that has done this before knows how to do it with a Trapper, one handed!

Old Timer - If you don't want to spend a lot of money on a knife for deer gutting and skinning, buy a dozen or so Rough Riders, sharpen them up, and you should have enough sharp blades to do the job and have one or two left over as back-up.

lift his coffee pot off the fire by the handle

knifemaker3,
this concept seem to hold up better than anything on this thread so far. I like the idea.
Not that I do any camping, I don't, but I like the practicality of it.
I have always sneered at the gut hook gimmick.

gmusic wrote:Pretty much worthless, except for what knifemaker mentioned. "Gut Hook" is deceiving. The intended use has nothing to do with guts. It's made to slip into a small incision that you make on the animals belly then you simply slide it upward to open the cavity without puncturing a gut. Anyone that has done this before knows how to do it with a Trapper, one handed!

I have a 1580t for splitting the pelvic bone but I gut a deer with a schrade 80t.

I've only had one guthook that was worth anything. It was a dedicated gut hook though.. This style works good though. http://www.cloudberrymarket.com/servlet ... %2C/Detail