When it comes time to skin your game, the last thing you want to be stuck with is a dull blade that’s useless. So while going over your gear and equipment before your next hunting trip, make sure you have a good gut hook knife in there if you don’t have one already. A gut hook knife will make very short work of cleaning and skinning the animal.
There are plenty of options available, but we’ve limited you to the 4 best gut hook knives on the market that can be purchased for a reasonable price. Each of these knives will make your next hunting trip much easier.
Gerber 31-001095 Myth Fixed Blade Pro
Gerber is well known for making both popular and high quality knives and EDC accessories. One reason why Gerber has been so successful at what they do is because they have professionals. In this case, guides and hunters who put much work into the design of their products to ensure that everything is top of the line. The Myth Fixed Blade Pro is no exception to that. At an overall weight of just over four and a half ounces, this is a very lightweight gut hook knife that is the right choice for dressing a kill out in the field.
The blade length, being 3.75 ounces, is very well balanced, and it’s made even more comfortable thanks to its textured rubber handle. The Myth Fixed Blade also ships with a hard plastic sheath and an integrated sharpener, ensuring that your knife travels quietly but also securely with you wherever you go. This is one of the best gut hook knives period.
Ruko Gut Hook Skinning Knife
The Ruko is a little heavier than the Gerber at six and a half ounces, but it maintains the same overall blade length of three and one quarters of an inch. Sold with a lifetime warranty, the Ruko also comes equipped with a stainless oxide finish that is resistant to both rust and glare, a camouflaged rubberized aluminum handle to provide you with a non-slip grip, and a camouflage nylon sheath with a button snap closure for extra security when you travel.
The Ruko is extremely efficient at opening up the body cavity and for making cuts along each leg in your game. It can be used to remove the tenderloins, to skin the back of the animal, and to do nearly any of the field butchering you could ask it for. Plus, the Ruko will also stay extremely sharp throughout the process and be ready for the next hunting adventure without needing to be sharpened. All in all, this is a very high quality gut hook knife that’s sold at a more than reasonable price.
Buck 278BKG Field Alpha Hunter
The enduring quality of Buck Knives is well known in the knife hunting world, and it is a brand that has earned the intense respect it receives. The Buck Folding Alpha Hunter gut hook knife comes equipped with a stainless steel blade and rubberized handles. The frame is exposed with grip ridges for a tighter and more secure hold on the weapon. As with most hunting knives, the Field Alpha Hunter ships with a black nylon sheath that’s bred for heavy duty use. All Buck Knives ship with a lifetime warranty registration card.
Schrade 157OT Old Timer Golden Claw Lockback Folding Knife
This is a knife that’s so good you’ll want to buy a second one right after! Made out of a five inch Delrin handle that’s as durable as you could wish for, and which comes attached to a stainless steel three and a half inch blade, the five and a half ounce Old Timer Golden Claw Lockback is a very good sized knife that enables you to dress your game very quickly. The knife also ships with a high quality leather sheath so it can go nicely with you on all of your travels. This product would be on any list of the best gut hook knives.
Why a Gut Hook Knife?
You might be wondering why you should go with a gut hook knife for dressing your game and not just any other ordinary knife. The reason is because a gut hook blade has a sharpened semi-circle ground into the blade, hence the “gut hook,” which makes it more effective for skinning game and is thus often used by hunters for field dressing.
The specific purpose of the gut hook is to split the animal’s skin by hooking the semi-circle over the skin and then pulling it along to sever it. This is a much quicker process than if you were to use a more traditional knife, since all you have to do is make a small incision before you simply turn around your knife and then it does the rest of the work for you to open up that incision all the way down the belly. So if you were to cut the abdomen, for example, the gut hook would only open up the skin without actually cutting the flesh, which enhances the quality of the meat in general afterwards.
The actual gut hook part of the blade will occasionally need to be sharpened, but it cannot be sharpened with a typical knife sharpener or sharpening stone. This is the primary disadvantage of the gut hook knife design in general as this process is marginally more difficult.
All in all, the best gut hook knives will essentially be an one in all tool for you on your next hunting adventure. It is a specialized tool, but it also does its job flawlessly once you get the hang of it. Other than your rifle or bow, the gut hook knife just may be the next important item in your hunting inventory.
