Cold Steel Tomahawk, the Rifleman’s Hawk Review

Tom reviews the Cold Steel Rifleman’s Hawk

USA – -(Ammoland.com)- I’ve done a couple of Product Reviews on throwing knives lately. I thought that’d be it and I’d get back into writing about hunting/fishing knives but while on throwing sharp objects I had to do a review on Tomahawks, didn’t I?

I don’t think I’ve even held a tomahawk but if you watched Daniel Boone as a kid You know how bad he was with one. Google it and you can still see when he was fighting a whole band of Indians single handedly and the chief threw a tomahawk at him and he caught it in mid-air! If that doesn’t burn into a kids memory then you better go play Pac Man or whatever kids play now.

Then what about the old show Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. Her yuppie boyfriend carried a tomahawk instead of a gun. (Little weird, like carrying a single shot but anyway, it worked on TV). But the real clencher. Google Ed Ames teaches Johnny Carson to throw a tomahawk.

Johnny is asking Ed for instructions on how to throw one. Ed rears back and throws at a piece of plywood with a picture of a cowboy on it. The tomahawk buries right between his legs! That’d take the fight right out of you. The audience lost control on that one for a while.

So, that’s about my experience with tomahawks but I thought while throwing knives this summer in camp it’d be cool to have a tomahawk too. So I ordered one of the Cold Steels Rifleman’s Hawk.

Cold Steel Rifleman’s Hawk

When it hit my doorstep, I thought uh-oh. The thing is 22-inches long and weighs 36.5 oz. This is going to be way too gawky and bulky to handle. It will be way too awkward to throw.

But I had it so I thought I’d better at least give it a good old cowboy try on the dead tree in back. Sure enough, the first throw was awkward and bounced off. But my fear of shattering the handle didn’t materialize. The next throw hit and sunk in with a resounding & satisfying thunk.

It must have hit pretty hard because a squirrel scurried out of a hole where he’d been sleeping and ran off down the fence-line with his eyeballs clanging. Hmm, may be my new squirrel hunting tool? Leave the squirrel dog at home and just fling my tomahawk at a likely tree in the forest. It sure woke this one up.

But back to throwing. While learning to throw a knife it proved to be a little finicky. You had to be the exact same distance, throw the exact same way and be in perfect sync. If the knife doesn’t hit nearly perfectly, it bounces off.

While I’m no tomahawk throwing expert, it seems like throwing one of them is actually a little easier. After the couple of throws I could sink it almost every other time. My thinking is, it has a lot larger sticking surface so it is a lot more forgiving. If it hits anywhere on the flat surface or either edge it’s going to stick.

Now I’ve got to think of something to go hunt with it. Elk might be out, but maybe snakes? As we close, after testing the Cold Steel Rifleman’s Hawk, it looks like it may be one more fun item to pass time with in camp when you’re just killing time.

BUT-One word of warning. If your wife is the plate throwing type, you may want to keep it locked in the gun safe. If, on a bad night she decides to elevate her game, just remember the guy throwing tomahawks on Johnny Carson!!!

Cold Steel Rifleman’s Hawk SPECS:

• Blade width: 3 ¾
• Handle: American Hickory
• Steel/Material: Drop Forged 1055 Carbon
• Overall length: 22-inches
• Sheath: Cor-Ex Sheath (Canvas type of material that snaps over the cutting edge).

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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”

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