Raptorazor Makes Skinning, Quartering Big Game Easier — Win One Now!

Hunters can never have enough knives, and while some blades may be less functional than others, not so with the Raptorazor.

And now you just might win one of the company’s big game skinning or quartering blades by liking and sharing this post!

In case you haven’t heard of Raptorazor’s unique knives, we sat down with Rick Grover, who invented and founded the line:

Northwest Sportsman How did you come up with the idea for the Raptorazor?
Rick Grover About 20 years ago I was taught the gutless method while hunting on the island of Molokai in Hawaii. This technique requires cutting down the spine of the animal and the thick neck hide. Until that time I had always used a 4-inch folding old-timer knife and carried my sharpening stone with me. I had tried just about every new gimmick of a knife with a gut hook on it. Some would work well the first time and some would break when it came to cutting through the neck hide.

The biggest problem with the gut hooks on the market is they are too small, usually only 1/4 inch, and they can not be sharpened easily. I had discovered a plastic two-finger gut hook that had an interchangeable blade; it worked great on thin hide, but every time I tried to cut through the nape of the neck I would break it.

After several years of breaking them, I finally got fed up and decided to make my own. Using a plasma cutter and grinder, I made my first prototype that we first used on a Roosevelt elk and everyone’s jaw dropped. It wasn’t until I skinned an axis deer that I discovered how well it worked spinning around the legs and removing them. We knew at the moment that we had something special.

CS You have two knives: the Big Game Skinner and the Mako. What are some of their similarities and differences?
RG The BGS has a dual blade. The hook portion can cut up to 3 inches of hide from the inside out and the bottom blade is your guided Skinner. The Mako becomes an extension of your finger and is used to quarter-out game. Both knives have a unique T-handle design for easy control, and they also eliminate hand fatigue.

NS Your promo video (raptorazor.com/pages/videos) makes a convincing case for these products. Why was it important for you to show the strength of your knives?
RG I think that we can all agree that products today are designed to break. I wanted to introduce a product that would last a lifetime. Showing the strength of the knife lifting a 700-pound quad says it all.

NS You also do quite a few educational videos. Tell us more about that.
RG I was taught as a kid to gut the animal, drag it whole out of the woods – sometimes up to 2 or 3 miles – then wait several hours before getting back to the barn to hang it and skin it. We would then let it hang and age for a week, and by the time it made it to the dinner table it was bad, really bad. But I was taught if you shot it, you eat it, so I choked it down in order to keep hunting.

When I was taught the gutless technique I was amazed and instantly hooked. It saves time, it’s cleaner, you cool the meat down faster, you lighten your load packing out by 40 pounds, and you never gut the animal, which keeps the meat cleaner and free of bacteria.

So back to the question: I want to share what I have learned over the years and pass it on to other hunters to ensure that they get the best-quality meat back to the dinner table.

My biggest compliment is having our videos used in hunter’s education classes all over the world.

NS Are there any big names in the hunting and fishing world who endorse the Raptorazor?
RG Yes, we have Roger Raglin with Roger Raglin Outdoors, Jim Burnworth with Western Extreme, Mike Stroff with Savage Outdoors, Freddie Harteis, aka The Hollywood Hunter, and Kinion Bankston with Southern Boyz Outdoors, to name a few.

For more information, call (808) 638-8281 or check out raptorazor.com.