Anyone take a small hatchet with them into the backcountry

[hooker]

Looking into a small hatchet or axe for backcountry hunting. Do really want to add weight to pack, but...

Thoughts?

 

[oldgoat]

Nope, bought one first year I packed in, once I had all the crap loaded into my pack and how much it already weighed, that hatchet never left the house! A high quality packable saw is usually lighter and more useful!

 

[mfllood3800]

^^^^^ This is exactly correct
I have a small back packer hatchet, that is so small and light, you cant exert the force needed to utilize it to cut wood. In fact I can break them over my knee faster than the light weight hatchets.
I use a folding saw from Sven- worth every penny, does more than just cut wood, even cuts heads off animals if needed.
I do carry a small heavier hatchet when I car camp, but never when I hike in.

 

[huntsman22]

saws work great for pounding tent stakes.....

 

[Desk Jockey]

I have a Gerber gator combo axe 2 with a saw in the handle. 2 pounds with cover. I use it for camping chores. I used the saw to cut a hip bone and hack ribs with the hatchet. Lot of bone chips in the ribs.

I love it but to be honest, I rarely take it. To me, it really only is justified if you are going to be doing some bush craft for whatever reason. Cutting poles for shelter. Chopping volumes of firewood.

 

[john.grim.5]

I have a similar S.O.G one I carry at times


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[mfllood3800]

I use a rock to pound stakes- its my way of recycling
that is if my foot isn't able to get it in.

I just finished a 3 dayer at 10,500' in Utah with temps in the low 20's and I was able to get all the stakes but one in with my foot. But if you use the cheap small guage stakes they bend easy, a small light weight hatchet would be great for that, but again useless in cutting up any amount of wood-
At least that's what I discovered

 

[rayporter]

frequently i have a hawk handy. li is light wt and breaks down. handy for splitting wood but not as handy as an axe. [drives pegs too]

if horse camping or on the water, both a saw and the hawk will be around camp.

 

[Kevin Dill]

I bring an axe 100% of the time if my woodstove is involved. No stove...no axe. Mine is a GB Small Forest Axe and I use it ALL the time from initially pounding stakes in rocky campsites to splitting spruce rounds into suitable stove fuel. I've used it to clear brush and cut out small stubs when creating a campsite where none existed. There is a weight penalty but the tool is too useful (for me) to leave behind.

 

[KJH]

I have a small lightweight one that goes along. It has multiple uses so it makes the cut... haha.

 

[GKPrice]

which, axe or "hatchet" ? Granfors Bruks makes the coolest little hatchet ("Hunters hatchet"??) I had one for a time then started thinking how that little razor sharp hatchet could do some serious damage to a body part while by yourself a long ways from any help, I sold it

 

[TradLife406]

The thought of a hatchet in the backcountry solo worries me. This last elk trip in the snow I used a small Gerber folding saw to cut down small dead lodge poles. Then I'd use my Esee Izula to baton the small logs. This worked very well. I hated packing the saw, but it made starting a fire a lot easier!

 

[boom]

i have a GB small forest axe. i pictured myself building whimsical fires, lakeside to cook up some dead elk bit of meat.. i strapped it to a pack, weighed it..and left it at home. while it is a fantastic axe. it is just too heavy. i always hoped to utilize the axe into the actual butchering process. i have strapped it to a pack for my mountain bike rides that we all do trail maintenance. someone always carries a tiny ECHO chainsaw..and that axe gets used very little. it is a great limbing tool tho.. i broke down a big Christmas tree and got it to fit in my green bin. and decapitating chickens? awesome.

i bought a Wetterlings Hatchet and took it backcountry trout fishing. 50 miles in. i cut my finger tapping in a tent stake when i shook the sheath loose. i was an idiot. a rock is safer. i did try to gut a trout with it..and it worked. scales flew off that fish, with that hatchet. haha.. i left it at home the following year.

i'm not much of an axe guy..apparently.

 

[fort fireman]

I have a fiskars camp axe and folding saw that I carry a good bit. I like to have it just incase.

 

[Beendare]

Backpacking NO.....even my UL stove does best with small sticks up to 2" dia. When horse packing in I have the 1# hatchet for $16 from Walmart and its perfect....though not at all the quality of a Granfors

 

[Felix40]

I have a cold steel frontier hawk I pretty much take everywhere. Its 19oz and useful for everything from firewood, to tent stakes, to digging out a flat spot to sleep, to chopping up animal parts, to clearing out a spot to glass through the brush. A saw has its place too but the hawk fits my needs better. And theres not a man alive who can break firewood over his knee faster than I can cut it.

 

[frankrb3]

I take a mora companion ($15 fixed blade knife) and a bahco laplander (folding saw). Extremely versatile pair of tools that can do a lot together. Wood Processing (batoning), game processing, shelter building, splint/stretcher/crutch building, tool building (mallets and splitting wedges), gear building (tent stakes, spoons, canoe yoke). I know they add weight but I have used them for every example I have listed so far except the splint/stretcher building. Hatchets are nice to have but I have found the saw/knife combo to be more useful and lighter than a good quality hatchet made of steel and wood.

 

[Sverimerica]

I always take one, but then again, I am kind of bush-crafty. Sometimes it gets used alot, sometimes not at all, but it doesnt take much space and is nice to have when you need it, especially for firewood, or making poles for a shelter, or sturdy waking sticks. For me, it is faster and slicker than a saw.

I use a gränsfors bruk outdoor axe. They make one that is even smaller, i forgot the name, that I might pick up.

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[mcseal2]

I have a GB small forest axe and a Bob Dustrude folding bow saw that fit together in a canvas sheath I take in the UTV, truck, canoe, boat, horse, or whatever I use to get to where I start walking from. They have helped me clear a tree that fell across the trail a few times and feed my stove or campfire. Once I take off on foot though I don't pack them unless I know I will need them for something.

 

[justinspicher]

I take a Fiskars hatchet every time I go into the woods. I even use it at work, when I am in the woods. I know if I leave it behind, I will need it. I also carry a small file in the handle so I can sharpen it as needed. It’s also come in handy to pound tent stakes and break large bones.