Blades Update.

I thought I had posted on this earlier, but a search came up blank! So here are some images of my blades including the new clasp knife I am now carrying.

Hunting knife.

Legging knife.

The clasp knife my eldest son gave me.

My tomahawk.

PDF on period knives and handles.

http://www.manuellisaparty.com/articles/pfd's/Some%20Thoughts%20on%20Butchers.pdf

All the world’s a stage-Shakespeare.

Painting By Andrew Knez Jnr.

All the world’s a stage-Shakespeare.

All the world may be a stage, but real life is not a play. If we fail to check our gun frequently & the hammer should accidently get knocked back leaving the pan open then our priming may be lost, & unlike in the movie Revenant starring DiCaprio, your gun will not fire should you need to use it urgently!

Wilderness living is about survival, many woodsmen did not survive because they failed to take the dangers seriously. Not looking after your gun can be fatal; you need to keep the lock clean inside & out. You need to waterproof the lock mortise & the barrel channel with beeswax or some other grease to stop the damp from swelling the wood. You need to carry a greased leather lock cover & some grease for waterproofing the pan in wet weather.

After shooting game, always reload immediately & place your gun somewhere safe close to hand where it will not fall. Field dress your game as quickly as possible & leave the area. The sound of your shot will have travelled far & may have attracted unwanted attention. If you can’t carry the whole animal then butcher out what you can easily carry. The rest of the animal can be hung in a tree to keep it safe until someone can return to retrieve it. But caution is needed in case someone is laying in wait.

You take care out there.
Keith.

Field dressing a Goat

How do I know if a wild pig is ok to eat?

Field Dressing Game.

Whenever I can I prefere to hang the animal from a tree limb and dress and skin it off the ground. Buffalo I skinned first starting the first cut along the back bone. In this way I could fold the skin toward me giving me a clean inside skin spread on the ground and I could butcher and lay the meat on the inside of the skin.
With an animal the size of the one in this video, I field dress much the same as shown except that I use a tomahawk instead of a saw, and then carry the game out either on my back, or hanging on a pole if there are two of us to carry. I have also constructed a travois to get heavier game out of the woods.

Dressing A Rabbit.

This is a good video, well presented. Larger game can be butchered in exactly the same manner whether on the ground or hanging by the back legs. The backstraps though will have to be cut out rather than pulling out, and of course you will still have the ribs to remove.