Lets talk about gut hooks

The thread on making a gut hook got me thinking again but I don't want to hijack another thread.

I'd like to here some other opinions on gut hooks and how you use them. After making one little incision with proper placement in my hand it takes a total of about 5 seconds to open up a deer with my hunting knife, so how can a gut hook save time?

In fact I have not found one thing on field dressing or other hunting chores other than open a bottle of pop that a gut hook will do better than a well designed drop point and someone that knows how to use it. Usually when someone asks about one I show them how to hold my "Whitetail Hunter" which I specifically designed for field dressing and skinning and they realize they don't want or need a gut hook.

Cliff,

Yup. I totally agree. I do recall lauging at my Dad fumbling with a Wyoming knife and trying to figure out how to keep from slicing his thumb with the silly thing, LOL.

Not exactly the same as a gut hook but similar concept.

IMHO- a gut hook is only good for 2 things

1. Opening large game- 2 fingers and a SHARP knife will zip them right open with no worry of damage to the innerds so why the need for the hook ?

2. Making the tip of the knife more suseptable to damage than it would be without the hook. Now I don't know that breaking the gut hook/ tip is a problem especially while field dressing but if I get in a jam in the woods I'd like to feel comfortable that my knife will stand up to whatever comes it's way.

My guess would be that the gut hook is an invention of a hunter with a dull knife.

That being said though- too each his own. Id believe I'd have to pass if someone requested I make them a gut hook blade.

Thats my take on it with around 15-20 whitetails to my field dressing credit.

-Josh

I agree, I have never liked them & could never think of an advantage to having one on a knife. I can unzip a deer using my forefinger, middle finger, & a drop point knife in just a few seconds. I have seen the appearance of some otherwise beautiful knives ruined (in my opinion) by the addition of a guthook. I have never made one and probably never will. I cringe when someone asks about them and steer them away from them. I know there are people who swear by them, but in my opinion, there is no need for them. Maybe I just haven't seen one used correctly. As in all things I try to keep an open mind about them. Who knows, maybe this thread will educate me to the proper use and need for a guthook.

I am like you guys when it comes to deer and a gut hook. Sometimes on real big hogs they seem to work a bit better. But I can tell you that on a gator they work fantastic! Especially if you are skinning them out from the back (to save the belly hide). Nothing that I have found works better or faster for gators.

I have never used a gut hook nor did my father who dressed many deer in his lifetime. I just saw a hatchet with a large gut hook built in that makes more sense to me than a hook on a knife blade. A small hatchet works great for splitting the rib cage and the pelvis and a gut hook on it wouldn't be in the way as it would on a knife. The gut hook looked to be large enough to work well on hogs and gators, too, Ron.

Ron, That's interesting, I've never fooled with a gator. Is there not enough room to slide a finger and the point under the skin and slice on a gator? Or to just slide a drop point along letting it cut the skin from the inside like splitting the legs on a deer?

I'm assuming your wanting to do your cut from the inside. Even on a deer you want to do all your cuts from the inside, this way your not cutting hair and have loose hair all over the carcus and then take a chance on one finding its way to the processed meat. One little hair will ruin a whole package of meat. The first incision is the only cut I make on the outside, all other splitting and skinning is from the inside out.

Cliff I have you a gerber with a gut hook for the last six years. I like it and I love the way it works. When I first started useing it I have to admit I hated it. But it was a gift from my best freind and we hunt togather. So I kept useing it till I figured how to use it. That first season I gutted 6 deer. The first 4 were practice. Since then I usually gut almost everyones in our hunting party. They will radio me so I can use it and they will go from their. It takes awhile to learn but after that IMO it is a great tool.

I tend to agree with the gut hook more on a hatchet. It actually makes sense because you can't get a hatchet under the skin to gut one like you can a knife and the gut hook would not be in the way on a hatchet like it can be on a knife.

I have actually thought about making myself a small hatchet for splitting the pelvic bone but it's one more thing to carry and I just continue to use my knife. No sense in changing after all these years. I believe I can split the ribs easier with my knife anyway.

