I have lots of experience with deer. Although any knife can get the job done, the various drop point hunters are ideal. The Spyderco Moran in drop point. but I think the Benchmade Hunt series has one I would choose over the Moran. Benchmade just came out with the Hunt series. It is much better then the Bone collector that it replaces (Bone collector was uncomfortable in hand because of some non-sense to look cool). But the Hunt series fixes that. The saddle mountain skinner from that line is the one for your friend.