When thinking through the bit's 'n pieces needed to go chasing a Sambar, it occurred to me I'll be needing something to efficiently break up the carcase (presuming I get one of course). And perhaps also to skin the poor blighter (no point wasting some nice warm fur).

Now I have fairly strong pocket-knife with about a 3" blade, but I'm guessing something a bit longer and heftier might be called for when getting through the large joints and skin of something that size without the operation running into next week.

Now the hunting stores seem to have a large selection of such pieces of cutlery, and at fairly exxy prices too. But then it occurred to me, how about using my backup dive knife?

It's a medium-to-large generic dive-knife (i.e. not a short little "kill-knife" stiletto). It's one-piece (no need to worry about a folding blade collapsing in on your fingers), with a 5.5" by 1" blade that's about 3mm thick.

The only thing that concerns me is that, being a dive knife, it's made of marine-grade stainless steel, which I've heard is softer, and doesn't hold it's edge as well as the stainless steel used in normal hunting knives.

In other words, will it holds it's edge well enough to get through a Sambar?

I've skun rabbits I've trapped (while trying to reduce the local rabbit population) and they've got a hide on them that while being soft to the touch, is actually really hard to get a knife through. If a deer has similiarly tough skin, plus all that meat, joints/bones to get through, I'm wondering if the dive-knife is up to the job?

Cheers.

If you have a half decent filleting knife use that.

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WARNING: CONTAINS CARROT

Ok well sambar hair is like optical fibre it's hollow and it falls out...no good as a blanket or anything! As for knives go to a kitchen shop and get some scan pan knives! They're sharp and the do what's needed! Easy to re-sharpen as well!

roamin i've no doubt your dive knife would be fine for skinning (definitely) and boning (probably), but as with any knife you'd best avoid bones as much as possible.
for breaking down a carcass it really pays to get a victory or victorinox knife like they use in the freezing works, they're not that expensive and can double as a solid knife in your kitchen draw

as for other spearo gear, i've done a fair bit of hunting at home in nz wearing soft bottom wetsuit booties - use them for bush stalking, they make a serious difference vs boots when the leaves and branches are crunchy underfoot. its pretty hard on the booties though so make sure they are cheap!

do you call them a freezing works here? - abbatoir

Cheers guys!

Bummer about the fur on the Sambar.

Watto - good call there about the Scanpan knives; if you're talking about the $10 coloured ones, yep, good steel and well-made, but best of all (for hunting purposes) they come with their own scabbard so they don't slice up everything else in your pack (or you, should you take a tumble) while you're lugging them around.

Rangiatea - good call too on the Victory/Victorinox knives; got myself a Victorinox cooks knife and paring knife for the kitchen a couple of years back & love 'em! Quality stuff there. They may not look like much, but there's damn good steel in them and they're very well designed and made.

Have heard about using wetsuit booties from another source as well. Great idea that one; they're almost as sensitive as bare feet, and will keep your feet warm in the cold & the rain. Have an old pair ready to go (retired them from diving etc, as the sole had worn fairly thin and have some small cracks in them which was letting the cold water in) - should be perfect for stalking though!

Fingers crossed I get a chance to use them for their new intended purpose over winter.

As for "freezing works", yep, we call them abattoirs over here. Have recently heard ofa farmer in QLD referring to a building on a farm as a "freezing works".... but maybe the farmer was originally from NZ? Only other time I'd ever heard of "freezing works" was in the Footrot Flats comics back when I was an ankle-biter... or as "the Dog" might have put it, I was just "nee hi to a grasshopper" .

Cheers guys!

Depending if u r back packing it some people believe that scalpels with spare blades are the most efficient way light and quick to swap over to a sharp blade as any knife will lose its edge skinning/butchering a deer. As stated above filleting knives are good I used a general purpose survival knife 3-4 inch blade.

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