This landowner was given a knife to thank him for his part in organizing this event.

On Veterans Day weekend a group of 15 veterans ventured from their homes in Florida and convened in Louisiana for two days of hunting.

I was fortunate enough to be a part of the hunt. These hunters knew that my dad had worked on a knife that would be randomly given away to one of them. I teased them for a couple of weeks with pictures of the progress and then the completed knife. Each of them was hoping to be the recipient. I was relentlessly prodded to tell who the winner was prior to the reveal but I held my ground.

The evening after arriving we went out for a hunt, and as fate would have it the winner shot a wild boar. He began to field dress his boar and became frustrated with a knife that wasn’t suitable for the thick hide of a boar (he still didn’t know he was the lucky winner at this point). It was then that the group leader pulled the Jerry Davis Knives beauty out and handed it to him saying, “Why don’t you try this one, it’ll be sharper.”

It didn’t register right away, but when he recognized the knife (from the pictures I’d shown) his jaw dropped, he looked up and said, “Did I really win the knife?” He was elated.

After some admiration and congratulations from the group, he put the knife to work. It handled the boar hide, no problem. He wanted to keep the skull, but when he went to cut it off others in the group cautioned against using the knife to cut through the thick neck bones. A hacksaw was offered instead. After using the knife for the rest of the boar he was confident the blade could handle the work. Sure enough, with little effort the head was removed and the hunter had his trophy.

– posted by Aaron Davis

NOTE: To learn more about the hunt sponsored by the Louisiana National Guard, Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, Hunters Enriching Lives of People, and the Combat Veterans Motorcycle Association, see this news article.