Assuming you already know what to look for in a hunting knife, taking your pick would be easy. However, do you know what to look out for considering the tasks you’ll do with survival hunting knives? If you don’t, you might want to take a peek at these awesome tips on what to avoid in knives. While these aren’t necessarily mandatory, you might want to consider the rationale behind these tips.

5 Things To Avoid When Choosing A Hunting Knife

From a knife person’s standpoint, trivial details on the knife can greatly affect your liking towards it. Even a handle half-inch shorter than your grip can affect a hunting knife’s performance. You should always be mindful of these small characteristics and think if it should or shouldn’t be on the knife you’re looking to buy.

Pivots On Folding Knives

Folding knives are neatly portable and extremely safe when not in use. However, doing some serious piercing tasks can cause the hinge to malfunction. And when it does, it can slice your fingers off your hands.

Gut Hooks

Gut hooks are great for field dressing game but are they really necessary? I mean, you could gut game without a gut hook. The knife’s spine is supposed to be the safe edge and having a gut hook takes that away from the knife. However, having the gut hook or not is a personal preference of every hunter so just think about it.

Blade Serrations

Another thing to consider is whether or not to get a knife with serration on the blade. While these things make cutting hard surface easier, you won’t need it if you’re diligent enough to sharpen your knife frequently. In addition, serrated blades are time-consuming to re-sharpen if you don’t have power tools. So, why not just ditch it altogether?

Hunting Knives With Hollow Handles

Hollow handles make for less overall knife strength. There’s just not too much weight in the knife’s core and it kinda feels unbalanced. If you’re okay with trading knife strength over a minuscule piece of survival kit, go with it. As for me, I’d rather have an EDC paracord survival bracelet ’round my wrist than deal with a hollow handle.

Blade Length

Lastly, you’ll need to consider a hunting knife’s blade length. You don’t really wanna carry a knife that’s too long ’cause you’re not a lumberjack. Most of the things you’ll need your knife for is field dressing, slicing your lunch, and maybe cutting off some twigs. Chopping off a tree is out of the question so pick a knife with appropriate length and you’ll be good to go.

If you want to see Survival Common Sense‘s take on what to look out for in hunting knives, click the play button below!

Hunting survival knives are one of the most important items in your pack. Leaving to hunt without one is simply reckless and amateur. So to sum it up, pick a great knife and bring it wherever you may go! You never know when you’ll need your trusty hunting companion!

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Featured Image via Louis Garcia Hunting Knives