Your favorite skinning knif

For years I used two Buck Vanguards with the rubber handles. Worked well, just would have liked the edges to last a little longer...but they took care of a lot of field dressing over the years!
Then I tried a firend's SwingBlade. After doing four deer one night, I went and bought two. Have been using them for about 15 years. Great blades. Still carry the Vanguards in my daypack.
For fine work and turning ears, lips etc., I have a Havalon Piranta. Works very well on the fine work.
 
I trap and custom skin for guys and Ive settled on a Caribou 1s for opening up animals till i get the hind legs and tail stripped, after that I use a Morakaniv carpenter or a Caribou 4s. Ive found the trick to skinning small game is too use your knife as least possible, Ive also had a custom skinning machine made to help this. I know many trappers who skin hundreds of coyotes and other critters a year and knife favorites really vary.
 
John Y Cannuck said:
Just to be different, i use a folding knife for this, and gutting as well, it's the Alpha Hunter, by Buck. Works very well, but is a ##### to clean afterwards. The penalty you pay for not having a belt knife to sit on.
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Used this same blade for many years on Deer, I have gone to a few Grohmann knives now though, I like to carry 2 on me while hunting.
 
I use separate knives for field dressing deer and this is on of my favourites

Browning 503 Tactical Hunter folding knife in VG10 steel (safe to use with bloody hands, easy to clean, easy to sharpen to crazy sharp, easy to flick open, and sturdy)

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Been using a Mora companion knife. Holds an edge well, I keep it razor sharp. Best $25 I've spent on hunting equip.
 
These last few years on my deer and coyotes I have been using nothing more then a dollar store utility knife.... Cheap and comes with replacement blades...When I need something thats a little tougher, I use my buck 110.... but most of the work is done using that utility knife.
 
Many years ago, I took the Father In Law on a Moose hunt to the B.C. central interior. On the way up, we stopped for a bite to eat, just south of Cache Creek. At a small hardware store close by, I spotted a Puma White Hunter,:redface: I couldn't live with out. All I ever used it for was slicing bacon at camp. In reality, a blade that length would only be handy, slashing bush for a trail in central America. A few years ago, I had it cut down to a 3 1/2" blade. Now I have a great skinner.
 
I like my big ol Buffalo Skinner/Buck 119 for taking longer swipes on bigger game like moose/elk/bear/deer.Also liked Buck Vangaurd Zipper for deer,but I left it behind on the ground at a gutpile a few years back and returned next day,I suspect maybe the coyotes carried it off a ways and never found.:(
Grohman/Russell belt n boot knife is my go to for furbearers,coyotes/beaver etc.
If you are not real handy at sharpening,pretty hard to beat the Outdoor Edge series of replaceable blade knives.Had one given to me a few years ago as part of tip for guiding a moose hunter and quite impressed with it,the blades stay sharp for a long time.I skinned an entire moose then later in season 2 deer without changing the blade still holding a good edge.I will be picking up another Outdoor Edge before this fall with the “swing blade” hide zipper,looks to be pretty handy,and likely better then the popular gut hook style zippers that tend to clog up/hang up if you don’t keep them razor sharp.I used a chainsaw file to tune up guthook on my Buck Zipper.
 
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I love the Grohmann/Russels, and I always have one in my pack- a 1958 belt knife. My carry knife of late however is a Martinni from Finland, and my main filled dressing knife is a Puma folder I was given in 1992 by my father.
Cat
 
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