DUGIE'S STORY
(As told by Don Cota, founder and president of Kingdom Knives.)“In 2006 I had the opportunity to go hunting on Anticosti Island in the St. Lawrence river, Quebec at a camp called Cerf Sau. My oldest son Don was supposed to go, but his work schedule prevented that, so my son Adam filled in. Adam and I hunted under a guide called Dugie. He is a man possessed with more hunting knowledge than most people only dream about ,and is also just a nice guy to have around. He guided Adam to the biggest deer he has ever shot.
Don Cota on the left with hunting partner Hal Grosser He guided me to a really nice buck. When the deer was down and ready to process, I offered him my Vermonter knife to use. Dugie just replied: ‘too fat'. Then he proceeded to use his knife. Next year – 2007 - I had the good fortune to have Dugie for my guide again. This time I had my Vermontana knife with me. Once again Dugie guides me to a nice buck. When it came time to dress out the deer, he refused my knife and used his. He said: ‘Too fat. Too pointed.' When 2008 rolled around, I once again found myself in Anticosti hunting with Dugie as my guide. This time though he took me way into the pucker brush…and commented that if we get something we will have to bring it back in pieces, which was ok with me. We had traveled about mile and a half to two miles when we found a huge scrape. We then backed off a bit. Dugie asked me to try using my grunt call. Around five minutes after I started using the call, one of the best bucks I ever shot came strolling up and that was pretty much the end of him. This time when Dugie started to bone the deer out he found his knife was as dull as leg on a chair. Probably dull because of dressing off the deer my hunting partner Hal Grosser shot. I reached in my pocket and pulled out my Palmer Folder. His comment: ‘Too small. Too short.” But, as it was a lot sharper then his knife, he did use it. He used it to remove the head plus all four legs. He boned it all out and put it in a sack. I then asked Dugie: what do you think of that knife? With a big smile on his face he said, "It's ok".
Back at the lodge, I relived the story with the guys. One guy asked, "How sharp is that knife now?" I took it out of my pocket all covered with blood and hair, as I hadn't had any chance to clean it. I proceeded to make the hair fly off my arm. One fellow hunter was so impressed, he barely made it home before he ordered one of the knives. I currently have on the drawing board (I think) a knife to make Dugie happy in 2009 - when I go back to Anticosti...
Don Cota
President
Kingdom Knives
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