I recently received a Case Smooth Chestnut Bone Trapper folder to test. The old Trapper designed folder is an old school knife design from I don’t have a clue how many years ago. In the 11th grade Richard Jaco and I used to trap beaver. Richard discovered a trapper folder knife and told me how great that they were for skinning our catch. He was so sold on them that he got me one. We ended up using them all the time.
Fast forward about 54 years and I am now testing a nice one made by Case, the Smooth Chestnut Bone Trapper. I also had just received an Umarex SL .25 cal. Gantlet II to test and thought well, I can kill two birds with one stone. I’ll sight in and test the SL .25 Gauntlet II on a pigeon hunt and then clean the pigeons with my new Case Smooth Chestnut Bone Trapper.
A few side notes. I met Chaz Meyers at Church, who is home from a short leave from doing missionary work in Thailand. He saw them shooting airgun pistols at the Olympics and wanted to know more about airguns. I told him I had a few airgun pistols, but only one that was a shooter. I did have some good airguns and, in fact, had a new one that I needed to test. If he wanted, we could go test it out. It only took a hot second, and we soon had a trip lined up.
We hit my hotspot, got things sighted in, and then hit the pigeons. I love pigeon hunting with airguns. They don’t spook the cattle and horses when I’m shooting around them and the .25 cal. is deadly on them, especially when using JSB pellets.
There were quite a few pigeons, and we shot a lot. As the sun started dropping, we knocked off and figured we’d better get our birds cleaned before we headed home. I wanted to save the breasts to make poppers, so I figured this would be the perfect time to test out the Case Smooth Chestnut Bone Trapper.
Live Inventory Price Checker
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Smooth Chestnut Bone | Peanut | 6220 SS | BattleHawk Armory | $ 41.66 |
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Case Masonic Gift Tin Standard Jig Blue Bone Trapper 3.25" and 3.27" | True Shot Ammo | $ 94.99 |
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Case 00029 Mini Trapper Yellow CV 2.70/2.75 Clip Point/Spey Plain Chrome Vanadium Steel Smooth Yellow Synthetic Handle Folding | BattleHawk Armory | $ 32.94 |
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Case - Mini Trapper - 3.50" - Old Red Bone - (6207 SS) 00784 | True Shot Ammo | $ 62.99 |
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To fillet out the breast is simple. Pluck the feathers off the breast (Actually if you just pluck them off the breast bone separating the two breasts then when you roll out the breast you can then just peel the skin with the rest of the feathers off).
After you’ve exposed the breast bone that runs down the middle of the breast, cut along the side of the breast bone until you hit the flat bone at the bottom. Run your knife right along the breastbone so as to retrieve as much meat as possible. When done with one side, repeat the exact same procedure on the other breast.
After completing these two cuts make a slice between the bottom of the breast at the leg juncture on both sides. Then remove the right breast. At the top of the breast you will scoop and flare out along the wish bone and remove the breast. Repeat on the other side and then you’re completed.
In the beginning, I only planned on using the clip blade. I had a pile of pigeons so halfway through I decided to test how the Spey blade would work. It surprised me, but it worked, as did the clip blade for breasting out the pigeons. After studying it for a minute, though, it made sense. The end of the blade is sharpened and curls halfway up to the tip. By rolling it when cutting it surprisingly worked perfectly. This blade is actually made to use while skinning an animal. Making a cut in a curling movement will speedily remove the hide.
The Case Smooth Chestnut Bone Trapper is a classy-looking knife. And maybe I should also throw in that it has a rich look about it. The only negative that I can point out after testing is that the Spey blade came from the factory sharp, but the clip point was relatively dull. I can sharpen a knife, so not a deal breaker, but that one small item threw a small negative tint on the Product Review, and I guess that is the only negative thing that I can say about it.
The MSRP on the Case Smooth Chestnut Bone Trapper is $82.99; we will close with the specs.
Specs
- Blade Material: Tru-Sharp™ Stainless
- Blade Finish: Mirror-Polished
- Handle Material: Chestnut Bone
- Handle Finish: Smooth
- Mirror-polished Tru-Sharp™ surgical stainless-steel blades
- Clip and Spey blades
- Smooth Chestnut Bone handle with Case oval script shield
- Length: 4.13 inches closed and 4.0 ounces
- Limited lifetime warranty
About Tom Claycomb
Tom Claycomb has been an avid hunter/fisherman throughout his life as well as an outdoors writer with outdoor columns in the magazine Hunt Alaska, Bass Pro Shops, Bowhunter.net and freelances for numerous magazines and newspapers. “To properly skin your animal you will need a sharp knife. I have an e-article on Amazon Kindle titled Knife Sharpening for $.99 if you’re having trouble.”
My very first knife was a Case, a gift from my father about 65 years ago. I still have that knife although the blades are worn down to slivers. Back then, Case made reasonably priced quality knives. They still do. I just picked up a Case trapper with yellow scales that is my go-to-church carry knife. My edc is an assisted opening piece that just seemed too aggressive for church.
When I was trapping I had to buy a new one every fall.
By the time all the fur was skinned the blades were worn down to about nothing,