What knives do you carry on your hunt?

What knives do you carry hunting?


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Benchmade Steep Country in the kill kit. Love it.

Benchmade Mini Osborne in the pocket. Pricey, but light, good steel and I had some gift cards to burn. Any folding knife would do for chores around camp. I save the edge on my fixed blade for the animal.
 
I've always carried l more traditional skinning knives. But, I've lately switched over to the ESEE line of knives. They are more of "do all" while out in the wild!
 
Are the mora knives as easy to sharpen as they look? I used one I bought my dad on an antelope recently and it worked great. I received a buck Selkirk as a gift, but haven’t packed it in yet, it’s a little heavy.


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Benchmade Steep Country in the kill kit. Love it.

Benchmade Mini Osborne in the pocket. Pricey, but light, good steel and I had some gift cards to burn. Any folding knife would do for chores around camp. I save the edge on my fixed blade for the animal.
Does benchmade hold an edge well?
 
Over the past few years I have been making due with whatever I have laying around the house. Last year I dressed and quartered a handful of whitetails using a $15 Mora. It worked OK. I have a little bit of extra cash laying around and decided that I want to upgrade the knives that I carry into the woods.

I just purchased a Havalon and was considering buying a general purpose fixed blade. ESEE caught my eye. I am considering purchasing an Izula II or ESEE 3 to compliment the Havalon. Does anyone have any experience with those knives. Do you have another knife that you might recommend? I'm trying to stay under $100.
Havalon piranta + Dawson Javalina is my current set up. Have had good experiences with Buck open season series and SOG knives if you're trying to stay under 100$. Stay with fixed blades for strength.
 
Over the past few years I have been making due with whatever I have laying around the house. Last year I dressed and quartered a handful of whitetails using a $15 Mora. It worked OK. I have a little bit of extra cash laying around and decided that I want to upgrade the knives that I carry into the woods.

I just purchased a Havalon and was considering buying a general purpose fixed blade. ESEE caught my eye. I am considering purchasing an Izula II or ESEE 3 to compliment the Havalon. Does anyone have any experience with those knives. Do you have another knife that you might recommend? I'm trying to stay under $100.
I switched to the Randy Newberg ESB last year and I couldn't be more impressed. I did one decent muley, a cow elk, and my bull from this year (all gutless) with one set of those knives. Granted that 3 different blades come with it, but they outperformed anything that I've used before.
 
Does benchmade hold an edge well?

Mine has held an edge really well. Probably depends on the steel they use for each knife model.... but I think they use higher quality steel on all their stuff.

My Steep Country was used to skin and de-bone 2 elk. All I needed to keep it shaving sharp was a fine ceramic rod and a leather strop (Work Sharp Field Sharpener). Touch8ng up the blade was quick and easy and made all that work a much more enjoyable.

The Mini Osborne is new, so I don't have much experience with it. But, it was very sharp out of the box. It has the same steel as the Steep Country (S30V), so I expect it to hold up well.
 
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I carry a stout little Marttiini (Finland) that I bought in 1982 and miraculously still have. First knife I ever paid around a $100 for.
Also a custom Don Stevenson caper my daughter bought for me a few years ago.

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Lucas Forge. Hard to find a better knife.
 

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Havalon type knife and a fixed blade knife. The Havalon makes processing game easier but you should never be in the back country without a fixed blade, full tang, knife. It will process game if needed, but also can be used for a variety of other reasons that may keep you alive in an emergency. Personally, I carry a Havalon and an ESEE IZULU or ESEE 4 (depending on if I have a wood stove or no stove).
 
Hard to beat a Morakniv for $15.

Held an edge through 2 back to back antelope with out touching the blade.

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For me, it’s hard to beat an Outdoor Edge Razor Lite. You can get filet knife blades for them, gut hook blades or standard blades. I took my last elk from field to packaged meat with just that one knife, no problem. I like to skin and quarter with the standard blades then use the filet blades to process and butcher meat once I’m home. Hard to beat in my opinion. I know people get used to what they got, but I tried a havalon last week with some friends on an antelope and like the more “traditional” feel of the Outdoor Edge standard blade. I feel they both are scary sharp when new.
I can usually get a deer quartered and broken down with 2 blades, one if I really needed to. An elk takes 3 sometimes 4. The key selling point for me though is the filet knife blades that fit into the same knife. Those things are sweet and make butchering at home a piece of cake!


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