Every big game hunter, prepper and survivalist needs a selection of knives for processing the meat of large animals.
by Leon Pantenburg
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At some point, you may need to reduce a steer, hog, sheep, goat or large game animal into neatly-wrapped packages of
The Forshner boning knife, top and Cold Steel SRK have worked well for me over two decades of backcountry hunting.
meat for the freezer. Or, you might get a great deal on a half or quarter of beef or pork, and want to save the meat cutting and wrapping fees.
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At home, you may have all the tools and accessories needed to make this job do-able. But what knives should you carry when hunting the backcountry?
What if you’re on your own, with no outfitter to haul in meatcutting tools and take the meat out on a pack horse? Even if the big game carcass will be taken to a commercial meat cutter later for processing, you’ll still have to gut, skin and possibly quarter the animal.
In a backcountry hunting situation, every ounce in your daypack counts. But! (DANGER! DANGER! SURVIVALCOMMONSENSE.COM WARNING!!! Under no circumstances should you ever leave your Ten Essentials and survival gear behind to lighten the load! )
After hunting the west, parts of the midwest and the eastern United States for several decades, my backcountry knife selection has been refined to three. Now, the conversation about what knife, or knives, are best should be held around a blazing hunting camp fire, (And what fun would it be if everyone agreed?) So first, let me state my biases:
- No Folders: I love, own and use many folding knives. I carry a pocketknife every day. But I don’t carry a folding hunting knife in the backcountry. The weak point of any folder is the hinge. Break that, and you end up with two pieces. And, the hinge will attract hair, dirt and other stuff that will gum it up and make it harder to use.
- No guthooks: In my opinion, the hook is only good for a couple of cuts, such as the initial incision to open up the body cavity. Otherwise, the guthook looks terrible on a knife blade, can hook on the sheath or your clothing and serves no other purpose. (Guaranteed arguments from these comments!)
- Safe Handle: My backcountry knife must also have a non-slip handle. Inevitably, the knife will get
This Mora knife handle was still safe to use after cleaning a limit of trout.
covered with blood and body fluids during a gutting operation and a slippery handle is dangerous. A well-designed handle, made of micarta or wood, that fits your hand is going to be safer than a soft, smushy handle that doesn’t.
- Long-enough blade length: A blade between four to six inches is my preference. Now, don’t write in and tell me how you’ve field-dressed all sorts of big game with your pocketknife! Sure, it’s possible! For years, I used a Buck folding hunter with a 3-1/2-inch clip-point blade for whitetail deer hunting. But for what I need in the backcountry, a longer blade works better and is more efficient.
- Easily sharpened: It doesn’t matter what wonder component the blade is made of. At some point, the blade will need sharpening, and I must be able to do it easily. Practice your knife sharpening skills.
The elk hunting technique method my brother, Mike, and I use to hunt elk or deer in the mountains can be pretty hardcore. We’ve hunted together since he was 12 (decades ago!), and our usual routine is to work together as a team, but hunt separately. Before we take off from the base camp, a morning hunt is planned, and we know the area each other is hunting. We’ll pick a rendezvous site to meet for lunch. If an animal is down, we go take care of it. If not, the afternoon hunt is planned.
This style of hunting involves a lot of walking and glassing, and every ounce counts. Nothing is taken along that hasn’t been carefully weighed, discussed and considered.
So, based on that criteria and my prejudices, here’s my choices for what knives to take along on a backcountry backpack elk or deer hunt:
Cold Steel SRK: If I only had one knife for field dressing and skinning a big game animal, the SRK would be it. The
My Cold Steel SRK has had hard use for nearly 20 years and is among my top knife choices for the backcountry.
initials stand for “Survival Rescue Knife” and it would be a great choice for that. I bought my SRK in 1991, when I moved to Idaho. The knife’s performance is so impressive that two of my elk-hunter friends bought SRKs.
The SRK blade is 3/16″ thick and 6″ long; the Kraton handle is 4-3/4 inches long; overall length is 10-3/4 inches. My SRK, without sheath, weighs eight ounces, and 10.5 with the sheath wrapped in duct tape.
My first action upon getting the SRK was to take the black “tactical” paint off the blade, and mark the handle with bright tape. The SRK has field-dressed well over 50 whitetails, been used on several elk, and is a very practical survival knife. In one instance, I quartered three deer without the SRK needing sharpening.
The SRK’s handle never gets too slick to hold safely, no matter how messy the gutting job gets. I have split a deer pelvis by pounding the SRK through it with a rock. Several times, the SRK has been used alone to split ribcages on big whitetails.
The clip point is a good choice for making the initial slit down the belly when gutting an animal, and the SRK works passably well for skinning.
But my next favorite may be the Bark River Kalahari. New on the market this year, the Kalahari Hunter has a four-inch blade, well-designed handle and a blade made of A2 steel. I’ll be checking it out.
Another good choice is the Cold Steel Master Hunter. For folks who want a little less blade, but the same none-slip handle and good design, the Master Hunter might be a better option. The four-inch blade design works particularly well for skinning.
