looking for a new hunting knife...UPDATE: WHAT I GOT-PICTURES ADDED!!!!

emtyhopper

emtyhopper

Joined
May 2, 2014
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I'm looking for a new hunting knife (mostly deer) and wanted to see if I could get a few suggestions. A local shop has a benchmade bushcrafter for $143 new and it has me very interested. For you guys who own one, what do you think of it as a hunting knife? How would it compare to other options? I want something in the 3.75 to 5 inch range with edge retention being one of the more important things. I will be using it to "clean" deer, everything other than field dressing, and maybe some other light chores around camp. So what would you get for around $150?


thanks in advance
emtyhopper

edited with what i ended up getting on page 2
 
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I'd get the knife you found. It's pretty much bullet proof. You might also want to check out the customs section here. There are a lot of talented people that can make you something really good for $150.
 
I'm a big deer hunter. (Bow hunter) I use a havalon, and this year I will be using a msc zipper for deer as well. I also will use a SMF if it's needed
 
I find that most bushcraft, survival and/or all-around outdoor knives are adequate but not great hunting knives. I am never out hunting with a single knife and prefer to carry a thinner ground dedicated hunter along with a more utilitarian blade. That being said out of the do-it-all production knife bunch in that price range I like the Fallkniven F1, Bark River Gunny and Bark River Canadian Special when it comes to hunting + camp duty. Some production fixed blades designed for hunting I like are the Fallkniven H1 and Spyderco Moran. The H1 is popular with many bushcrafters but I have only used mine for processing deer and hogs. My favorite custom hunting knife is a thin ground custom from Big Chris here on the forum.
 
So you want something for processing? Not for field dressing, skinning, or caping?
 
That benchmade bushcrafter looks like a great knife. Bark river makes some really nice hunting knives. You should check out this guy on youtube, virtuovice. He is a Japanese deer hunter and is obsessed with knives. He reviews almost all of the hunting knives you could think of. His videos are very entertaining because of his accent. Check him out.
 
I have a buddy who uses a havalon and loves it, I just cant get into the whole replaceable blade thing.
 
Brisket, thanks for the reply, that's the stuff im looking for. I wondered about using a thicker blade, the knife I have used the last 5 years or so is thin and works great, but doesnt hold an edge well at all. I have looked at a few of big chris's knives, very nice.

Antdog, I use an izula II for field dressing and thats usually the only knife i take with me while hunting. This knife will be used for skinning, quartering, and de-boning.
 
emtyhopper said:
Brisket, thanks for the reply, that's the stuff im looking for. I wondered about using a thicker blade, the knife I have used the last 5 years or so is thin and works great, but doesnt hold an edge well at all. I have looked at a few of big chris's knives, very nice.

Antdog, I use an izula II for field dressing and thats usually the only knife i take with me while hunting. This knife will be used for skinning, quartering, and de-boning.
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Gotcha. I use a knife about that size for field dressing too. Works just fine!

I've got a buddy who thinks he's Rambo.... Ever seen a guy try to field dress a deer with a 9 inch fixed blade? It ain't purty. Busted guts and their nasty nasty contents all over the place! Ugh - shudder....

Well, for something like that you might look at a Bark River, or maybe a smaller swamp rat with a thinner blade. That sr101 is good stuff. Holds an edge a good long time. Just make sure you throw some oil on the edge. Good luck, and good huntin whatever you choose!
 
This is one of my Hunters from Big Chris with Elk handles and S35V steel. He makes a swayback variation of this pattern which I really like for smaller game. I have one of his Moose Hunter patterns in S90V which makes a great camp knife as well as large game knife.

Knives044_zps95b065bf.jpg
 
emtyhopper said:
Antdog, I use an izula II for field dressing and thats usually the only knife i take with me while hunting. This knife will be used for skinning, quartering, and de-boning.
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Maybe a Kabar Becker BK-15 for the other chores and it's still handy enough to carry in the field. You have the field dressing covered with the Izula.

I use a number of knives with the largest being a Blackjack 125, a Spyderco Moran drop point, a couple Bob Dozier customs, and I suppose I'd carry my Kabar Becker BK-16 for general field duty hunting. This is mostly general cutting tasks and field dressing vs skinning although I could use any of these for skinning a deer. But I like a different kind of blade for meat processing.
 
RevDevil said:
I'd get the knife you found. It's pretty much bullet proof. You might also want to check out the customs section here. There are a lot of talented people that can make you something really good for $150.
Click to expand...

:thumbup:

Zieg
 
Here are some I really like:

-Spyderco Moran
-Bark River Bravo 1, Canadian Special and Fox River
-Fallkniven F1
-Cold Steel Master Hunter (I've got one of the old Carbon V ones, but I'm sure the VG-1 version is good, too)
-Wood Jewel, I've got two sets one is a leuku and puukko combination, and the other is a puukko and a sort of mini puukko.

I usually walk for days when hunting, I tend to carry a single knife to save weight, so it has to be able to handle daily camp tasks as well as game cleaning. Lately I've been using the Bravo 1 a lot even though it's a bit larger than I like.
 
How about a grohmann the shape is a little unconventional but it fits the hand well and is a great Skinner and you would have about $50 leftover.
 
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