Patent Application
20110252651
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device used in field dressing game animals and particularly to a protective paddle for assisting in the field dressing of a large game animal such as deer or elk whereby the internal organs are protected alternately from a pelvic saw blade and a gutting blade thereby preventing leakage of the internal organs onto the meat.
2. Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98
Many hunters use straight-bladed knives in the large game field dressing process. However, these knives are not configured for the types of cuts required, and require great skill on the part of the hunter to quickly and cleanly dress an animal. Furthermore, conventional knives—even hunter's knives and sportsmen's knives—have relatively long, thin blades which might cut into the internal organs and cause them to drain into the meat of the animal. Sawing the pelvic bone to remove the colon and bladder can also result in the saw piercing the colon, bladder or other organs causing leakage on the meat. Prior art devices have not adequately solved these problems with a single device having combined features to enable use as a colon and bladder protecting saw guide and saw stop paddle and a gut protecting paddle used in conjunction with a gut hook.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,217,182, issued May 15, 2007 to McConnell et al, is for a deer eviscerating protective tool for assisting in field dressing a deer, the tool having a protective shield of a convenient width and contour to be slid thru an incision made thru the belly skin of a deer just forward of the pelvic crest and hence into and thru the pelvic cavity between the inner surface of the crest and the colon, whereby the crest can then be sawed thru longitudinally along the crest without danger of the saw cutting into the colon or adjacent viscera and releasing meat damaging fluids.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,198,562, issued Apr. 3, 2007 to Whetstone et al, provides an animal dressing tool with a bladed lever for cutting through or splitting animal bones having a head, a handle and a knife with the head having two sides with a row of teeth at the bottom of each side to grip the bone to be cut or split and the knife having a blade positioned below and between the two sides of the head at a distance to permit the bone to be split to fit between the teeth of the head and the blade of the knife.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,690,548, issued Nov. 25, 1997 to Jones et al, shows a pelvic girdle splitter tool and method. The pelvic bone splitter has a shaft with a slot and a knurled surface on its free end. A first end of a blade is pivotally retained in the slot by a pivot pin. Cutting edges on the blade are movable into the slot. During use, a free end of the shaft is passed under the pelvic girdle and out through an aperture in the hide. Pressure is applied to the hand grip to move the cutting edge toward the slot, compress the pelvic girdle between the cutting edge and the anvil surfaces and split the pelvic girdle.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,320,576, issued Jun. 14, 1994 to Sagen, shows a one-person-powered handsaw constructed precisely to sever the pelvis bone of a deer species while providing protection against puncturing the large intestine when field-dressing the animal.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,453,043, issued Sep. 26, 1995 to Monson, describes a pelvic splitter device and method of use thereof used primarily by hunters to split the pelvis of a large game animal during the gutting and cleaning of the animal. The pelvic splitter device comprises a shaft having a hook member and a knife edge at one end thereof and further comprises an impact and handle means having two longitudinal half bodies having mirrored sides with grooves, longitudinal recesses, and recessed portions therein to receive the shaft. The impact and handle means slides upon the shaft and functions, in addition to storing the shaft when not in use, as a slide hammer to impact the rearward end of the shaft to urge the hook member and knife edge through and split the pelvis of the game animal such as a deer.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,682,417, issued Jul. 28, 1987 to Henslin et al, discloses a carcass bone splitting tool having a rod-like shank being bent over at one end to form a handle. A foot member is connected at the other end of the rod-like shaft which is shaped to prevent rupture of entrails when the carcass is being opened. An elongate cutting blade member is mounted on the rod-like shank adjacent the foot member and is used for splitting open the bone of the carcass. A striker bar is also provided to drive the blade through the bone, such as the pelvic bone and breastbone, of the dead animal. The tool described herein is portable and when not in use, the blade is protected by the striker bar which can be carried by the splitting tool.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,462,479, issued Oct. 31, 1995 to Hajek, indicates a wild game dressing tool that is light in weight and small in size, comprising two handles connected by a saw blade for field dressing a deer or the like: the tool offers a quick, safe, and easy way to split an animal's pelvic bone, allowing better cleaning of the anal area and thereby resulting in more consistent, high quality meat.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,583,024, issued Jun. 8, 1971 to Garza, puts forth a deer pelvis bone shearing knife which comprises a leverage handle and jaws which encircle the pelvis bone which is sheared when the handle is pulled down.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,280,312, issued Aug. 28, 2001 to Elrod et al, concerns a pelvic bone splitting tool which provides a number of features to assist a hunter in field dressing game, such as deer. The tool or splitter may include a lower or grip handle formed as a unitary piece with an upper jaw. The grip handle includes finger-receiving indentations, and the upper jaw may include a cutting blade. The tool may further include an upper or palm handle formed as a unitary piece with a lower jaw, and the palm handle and the lower jaw may be joined together by an angled connecting piece, and the handles pivot relative to once another about a central pivot. The lower jaw includes a splitting blade, which may be removable from the tool. Alternatively, the upper handle/lower jaw combination and lower handle/upper jaw combination may be nearly mirror images of one another. These combinations are joined together at a rotating pivot which preferably forms a smoothly rotating bearing. The tool may include a saw blade articulated into the lower handle, and a combination knife blade and gut hook articulated into the upper handle. Further, the handle/jaw elements may themselves be articulated to provide a minimum form factor for ease of transporting the tool by a hunter.