The next two knife choices I learned about in college. I worked my way through Iowa State at the Hy-Vee #1 grocery store in Ames, Iowa. Always a cutlery enthusiast, I quizzed the meatcutters about their favorite knives and why they used them.
The guys in the clean white coats and hats did more meat cutting and processing in a day, than the rest of us do during a
These lamb skinner knives all work well to skin any sized big game animal.
very successful hunting season. They could order any knife they wanted from a variety of commercial knife catalogs.
The meatcutters didn’t agree on the best overall knife, naturally, but I made my choices for skinning and boning knives based on their input. Here’s what I came up with:
Victorinox or Forshner Lamb Skinner: The name refers to a style originally used, I imagine, for skinning sheep somewhere. The style features a five-inch upswept blade, and a large handle. A standard sheep skinner comes with a blunt tip, which I filed down from the top edge into a point.
If you’re going to enjoy the meat you harvested, it must be cooled as soon as possible, and that means getting the hide off ASAP. A good skinning knife makes this critical job easier, and subsequently faster.
I’ve experimented with a standard six-inch butcher knife, but find I like the sheep skinner better.
I experimented with various boning knife blade lengths. The winner in this category is the five-inch.
Five-to-six inch Victorinox or Forshner Boning Knife: This knife also works well for filleting fish, and should have a thin, flexible blade. Mike and I usually carry one boning knife between us. The boning knife can be considered a specialized tool, but when you need one, it’s worth that extra weight!
I’m looking forward to field testing the Bark River Kalahari Sportsman Fillet/Boning knife this season. It has the Kalahari handle I really like, and a great-looking design.
Swiss Army Knife Classic: Yeah, you read right. The Classic is the smallest Swiss Army knife, it fits on a keyring, and that’s why I carry it. My key ring survival kit goes with me everywhere, including hunting. While I carry a complete Ten Essentials kit and survival gear with me, redundancy in some areas is a great thing!
The Classic is a folder that weighs one ounce and has a tiny blade that is virtually useless for hunting. But it also has a
The tiny Swiss Army Classic may end up being one of the most useful knives in the backcountry!
scissors, nail file (with the tip modified to fit the hinge on my glasses), toothpick and most importantly, a tweezers. This little knife could be a godsend if you get a splinter in your hand.
But the glasses screwdriver could literally save the hunt. If you’re like me, you can’t see without your glasses, and if you can’t see you can’t hunt. The modified Classic could end up being your most important knife!
So there’s my suggestions for the minimum backcountry hunting knives. Here are some other contenders that get honorable mentions:
Folding Buck Hunter: I’ve used and carried a Shrade lock blade and a Buck double-bladed hunter. They were disqualified because they were folders.
Case Folding Double-Bladed Hunter: Another disqualification because of the hinge. But I’ll admit, having two sharp blades available reduces sharpening during the field-dressing operations.
Wyoming knife: One of my elk-hunting buddies, Phil Walker, carried a Wyoming knife for years for gutting and skinning. It works very well for this purpose, but I don’t like because it looks like something out of Star Wars. (Prejudice, I’ll admit!)
The replaceable blades are great when you’re in the middle of a carcass and need a sharp blade. Phil also carried an 8-inch butcher knife and an honest-to-God Bowie, and hunts elk with a Ruger Number One in .338 Winchester. He might weigh 150 pounds soaking wet after a large meal.
Using these tools on opening day 1993, near Dworshack Reservoir in Central Idaho Phil killed, gutted, quartered and packed out a six-by-six bull elk by himself. He got done in time to come pick me up in the boat across the lake!
The Mora-style knife is a good all-around camping and outdoor knife.
Mora: I love my Moras, and carry one most of time when I’m outdoors. The small Scandinavian knives are great for about 90 percent of what I need a knife for. A Mora is my choice for cleaning fish, processing small game and a Mora rides in my vest when I’m hunting birds. But I prefer a larger knife for bigger game animals.
But survival expert and former big game guide Peter Kummerfeldt has carried and used a Mora for years. He has used the small knife on bighorn sheep, deer and elk, and I bought my first Mora on his advice. In the case of any expert, skill always trumps equipment!
Leatherman Wave: My favorite multi-tool is the Leatherman Wave. I got a Wave for Christmas several years ago, and so far, it has done everything I ever needed it for. In addition to pulling barbed wire from abandoned fences, the Leatherman has also been used to remove hooks from a toothy fish, repair a radiator hose, saw wood etc.
But the Leatherman is not a hunting/survival knife. And while none of my survival knives could replace the pliers, knife, screwdrivers etc. the Wave features, weight in the backpack is the issue. You can be sure there is a Wave back at camp!
When all the discussion is over, you decide what knives become part of your backcountry hunting gear. Think about choices, and know how to use them. Then, when you stand over that fallen big game animal in the backcountry, take a moment to be thankful before you get to work. You are doing something many people can only dream about!
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