Gutting Deer

yoderjac

Well-Known Member
For many years I used an Outdoor Edge Whitetail skinner for field dressing. There is a picture of one here: https://www.knivesplus.com/outdoor-edge-whitetail-skinner-oe-wt10.html. It worked great for me. The gut hook was great and I never punctured the stomach when gutting. The small skinning blade and T-handle were great for reaching up into the thorax to cut the esophagus and bull out the entrails. The skinning bale worked well too.

Eventually we bought property for hunting and had a barn with a hoist for field dressing after ATV retrieval of deer. I continued to use the Whitetail Skinner, but eventually, the gut hook got dull. It was a real PITA to sharpen. Since I no longer needed to carry the knife with me in the field, I decided to look for another solution for gutting. The one I came up with was a simple utility knife with a roofer's blade. It is a hook style blade and very cheap to replace rather than sharpen.

Because these are not meant for gutting, I had to be very careful not to cut the stomach. They worked very well otherwise. I used this approach for several years for gutting and continued to use the Whitetail Skinner for skinning. This year, we had a bumper mast crop. The deer I shot all had very bloated stomachs that were full of partially digested acorns. I nicked the stomach of every one of them and had to deal with the mess of the explosion of acorn mash.

I was googling around today and I think I found a better solution. I just ordered one of these: https://coastportland.com/products/...sxj-Ho3ArEKmRYQ8lFKcLzRD-J8RCX6HJHLmME8APAOUL

I was able to buy replacement gut hooks on Amazon for about $1 per blade. This is a lot more expensive than roofer's blades, but it is nominal. The season will be over before I get a chance to try these, but since they are designed as gut hooks, I presume, I'll have much less chance of nicking a stomach.

Perhaps others have used one of these and can comment on how well they work. Otherwise, I'll be the Guinee pig and report back when I get a chance to use one.
 
That is an interesting approach and it would certainly be easier to sharpen than a gut hook.
 
They are cheap. I keep one in the truck for when I'm at the farm and a 2nd in my butcher shop at home. Like you, I gut all of mine inside on a hoist. Been using them for 8-10 years, do 5-6 a year.
 
They are cheap. I keep one in the truck for when I'm at the farm and a 2nd in my butcher shop at home. Like you, I gut all of mine inside on a hoist. Been using them for 8-10 years, do 5-6 a year.
Yes, I they seem to be a very reasonable approach.
 
I used to use a regular knife years ago. It took much longer than a gut hook. I had to lead with it between my fingers to keep from puncturing the paunch. With a gut hook, it is like pulling up a zipper and a one handed operation.
 
I worked in a butcher shop as an apprentice when I was 16 and those guys had no patience for gut hooks or any other fancy knives, the professional meat cutters used only commercial butcher knives like a 5 or 6 inch Victorinox Semi-stiff boning knife. After learning there, and later handling dozens of different cutting tools for a living and field dressing hundreds of deer, I'm not very fussy what knife I use for opening up a deer, the job is so small and quick, it's just not worth carrying anything special for the job, I usually just carry a 3 dollar china Maxam lockback knife that comes right out of the box with a razor edge. One time I got a deer and didn’t have any knife so I took all the blades but one out of a broadhead and it worked just fine.
Carrying a gut hook to make one 20" cut on a deer isn't really worth it, with the rates of failures in the times I watched a gut hook being used seeming to happen oftener than a skilled guy with a straight blade knife pulling the paunch away and cutting from the inside out between their fingers.
 
I worked in a butcher shop as an apprentice when I was 16 and those guys had no patience for gut hooks or any other fancy knives, the professional meat cutters used only commercial butcher knives like a 5 or 6 inch Victorinox Semi-stiff boning knife. After learning there, and later handling dozens of different cutting tools for a living and field dressing hundreds of deer, I'm not very fussy what knife I use for opening up a deer, the job is so small and quick, it's just not worth carrying anything special for the job, I usually just carry a 3 dollar china Maxam lockback knife that comes right out of the box with a razor edge. One time I got a deer and didn’t have any knife so I took all the blades but one out of a broadhead and it worked just fine.
Carrying a gut hook to make one 20" cut on a deer isn't really worth it, with the rates of failures in the times I watched a gut hook being used seeming to happen oftener than a skilled guy with a straight blade knife pulling the paunch away and cutting from the inside out between their fingers.
I use a butcher knife for processing deer, but not for field dressing. I still prefer a gut hook for opening the gut. Since I do my processing at the barn with a hoist, I don't have to carry one extra thing. They just make the job quick and easy for me. I'm always leery about leading and cutting between my fingers. I only do 5 or 6 per season, so I'm not skilled in this area like a butcher. Several times, I've come close to getting cut with a broadhead when field dressing deer. Every time I put my hands in a deer where I can't see them I worry about a healed over broadhead.

