a warning to all brother hunters,as i wouldn't want this to happen to anyone else.
tuesday of this week i was skinning a clients bear in new mexico when in a split second of poor knife handling i plunged 4 inches of bear covered cold steel to the hilt into my forearm.
severing the muscles,nerve and blood vessel to the middle,next and little finger in my left hand.
a 50 mile race to the hospital and a whole lot of direct pressure,not to mention the angel on my shoulder is the only reason i'm here to warn the rest of you.
my season of personal hunting and 3 months of very lucreative guiding are over.
experience wasn't the problem as in the last 25 yrs i've skinned,gutted quartered fileted and boned a train load of assorted game for myself and everyone else,its was a split second of carelessness.
please don't let it happen to you.good luck on all your up coming hunting and be safe....

Some lessons do come the hard way. Glad to hear you're OK!!!!!!!

Yep, I'm paranoid when I'm working inside an animal with a knife and I'm glad. Good luck and hopefully a quick and complete recovery.

Glad your Ok. Sure musta hurt like hell, and scared the crap out of you!

I once cut my thumb to the bone at the base while trying to cut the windpipe out of a bull elk. I was using too big a knife in there, and my hands were too cold to feel what I was doing (until it was too late of course).

I use knives constantly(I"m a carpet/vinyl fitter) and even the best, most experienced guys I"ve seen can so easily and quickly do themselves a lot of damage! It happens in an instant. I lopped the end of my thumb off last year in a moment of carelessness.
Your timely warning is noted, and I"m sure evreyone here wishes you a speedy and full recovery.
good shooting

Glad to hear you're recovering. That stuff happens really fast, especially when you're tired and in a hurry.

Over the last 19 years of guiding, I've skinned well over 1,000 animals and after a few stiches I started using a Kevlar glove on my left hand. I'm very right handed so the knife is always in my right hand therefore I'm not so worried about cutting it. I know the glove has saved my left hand from injury many times over the years.

They make pretty long ones that will protect at least some of the forearm too.

You can get them pretty cheap from butcher and shop supply outfits (glass, sheet metal, etc.). They're lightweight, quick to rinse off and even add some grip to slippery surfaces. It's well worth the hassle.

Take care,
Kyler

There's been a number of people that have sliced femoral arteries and bled out while field dressing. There's greater risk of personal harm from knives in the field,then any firearm.

I knew a fella in Alaska who while dressing a Moose in the dark/rain, cut four fingers off his buddy's hand. He's a professional meat cutter and keeps his knives scalpel sharp. Bad enough to hurt yourself, but hurting someone else is doubly tragic.

Heal fast!

Sorry for your accident. Hope you are fine. My sweet Swedish wife, calls things like that "knowledge money". We all do.....Then we should think, what will be the consequence?
Now, when dressing game. I THINK, then cut, then think again.
Again, thanks for the warning and get WELL!!!!

thanks for all the words of encouragment,doc says the stiches come out thursday.
i am on the road to recovery and am in no pain,that will come later when the rehab starts.
i really like the kevlar glove idea,thanks for the tip.good luck and be safe

Best wishes on your rehab ravenr. I cut myself (finger) skinning a duck when I was a taxidermist years ago and it wasn't any fun. Some of the new material being developed for the Army should be on the civilian market before long. We should be seeing paper thin gloves that no blade can penetrate. Good hunting, David

Useless without pictures!!!

Just Kidding. Glad to hear your ok.

Oh Man! Hope the healing goes easily and well.

I make a little tiny knive (designed by Eric Ching ... called the Ching Sting) that I use inside when field dressing an animal. Cutting edge is less than 2 inches long ... and I am still VERY careful!

As a knifemaker, I warn folks about this kind of thing ... most hunters simply do not deal with scary sharp knifes and the least little bit of inattention can cause huge damage!

alittle more info, this knife has a 3 1/2" blade maybe an inch wide
i was taking the paw off at the wrist and the split hide kept flopping over the area so i reached up w/ the left hand to hold it out of the way and slipped the knife off the wrist bones of the bear into myself

Best of luck in the healing process. As long as everything "moves, grasps and swivels" as it used to, you were pretty lucky.

I'd bet your buddy's give you plenty of room when you go to skin something else.

Kyler...excellent idea on the kevlar glove. Raven, I wish you well on the rehab...and get one of those gloves.

ravenr, here is to a speedy and total recovery. It is a timely lesson. I drew a Shiras Moose tag for eastern Washington and I am heading into a roadless area on Sept 30 for a week hunt.

And BTW, Kyler where can I locate one of those gloves? Sounds like a great safety item.

I'm glad some of you like the idea, as I said a few stitches made me think of it. Remember they won't help you much for punctures but it should keep you from making a deep cut.

Because I skin a lot of animals and feel there is some disease potential I also wear latex gloves. (It also makes clean up almost instant). They aren't macho so not too many hunters wear them. But my reason for bringing this up is that I wear the cut resistant glove OVER the latex glove so I need to wear an XL at least.

Honestly I haven't done a whole lot of research so hopefully a butcher, sheet metal worker, glass cutter or mechanic who may really know these gloves will check in with some well researched advice.

The first one or two I tried came from a butcher supply company. They worked fine but were pretty bulky. More recently I've used gloves designed for mechanics or sheetmetal workers. They're more flexible and lighter.

I bought a few from a lab safety supply company. Currently I'm using a model like this one:One type of cut resistant glove.

It would be interesting to try the coated model, it might really help your grip:
Coated

They seem to last me about a year and then they get too stiff from meat and fat getting worked into the fibers. If I skinned fewer animals and/or cleaned them better they'd last longer. Somehow I've worn a hole in the index finger of my current one so it's time for a new one.

I've never tried the stainless mesh gloves.

A word of (probably obvious) caution. As a result of using a protective glove for many years. I've noticed I'm not nearly as careful anymore and "bump" the glove much too often with the knife. I have to really slow down and think when I occationally get caught having to field dress without the glove.

Hope that helps. Please let us know if you find something better.

Kyler

The Kevlar glove is great, I used to to a LOT of fishing and I always wore one on my left hand when filleting them. I also wear the Nitrile gloves when dressing game or when skinning anything, especially animals from the trap line.