What Do You Hunt With A Knife? This 1 Mystery Solved.

While hunting is not anywhere as popular as it once was, it’s still present in countries around the world. As you know, survival hunting is almost extinct.

Today most people hunt either for the trophies or to balance the biodiversity of a specific area. Bearing this in mind, the equipment needed for hunting not only consists of proper clothing and protection, but also the weapon and tools you will be hunting with. But what do you hunt with a knife?

Hunting guns and rifles are by far the most common weapon hunters use today. However, there are still those who enjoy using a good bow or a knife. But are these as effective? And what do you hunt with a knife? To answer these questions, we first need to discuss the uses of a hunting knife and the regulations surrounding them.

Uses for a Hunting Knife

As we mentioned above the hunting knife is rarely used for killing an animal, despite the name suggesting it is, because guns and rifles are both easier and far more effective to get the kill. Some people do still enjoy hunting with a knife because it is more challenging. But it is limited to only a small group of animals that can be reasonably hunted with success. So what are the other uses of a hunting knife and why should you always have one on you?

While most people don’t use it for stabbing an animal through the heart, a knife is invaluable for skinning, deboning, gutting and even caping the animal for a trophy.

Gutting is usually done with a gut hook blade, as it’s perfect for making sure that no abdominal or muscle tissue is damaged in the process. For skinning and deboning, sweeping blade knives seem to be the most effective.

Caping is done solely by trophy hunters. Usually, it consists of removing the head with or without a neck by skinning and detaching it from the chest area.

Is it Legal to Hunt With a Knife?

Great question. And now that we’ve covered a few common uses of a hunting knife, let’s take a look at the regulations around them. To answer this, you will need to think about the hunting permit regulations that are present in both your country and state/provincal levels. Since most hunters use firearms instead of so-called primitive weapons, including the knife, bow, arrow, and spear, so hunting with a knife is not nearly as well-regulated as you might expect.

Still, the overall concept is that if you have a hunting permit, you shouldn’t have an issue using the knife to deliver the final blow. Chances are you will not be coming close to the animal that you are hunting with only a hunting knife. So in most cases, you will simply be piercing through its heart once it’s already wounded. Still, this doesn’t undermine the importance or the versatility use of a good hunting knife, as you will need one to get the field dressing done.

What you should remember is that certain animals are not legal to be hunted — with a firearm or with a primitive weapon. As long as you are familiar with the regulations in your area, and you have the permit, using weapons and doing as our ancestors once did, shouldn’t be a problem. But what do you hunt with a knife? And is there any animal that is slow enough that you can get everything done with only a hunting knife?

Animals You Can Hunt With a Knife

The answer to the question above is quite simple — since there aren’t many animals that you’ll be able to chase down using only a knife. Bows and arrows are much more effective and get rid of the need to run down the prey animal, like you would have to do with a knife. Bearing this in mind, hogs and tortoises seem to be the only two common animal types that you can kill using only a hunting knife.

This is mostly because thee animals are quite static and have other defence mechanisms that don’t feature running. If you are an experienced hunter and you are going after the wild boar, you can be in a situation where once your dogs have cornered the animal, you step into the action and finish it off with a knife. Still, this can be quite risky because wounded & unwounded boars can go at you, which can result in grave injuries.

Never underestimate how dangerous a wild boar can be

Conclusion

While using a knife for hunting can be quite a challenge, it is not as efficient as it was back in the day of primitive hunters. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t invest in one, or learn to make one yourself, as not only are hunting knives cool looking, but these are also used for a variety of other actions such as skinning, deboning, gutting and caping.