I agree it certainly has it's place more with hogs. I make some knives for some guys that are very serious hog hunters and they have never asked for a guts hook.

JAWilliams said:

Cliff I have you a gerber with a gut hook for the last six years. I like it and I love the way it works. When I first started useing it I have to admit I hated it. But it was a gift from my best freind and we hunt togather. So I kept useing it till I figured how to use it. That first season I gutted 6 deer. The first 4 were practice. Since then I usually gut almost everyones in our hunting party. They will radio me so I can use it and they will go from their. It takes awhile to learn but after that IMO it is a great tool.

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Man their using you Just kidding. They could gut it with a regular knife by the time they key the radio.

Gerber must make a good one, the guy that owns the local guns shop said he tried a gerber the salesman had given him for a test knife. He said it was the best gut hook he every used and actually worked. I asked him if it was any better or faster than just using a drop point and his finger and he admitted no it wasn't.

Denton Eller said:

I have never used a gut hook nor did my father who dressed many deer in his lifetime. I just saw a hatchet with a large gut hook built in that makes more sense to me than a hook on a knife blade. A small hatchet works great for splitting the rib cage and the pelvis and a gut hook on it wouldn't be in the way as it would on a knife. The gut hook looked to be large enough to work well on hogs and gators, too, Ron.

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If you run a knife right along the sternum of the ribcage the ribs are just attached with cartilage. A sharp knife will pop through it with no problem at all.

Like others have said I personally don't see the need for a gut hook, it seems more like a "novelty" item to me, at least for whitetails. We don't have any hogs or gators here so I can't speak for how they work on them. Although I will say I think that a good sharp knife is more than capable of dressing out just about any animal.

Cliff, yes there is plenty of room to slip your fingers in on the bottom of the gator, but the problem is that the hide is so thick and tough, especially on the back. On the smaller gators it is not as big an issue. We just got a 10 footer this year and it took awhile to skin him out.

When you want to save the belly hide for tanning, you have to skin from the back to the belly. They have rows of 'things' (I don't know what they are called) down their back - it goes from meat to cartilage to bone in just a few inches. It is hard to explain here, but it is very difficult to cut and impossible to get fingers into. It is armor for the gator so this is understandable.

Here are four links to pictures my daughters took of the gators we got this year. The first one is a 7 footer and the second is 10 feet. There are pictures of us skinning them out, that should give you a good idea.

http://picasaweb.google.com/bchoiniere/FirstGatorOfTheSeasonBeaSCamera

http://picasaweb.google.com/bchoiniere/SecondGatorOfTheSeasonBeaSCamera

http://picasaweb.google.com/sabrina.bendele/FirstGator

http://picasaweb.google.com/sabrina.bendele/2ndGator

One of the knives we used has a gut hook and the other doesn't. We used the gut hook especially on the back. In some of the pictures you see ducks ... we were feeding them parts of the gator!

Cliff Fendley said:

...other than open a bottle of pop that a gut hook will do better than a well designed drop point and someone that knows how to use it.

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Josh Dabney said:

My guess would be that the gut hook is an invention of a hunter with a dull knife.

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LMBOff!!! Cliff, Josh...you guys are killing me. That's too funny.

But I agree. I'll stick with my drop point. I've done a couple of blades with gut hooks for looks, but they are about as much use as teets on a bore hog for my money. ;~)

A lot of the guys that swear by 'um say they get less hair on the meat because it mostly cuts from underneath, but so does a drop point if it's being used correctly.

The only advantage I see is keeping your hands away from the blood and gore. And since you ain't gonna get away from that when you start gutting, it doesn't really matter that much. I just wear gloves!

But hey, to each his own. I know guys that won't touch a drop point.

Does anyone other than my Dad and me just remove hair with a propane torch.

Never even considered worrying about hair before.

I will have to admit also that there is NOTHING surgical, other than the edge of my knife, about my field dressing techniques, LOL.

I got a 80 pound doe one time archery hunting on property of a fish and game club I belonged to. No other hunters there so I got her on my shoulder and carried her out. There was of course alot of blood from my shoulder to my waist on the left side, LOL.

