Mine is a knife made by New West Knife works.What is everyone's go to field dressing knife mine is the buck 102 . Good luck to everyone who is hunting
I would like to add that before carrying the little buck folder I was carrying a older fixed blade Case. After purchasing a "butt out" and using it I realized that I could get away with a much shorter blade for field dressing. Anyone else using the butt out?I've been using a buck 442 the last few years. Had it for probably 20 years and should have been using it the whole time!
I tell newer hunters as much as possible that arguably the most dangerous place is with the knife out, too easy to slip with bloody hands and the result is rarely a positive one. I stopped splitting the pelvis bone as well, when I do, it's with a sawzall.You know, that is actually a very relevant point. Depends on what your next steps will be. Some people have adopted gutless method, others "Indian quarter", and still others bring an animal out whole or in halves or bone-in quarters.
Because my game will be boned out for packing out within an hour or two, I do a quick field dressing that gets the guts out and allows a post-Morten, but I'm not finicky about super clean. Any internals will stay with the skeleton anyway.
However, if you are inclined to split the pelvis and sternum, my go-to knife is not the tool for that. You will require different tooling for that, especially to do it without too much force. Force on sharp objects can and has killed people. There is a place on a trail I have used elk hunting a popular area where a hapless guy did just that. While trying to field dress an elk , he applied too much force, broke through and stabbed his thigh, severing his femoral artery. He bled out on the spot. Right tool for the anticipated job,