I will share some pictures and some thoughts from our last trip to the West. It was a very enjoyable time, and a trip I had dreamed about for the last forty some years. My father used to take me to the local High School auditorium, when the fire department sponsored someone to come and show hunting films once a year. A man by the name of George Klucky would travel the United States and Alaska, and to Africa on hunting and fishing trips and documented it on film. Then he would travel around and fire departments would sponsor him and he would show those movies and local high school auditoriums when I was a boy. I remember thinking that someday I will hopefully get an opportunity to travel to some to of those places and hunt some of these animals. This last week was a lifetime dream come true. I got to go with my son Austin, and my nephew Scott to the state of Utah. We had three cow elk tags, on a a privately owned 65,000 acre Ranch.
This is the original homestead cabin built in 1840.
We were hunting at an altitude of about 8,000 feet. I was unsure if my asthma would cause trouble, but it did not. (also i had Covid starting Sept 11. I am back 90%). My breathing was actually better than it is at home, and even with the hiking we did and treks up the mountains, across the desert and the sage, my lungs stayed clear all week. There is a lot of elk on that ranch, and all three of us were able to get our cows in the first day. Austin shot was about 365 yards, my shot was 268 yards, and Scott shot his at about 380 yards.
Austin
Scott
Mine
One of the things that we were looking forward to do was use and test and compare knives for the processing and the skinning of the elk if we got any. Of course we had long talked about taking Nathan knives along, because several years ago when Austin got his first elk, which was a six-by-six bull in Colorado, he used a Nathan knife to cut it up and process it. That left such an impression on him, because the other fellow that was with him and his knives went dull very quickly. That thread is on the forum somewhere where we refenced that experience. (It was before Nathan had his own sub-forum).
Austin's original field knife stayed sharp through the entire process of the muddy dirty bull, and then was used in Camp the rest of the weekend and was still sharp when he came home. So this time we had some knives that we had made, which are in CPM 154 at 61 Rockwell. And we used them to help skin and quarter and then debone these three elk as well as one of Nathan New Field knives, and a Heavy Duty Field Knife. My conclusions are that for animals of this size a 4-inch blade will do it all with ease, and there are times when I really appreciated having a 5 inch blade. For the type of things we were doing with it, a six-inch blade to me felt like too much knife for the task at hand. The 3V performed as it always does, and I was impressed with the 154 and how it seemed to hold up also very well and after processing 2 Elk with it, and the CPK Field knife they were both still sharp enough to cut paper with no problem.
We really enjoyed staying at the camp, and seeing the sights, and getting to do some hiking. We also spent some time in Dinosaur National Monument, seeing some pictographs and fossilized dinosaur skeletons on our way home.
(His Busse goes everywhere with him) Utah knife laws are very cool.
Meeting some amazing people in the knife world, has been the biggest benefit to our times of knife building and going to shows. And a close second is getting the privilege to own and use tools that are so vastly superior to what the common person has. The Rancher showed us his knife that he uses for Elk, and it was a two and a half inch blade that had a replaceable Razor Edge. He had never seen or heard of knives like we had, and frankly I don't think he believed us when we talked about their performance levels. He also indicated that he would have no tools or no good way to sharpen knives, and sharpening knives it's not something they do. That seems to be the experience in our larger family and friend circles. Anyway just sharing some of my rambling thoughts this morning as I reflect back over this trip. And I thought that some of you folks might enjoy seeing the pictures.
It's always great to see you around because your stories are packed with great goodies