I got to the clubhouse and dropped her to go in and clean up and to everyone's surprize there was a hunters safety course going on.

There were some wide eyes that day ! They all got to see what a real deer looked like up close and personal so it ended up being a very cool experience and the initial look on their faces was priceless.

JDB's comment reminded me of that so I thought I'd share even though it wasn't pertaining to gut hooks specifically. Sorry Cliff for sidetracking

-Josh

Josh, I've never heard of removing hair with a torch. What is the purpose of that? Do you mean taking it off the hide or getting it off the meat if some gets on there? I don't have a problem leaving it on the hide just so it's not on the meat.

Ron, great pics of the gators.

Cliff,

Just like you I leave as much hair on the hide as possible

Inevitably while butchering (at home ) some hair will end up on the meat from skinning it out. Much less hair when it's warm enough to peel the hide off.

Before begining to actually cut up the deer we will quickly wave the torch flame over the deer without touching the flame to it. Burns up any hair in a jiffy and as a bonus dries up any slimy fatty stuff that needs to be removed.

When using the "Peel" technique this stuff always seem to stay attached to the meat instead of comming off with the hide.

After being torched this stuff shrivels up and becomes hard and stringy but is easily removed with a sharp knife.

Once this is done we've got a perfectly clean deer to butcher.

Maybe we're just nuts, LOL, but thats how my Dad taught me to do it.

Also though, when it's really cold you've pretty much got to skin the hide off with the knife and none of this is needed then.

Hope this explains how we use the torch a little better.

I haven't even done any hunting for quite a few years now since I moved to Florida but I'll be looking to get back into it when my 22 month old get's a little older

-Josh

Interesting, I'll have to remember that. I usually dab it with some pieces of wide masking tape to get any loose hair before boning it out.

Thanks for the tip.

Cliff,

No problem. Give it a shot sometime. Just remember it's kinda like waving a magic wand over a potion. Just get close enough for the heat to do it's job, unless you wanna cook a bit for a snack

Also the smell of the burning hair isn't the greatest thing but the torch is effective.

-Josh

Cliff Ive ripped the guts on alot of deer and ill tell you there is knowthing faster and better when you know how to use a hook. Any one can rip the gutts on a deer with a plain knife. I take a little longer than my huntin buddy but he is bigger and a farm boy to say the least lmao. I saw him rip the guts on a 700 pound elk with a gut hook and loaded in the truck in under 10 min . It takes him only a few min to do a deerand takes longer to tag it. I like to stay clean so it takes me 15 min but I could go to a wedding after I do one. I made my neigbour a gut hook and he loves it. A dull gut hook is a waste of time same with a knife that wont hold a edge.

So, do you grind (or file) them from just one side, or both? Also, is it better for the hook to be larger than needed than smaller?

Just wondering if there is a difference, or a standard. The few I've made, I ground from both sides, filed with a 1/4" file, polished and sharpened with the same file wrapped with sandpaper, and they do a number on 9oz leather...

I guess it is all personal preference and I have not used a gut hook much but I am not a big fan of them. The few times I have used them they seem to be more in the way than any thing. My father is a butcher so my whole childhood growing up was spent skinning and gutting beef, pigs, sheep, and I hunt alot. I jsut realy don't see anything wrong with the primary edge of a knife. I can open an animal up and do all the gutting and skinning i need to with a regular knife.

I kinda feel that a gut hook limits the knifes ability more than helping. I pack a knife on my belt every single day. It is the same knife I use day in and day out weather I am opening a box or deer hunting. I would realy hate to have a knife with a gut hook as an everyday user. Just my 2 cents.

One more intersting thing. While I was at a seminar at Ed Fowlers place he had some real old vintage adds for knives. The first knives offered with a "Gut Hook" on them where camp knives and the hook was not even a gut hook at all. They where ment for camping and using the hook to hook the handle of your coffe pot and others pan to place them and remove them from the fire.
He had another very old add for if I remember right it was a Marbles knife with a checkered pattern where your thumb lands on the spine. It was advertised as a match striker not thumb grooves or notches.