Havalon Guthook replacement blades.

[frankrb3]

Has anyone tried these on elk or other big game this season? What were your thoughts?

 

[efnm]

I tried them and didn't care for them. There is a decent portion that is not a blade, so you have to pay attention to the process and how you have the blade positioned. I MUCH prefer an Outdoor Edge guthook unzipper thing, enough that I sold my Havalon and use the OE combo knife. That is just easy peasy for me.

 

[Desk Jockey]

I hav eased them on 3 whitetail. Not exactly big game but big as I find around me. I would agree that there are better gut hooks out there. I have had some luck using it to open seems in hide. Last deer I field dressed and skinned I used the gut hook to open the abdominal cavity and the used it to open slots on the legs from the torso to the lower legs. Very clean and easy and you are cutting from inside out so you don’t get hair or whatnot in the incision.

Two things to consider:

1-though I haven’t broken one, they don’t inspire any more confidence than a regular havalon blade in terms of durability.

2 - it isn’t easy to switch blades on a havalon so you are sort of stuck with the gut hook and can’t use a regular blade. I am currently running two havalons in my kill kit for this reason. I bought the second havalon because I lost and later found the first so I have one with a regular blade and another with the gut hook and swap between them. It is only about 3-4 oz of extra weight and My hunts are short so I bring it.

On balance, if I didn’t already have it I don’t think I would be buying a havalon to dedicate it as a gut hook holder. I also think if I were hiking in far or backpacking it would get left behind to save weight.