Skinning knife for deer, which one?
 

I have a pretty large buck knife and have realized it is too big for skinning and cleaning deer. I know this is like ford vs Chevy but wondered if there are a couple of favorites that folks could recommend. I'm less concerned about price but certainly expect most good skinning knives can be had for less than 75 bucks or maybe 100.

What buck do you have I use a buck 103 skinner, a buck 105 pathfinder to cut off shoulders and loins.

The buck ergohunter is pretty darn perfect.

Schrade Sharpfinger.
Check it out.

For really fine work the Bird and Trout knife from Smoky Mtn. Knife Works is the cats ass.

For skinning? Who uses a knife for skinning a deer?
Except for cutting a ring around the legs and two splits across the starting side, I just pull the skin down and literally rip it off..

I've even seen some tie a rope to a 4 wheeler to pull it off in under 5 seconds.

As for gutting, any 4 inch sharp smooth knife will work.
For processing, I like to use something at least 4 to 5 inches long..

Never use a serrated blade.. smooth blade only and frequent use of sharpening stone.

My skinning knife of choice is a Gerber Gator. Great knife that holds an edge.

Huh? Too big?

I don't get it. You don't have to use the whole length of the blade. You can gut and skin a deer with basically any pocket knife.

There is no magic knife that makes the job just so much easier. I mean it is a quick operation to gut a deer and not much more to skin it. Skinning it does not involve any intricate operation. You pull the skin and tease at whatever resists with the blade and any blade that is sharp does it.

Not trying to be an aZZ but you just do it with whatever u got and just make sure it is sharp.

FCOL a good sharp Buck 110 folder or anything similar will do a deer, a bear, an elk or a moose.

I guess what I'm saying is it probably isn't a question of what knife but who's holding it.

I usually use a Buck Woodsman 4" fixed blade, or something about that size. A few years ago, however, I killed a deer, and realized that I did not have a hunting knife with me. My Swiss Army knife's large (2.5" approx.) did the job. It doesn't take a big knife to skin a deer, just a sharp one.

I have a pile of knives, but prefer the Gerber gator. Shorter blade and better control.

mostly just use my hen&rooster quarter horse stockman that's always in my pocket, to skin and quarter, then a rapala fillette knife for deboning and slicing
RR

Case XX Changer is a sweetheart of a folding knife. Three interchangeable blades and one saw blade for brisket and pelvis. In the field hard to beat it. I too use a lot of boning knives once the game is home.

If you skin the deer within a day of killing it, you don't really need a knife at all. And the little bit you do, anything will work. If, for some reason, you want to let it hang with the skin on, your in for more work. My uncle used to hand everything til the end of the season, then process it all at once. He'd have to use a pair of vice-grips to pull the skin off, in that case, the kind of knife might be more important. In my opinion, skin it as soon as you get it home and the skin will pretty much pull right off.

For skinning i use just a Rapala fillet knife. With the thin blade its nice to cut those little strands that wont rip.

The Havalon works wonders.

I don't see any reason to use a hunting knife to butcher a deer at home. Look at butcher knives. I use a swing blade in the field and a forschner curved boning knife to skin/butcher and the rest of the year it serves as a great kitchen/butcher knife as well.

The swing blade is hard to beat in the field. The gutting blade is awesome.

Get something with a good belly on it to butcher so your not just using the tip of the knife. This is why I prefer the Forschner knife. It has a good belly but also a sharp tip. Its great for every thing after the deer is out of the field. I use the outdoor edge zip blade to made the initial cuts which really limits hair flying and covering meat.

Here are my favorite hunting knives
from left to right OE Swing blade, OE flip n zip, Ka bar bk-17, cold steel pendleton, OE zip blade, lone wolf gut tool, mora 110, bucklite max small, schrade sharpfinger(an old one not the new junk) case ridgeback, buck 110


Small game knives I prefer....Havalon and cold steel bird and trout. I also cape with these.


After I get the deer home these are the butcher knives. I also use these in the kitchen all year around.
From top to bottom dexter russell 7 inch butcher, 6 inch forschner curved boning, dexter russell 6 inch curved boning, forschner 5 inch boning


The winners from field to plate. top to bottom
Outdoor edge swing blade, cold steel bird and trout in the field, and forschner 5 inch boning, and outdoor edge zip blade for butchering.


You can get all 4 for around $100.

I've got an old 1916 Marbles Gladstone for skinning and an old Foster Bros Butcher knife along with their boning knife. Picked them up used from a butcher back in the 70's

My go to blade for most everything.

I used to carry a Case XX trapper. It worked well for years. Lately I've taken to carrying a Havalon. I like not having to sharpen it since you can change the blade in less than a minute. Plus since it is basically a scalpel, it is wickedly sharp. First time I used it I cut the hell out of my own hand dressing a spike whitetail.

That's the knife I carry to find and field dress the deer.When I get it home I have a butchers set and I use most of them.

I use a electric knife to cut loins and hams stakes. The big k 110 to gut, 105 to cut off shoulders, loins, tender loins. I use buck 103 skinner to skin.

I like the BUCK folding Hunter ($39 at W-mart) for an all around gutting and skinning knife that fits nicely in your pocket. Just recently I got myself a 5" blade boning knife by Mundial at a good price for deboning meat - it is basically a fillet knife with a stiffer and better quality blade.