Case Roland Welker Smooth Natural Micarta RW Caper

I met with Case at SHOT this year and then had lunch with them later that week. We hadn’t done anything together in a few years, so in talking, one thing led to another, and soon we were talking about me testing some of their knives. I’ll also have Caiti Hladky, who is a cowgirl buddy over in Colorado, test some of their cowboy knives. She works in feedlots, breaks horses and works in big bull sales around the country. She’s a good cowgirl and will be able to put them to the test, as well as anyone I know.

The first knife I wanted to test was the Case Roland Welker Smooth Natural Micarta RW Caper. The timing was perfect. Shortly after receiving the Case RW Caper, I had a pigeon hunt lined up. I just got a Ruger 10/22 and wanted to trick it out and take it pigeon hunting. I love making pigeon poppers. I used to use a boning knife to breast out my doves, pigeons, and ducks and make poppers, but about five years ago, I started using a caping knife to breast out my birds. So, with that said, let’s see how the knife worked out on this hunt.

Case Roland Welker Smooth Natural Micarta RW Caper

I hadn’t hit this particular feedlot in a while, so the pigeons were all fat, dumb, and happy (Until I arrived). I guess actually I didn’t end up with as many as normal, but for some reason a lot more than normal flew off after they’d been hit. Most of them shed enough feathers, so I’m assuming that they slept cold that night!

Anyway, before PETA has the big one, we’ll move on into the product review. After I got done hunting, I breasted out my pigeons and doves. The first thing I look for in a knife is did it at least comes from the factory sharp. I’m glad to say that my Case RW Caper came to me extremely sharp. So, it passed the first basic test.

Next fear. I’m used to the blade on caping knives being 2 ¾-inches long. The blade on the Case RW Caper is 4.13 inches long. I didn’t know if it would work, but it turned out that it worked fine for breasting out my doves and pigeons. If it worked fine on them then it will also work fine on my ducks, and due to its length, it will also work on my larger birds like turkeys and geese. Unfortunately, due to the length of the blade I don’t think that it will work well on caping out your big game. But, I guess that I can’t swear to this since I haven’t tried to cape out a big game animal with it yet.

As I said above, I used to use a boning knife but have long since switched over to a caping knife to breast out my birds. You may erroneously think that for breasting out birds that you would want a flexible knife but I don’t.

I really like the sheath that comes with the knife. Even though it doesn’t have a snap on cover, the knife sets down deep in the sheath, and there is no way that it will fall out while hunting on anything less than a nuclear explosion.

I like the feel of the handle and the grip that it affords. The thumb grooves are excessively long. They are 2 inches long. I’ve never seen this long of thumb grooves on any other knives but that’s not a bad thing. Why not make them longer than what the industry currently does? It’s not going to hurt anything. The only problem is that the grooves don’t start until ¾-inches past the handle. I wish that they started right at the handle so my thumb didn’t have to slide forward before it stopped.

And for you guys and gals that like a lanyard, it has a hole so you can slap one on.

The MSRP on the Case RW Caper is $164.99 and as is usual, we will close with the company specs.

Case Roland Welker Smooth Natural Micarta RW Caper SPECS

• Model No.: 50629
• Pattern: Caper
• Pattern Stamp: RW Caper 1095 CS USA
• Handle Material: Natural Micarta®
• Handle Finish: Smooth
• Blade Type: Drop Point
• Blade Length(s): 4.13 in
• Lock Type: Fixed
• Blade Material: Carbon Steel
• Blade Finish: Stonewash
• Weight: 72.5 oz
• Sheath: Yes

About Tom Claycomb

Tom Claycomb has been an avid hunter/fisherman throughout his life as well as an outdoor 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 #ad for $.99 if you’re having trouble.”