So far I've been fortunately not to cut myself seriously when field dressing or skinning deer. I wasn't so lucky one year cleaning a turkey. I took a 10 year old boy out and we doubled. Fortunately, one of my partners was at the farm that day. The youngster got more than he bargained for, both a successful hunt and then a trip to the hospital to watch me get stitched up!
 
I use the $30 Old Timers with a gut hook. My buddy uses a fancy carpet cutter and seems to make quick work but he also deals with way more dead animals than I do. IMG_4041.jpegIMG_4041.jpeg
 
I use the $30 Old Timers with a gut hook. My buddy uses a fancy carpet cutter and seems to make quick work but he also deals with way more dead animals than I do. View attachment 29024View attachment 29024

That carpet cutter hook is the same blade as the roofer's hook I was describing. I was having issues with it piercing the stomach, especially if they are stuffed. One reason I decided to try the one I ordered is that as I'm getting older it is easier for me to pull a gut hook. Except for the sharpening issue, I really liked the old Whitetail Skinner with the T-handle. It was very easy to use.
 
I bought this knife to use for cutting up deer in as a teenager, it started life as a varnished maple wood handled Victorinox 6" stainless steel extra wide, extra stiff, curved granton edge boning knife, but it looks like it's about ready for the county retirement home. However it's like an old friend, difficult to part with. After 40 years here's evidence that buying the best quality does pay off sometimes. Good to the last drop, the 2.5" that's left of the 6" blade is still sharp enough to shave with. And amazingly, this company still sells these today for $65.99.
(as is very obvious here, using a knife that you're not emotionally attached to to cut meat has advantages such as using an electric grinder to quickly restore the edge when having a sharp knife to quickly get the job done matters way more than taking the time to sharpen your knife by and save the knife blade)

victorinox-swiss-army-5652015.jpg20241228_130025.jpg
 
I bought this knife to use for cutting up deer in as a teenager, it started life as a varnished maple wood handled Victorinox 6" stainless steel extra wide, extra stiff, curved granton edge boning knife, but it looks like it's about ready for the county retirement home. However it's like an old friend, difficult to part with. After 40 years here's evidence that buying the best quality does pay off sometimes. Good to the last drop, the 2.5" that's left of the 6" blade is still sharp enough to shave with. And amazingly, this company still sells these today for $65.99.
(as is very obvious here, using a knife that you're not emotionally attached to to cut meat has advantages such as using an electric grinder to quickly restore the edge when having a sharp knife to quickly get the job done matters way more than taking the time to sharpen your knife by and save the knife blade)

View attachment 29026View attachment 29027
That’s some history!
 
I bought this knife to use for cutting up deer in as a teenager, it started life as a varnished maple wood handled Victorinox 6" stainless steel extra wide, extra stiff, curved granton edge boning knife, but it looks like it's about ready for the county retirement home. However it's like an old friend, difficult to part with. After 40 years here's evidence that buying the best quality does pay off sometimes. Good to the last drop, the 2.5" that's left of the 6" blade is still sharp enough to shave with. And amazingly, this company still sells these today for $65.99.
(as is very obvious here, using a knife that you're not emotionally attached to to cut meat has advantages such as using an electric grinder to quickly restore the edge when having a sharp knife to quickly get the job done matters way more than taking the time to sharpen your knife by and save the knife blade)

View attachment 29026View attachment 29027
I'm using a Victorinox Swiss Army 5.7303.25-X4 Fibrox Cimeter Knife Black 10 inch for my butchering tasks. It is still new enough that I sharpen it by hand. At the farm I still use the old Whitetail Skinner for skinning. It is old enough that I use an electric knife sharpener on it. At my retirement property, I'm using a Spyderco Moran Drop Point Fixed Blade Knife with 3.92" VG-10 Stainless Steel Blade and Premium Custom-Molded Boltaron Sheath - PlainEdge for skinning. It too is new enough that I'm sharpening it by hand. My wife, who does the meat clean-up work uses some old Hofritz butcher knives that we sharpen in the electric sharpener.

The electric sharpener we use is a Chef's Choice Trizor sharpener.
 
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