What knife do you prefer for field dressing a deer?

[Newprt]

Sharp buck omni. Have had since I was 16 and I'm 33 now. Average 2 deer a year

 

[patience0830]

You might just need one of these then....Part of Rapalas hunting line.

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Dip that handle in plasti-dip and it would be about right. Or checker the handle.

 

[JoeG1]

3" Gerber folding knife, been using the same little knife for years. Works great!!!

 

[clfergus]

I just bought the Cold Steel Pendleton Mini Hunter off fleabay...super sharp and nice size. Full tang with a rubber handle, can't wait to try it out if I get one in the special anterless season after Christmas.

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[rengler22]

Was very fond of my Benchmade Hunter until I took advice from a few people on-line. As back-ups I bought a couple Mora knives (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EAL0TVA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1). Tried one this weekend on a buck and have to say it is awesome, especially for $15. Out of the box it was extremely sharp which my finger can attest to. Can't say how they hold an edge (only been through 1 deer) or how they sharpen. I bought 1 in lime green and 1 in magenta so that they would be hard to lose.

Definitely agree on the Mora Knives. I'm a knife guy so I really like the sharpness of SpyderCo and Benchmade but when it comes to doing work the Mora Knives are hard to beat.

 

[oldpink]

I've used the Buck Folding Alpha Hunter for all four of the deer that I've taken:

I also have a Buck/Cabela's Alaskan 110 with the S30V blade that I've done incidental work with, but I've used the Alpha for almost the entire job because it's a drop point that makes hooking the innards easier to avoid.
The famous B Clip blade of the 110 is back-swept enough to be (in my opinion) ill suited for opening a belly without nicking the insides.
I also really like the liner lock of the Alpha and the Kraton handle (nice and grippy) scales, and the handle base is composed of sandwiched high carbon stainless that allows water to flow all the way through and prevents stuff from accumulating in it, so it's easy to clean up by immersing the entire knife in hot soapy water, which doesn't really work with conventional type handle bases.
I use the Gatco sharpening kit with the blade clamp for all of my sharpening duties because I'm terrible about being able to maintain the proper angle with a regular setup without the guide, but the Gatco enables me to get the blades shaving sharp, which is essential for this particular job.

I know it's gauche to reply to my own post, but yesterday I ordered a brand new Folding Alpha Hunter (the knife in the photo above) to replace the one I lost; I like this particular knife for the purposes of field dressing a deer that much.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was marked down to $42.63, a $3.71 markdown over its regular price.
Coupled with that is the $21.01 I had remaining on an attaboy reward gift card from where I work, and I'm out of pocket $23.53 (I'm a Prime member) for an excellent Buck knife.