What is needed is a device which can shield the internal organs of a game animal while field dressing the animal using the device as a stop for a knife or gut hook while using them to cut the hide along the center of the underbelly and also using the device as a saw guide and a saw stop when using the saw to cut through the pelvic bone.
An object of the present invention is to provide an elongated organ shield and gut shield paddle having a hand grip handle and an elongated protective paddle blade with an elongated trough along the length of the paddle blade and an end stop at each end of the trough to receive a gutting blade in the trough during gutting and to receive a bone cutting saw in the trough while sawing the pelvic bone to prevent the gutting blade from piercing the guts and to guide the pelvic bone saw and stop the sawing blade from piercing the internal organs, particularly the colon or bladder, of the game animal while field dressing the animal.
In brief, the present invention comprises a colon and bladder shielding and gut shielding paddle having a trough with a stop at each end along the length of the paddle blade. The paddle handle may be rigidly attached to the paddle blade in linear alignment therewith or pivotally attached to the paddle blade with a built-in gutting blade fitting pivotally in the paddle handle. The pelvic bone saw preferably has a double bone sawing blade with two blades spaced apart in parallel alignment to cut away a larger section of pelvic bone to allow removal of the colon and bladder without puncturing them.
The present invention prevents slicing open the organs and guts inside the game animal so the organs and guts can be removed whole.
These and other details of my invention will be described in connection with the accompanying drawings, which are furnished only by way of illustration and not in limitation of the invention, and in which drawings:
In
The elongated paddle blade 34 attached to the paddle handle 31 and 31A/41A has a convexly curved point 36 on an outer end and an elongated bottom 37 having a transverse convexly curved bottom along the length of the paddle blade to provide a smooth surface for ease of insertion of the paddle blade under the pelvic bone of the game animal when used with a pelvic bone saw and ease of insertion of the paddle blade under the hide of the game animal when used with a gutting blade. The paddle blade has an elongated trough 33 having semi-circular transverse concave section extending into a top surface of the paddle blade along the length of the paddle blade. The paddle blade further comprises an outer end blade stop 35 at an outer end of the trough and an inner end blade stop 32 at an intersection of the paddle blade and the paddle handle.
In a first usage in conjunction with a pelvic bone saw 10, as shown in
In a second usage with a gutting blade 44 and 44A contacting the trough during the field dressing of the game animal, as shown in
In
In
In
In use, the internal organ and gut shielding paddle device 30 is used in field dressing game animals in conjunction with a gutting blade 44 and 44A to shield the guts of the game animal from the gutting blade while gutting the game animal to allow removal of the guts of the game animal without puncturing the guts and also used in conjunction with a pelvic bone sawing blade 24A to guide the pelvic bone sawing blade and to shield the colon, bladder and other organs while sawing through the pelvic bone to allow removal of the organs from the game animal without puncturing the organs and provide a larger opening with the double blade pelvic bone saw for ease of cleaning the pelvic cavity.
It is understood that the preceding description is given merely by way of illustration and not in limitation of the invention and that various modifications may be made thereto without departing from the spirit of the invention as claimed.
