IceShanty.com's Ice Fishing Community
Pennsylvania => Ice Fishing Pennsylvania => Topic started by: Jason1817 on Oct 11, 2017, 09:20 PM
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I've been using a 20v dewalt with a custom insert to use the lazer hand auger works great however, I find myself drilling loads of holes and have ran 2 batteries dry many many times....with that said I'm looking for a gas auger leaning towards strike master lazer pro 3hp 8 inch bit....from the videos I seen they seem so loud....do u think a gas auger scares fish ? Is that auger the best choice ? Any suggestions would be much appreciated. As I only been ice fishing for the past 3 years
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Spend your money on a couple new 60 V nine amp hour batteries from Dewalt. They will run your 20 V drill all day long.Gas augers are a thing of the past. I have a jiffy Pro 4 piece of crap collecting dust right now. Just an opinion.
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First do you know much about small engines? If not buy more batteries. If you do have a decent knowledge of small engines go buy a gas auger. I prefer chipper blade style augers because they handle dirty ice better and will drill dull. I don't know how anyone with a decent knowledge of small engines would prefer electric. I cant imagine you get near as much ice in PA as we do up in north dakota so i guess take that into consideration when looking at my opinion
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If you take care of you stuff you won't have any problems with a gas auger, most of us add Seafoam and Startron when we mix our gas and that saves us a lot of problems from Ethanol. Some guys are lucky enough to be able to buy ethanol free gas and others buy TruFuel (premixed ethanol free gas). I haven't had any problems with the auger scaring the fish but if that's one of your concerns drill your holes in the area you're going to fish then come back and clean them out. Another thing to remember is ALL augers make some level of noise whether it be the noise of the motor or just the noise from the blades cutting the ice. Even talking and walking on the ice makes noise. For the price of two or three batteries you could get a new gas auger or even a used one in good shape. I don't know where you're located at but there's a few used gas augers in the papershop if you wanted to go that route. If you're looking for a good deal check Glen's Army and Navy because they run good sales that include free shipping on certain models. When it comes to what brand auger is the best it's pretty much a Ford, Chevy, Dodge truck thing, it comes down to personal preference. I like the Eskimo Mako a lot because it's a good auger and is very reasonably priced, normally on sale you can get it online at Glen's for around $290 or less. To help you out I checked their website and they're just starting to put the ice fishing stuff on there for the season so it'll probably be on there by the end of the month. It might not be the fastest auger in the world but they work very well as long as your don't beat the crap out of it.
Here's the link to Glen's Army Navy:
http://www.glensoutdoors.com/fishing/ice-fishing
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gas augers are far from being a thing of the past, but I like electric. I have a small ridgid fuego, gives me only 525 in/lbs and I turn a 6" HT auger. The 1.5ah battery would barely cut 20 holes in 6" of ice. Forget about it when the ice got thicker, in a ft of ice it barely got me 5 holes. I got a set of 4ah batteries and now I can drill holes all day in 20" of ice on a battery. What size batteries do you use in your Dewalt?
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I'm an old fashioned gasser.
Like Chris said, take care of them and have no issues.. Personally, my opinion,.... I don't want to have to worry about batteries, charging them, or having extra on hand, thick ice, thin ice or dirty ice.
Eskimo Shark 10" Z-71cc gasser tank of 50:1 mix gas and drill for days......... @)
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gas augers are far from being a thing of the past, but I like electric. I have a small ridgid fuego, gives me only 525 in/lbs and I turn a 6" HT auger. The 1.5ah battery would barely cut 20 holes in 6" of ice. Forget about it when the ice got thicker, in a ft of ice it barely got me 5 holes. I got a set of 4ah batteries and now I can drill holes all day in 20" of ice on a battery. What size batteries do you use in your Dewalt?
Yeah I guess it depends on the drill set up you have whether or not gas is a thing of the past. I do keep the gas for when ice gets over 2 feet thick. Other than that, all electric here.
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If you buy a great portable drill you can justify the purchase with the wife “ it’s for the home improvement project” you plan on working on next spring...
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taking care of the batteries is key. not storing them with a full charge is important. they need to be 50% or less when storing them. my drone has built in discharge and discharges every 10 days or less (it is programmable). this is why lithium need a charge before using them. they are partially charged on purpose.
i never run out of battery and i make ton of holes too. it make me want to ask what size hole and how thick is the ice and how sharp are the blades and how old are the batteries and their amp hour rating and drill. the battery needs to be 4amp minimum. do you have to push down to cut holes, if so it means dull blades or bad blade alignment.
i would never go to gas unless i had to. what about adding a 3rd battery. seems cheaper than an all new auger system.
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I appreciate the insight thus far, I use a 8 inch lazer auger. I have 2 4ah 20v desalt batteries that I swap between they been used heavily the past 3 years. The thing cuts like butter I can cut quite a few holes....I actually purchased an invertor to charge them in my jeep in the event I needed more holes....however I find myself drilling holes until I find fish....sometimes just a few holes and sometimes I drill half the day away lol...
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When my old mag lll bit the dust I bought a new strikemaster. worse thing I ever did. never ran good. gear case went to hell, they put in a new carb, never ran good had carb done by so called expert, still did not run, now got an ion and its a pleasure to go ice fishing!! I'm sure the drill combo's will work great! Good by gas!!! anybody want a gas????? haven't used it since I got my ion!
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I'm with prospector and I'm in PA also. You couldn't pay me enough to get me to switch back to a gas auger after using a drill setup the last two years! Update your drill and/or your batteries and never look back. In some parts of North America with crazy thick ice, gas augers make sense, but in temperate PA, NO WAY. Electric is the only way to go.
DN
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I use a Strikemaster/Honda 4 stroke. It starts on the second pull, can be laid down to warm up a bit, can be stored or operated in any position, is quiet, sips gas, weighs 23 lbs and is quiet. I can't see purchasing an electric auger that weighs one pound less with the same size drill and I already have a cordless drill. I used a 3 hp Jiffy for years and this this auger is great for a 74 year old with some Titanium joints. It isn't unusual to have four feet of ice here by March. ;D ;)
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I'd personally go the propane route before getting an electric auger such as the Ion because I can buy a ton of one pound propane bottles for the price of one of those batteries. I don't mind or have any complaints with my gas auger.
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After seeing what the Milwaukee Fuel can do last year, I went ALL IN on the cordless hammer drill. Got the hammer drill, charger and three(3) 5.0AH batteries for $319 Best money I ever spent! @). Used it all Winter and never used more than one (5.0AH) battery. Finally tested it out mid-season just to see what it could do, and it took 3 days of ice-fishing to drain all 3 batteries.
And instead of having an electric auger that sits in the basement all summer, I had it out doing all kinds of projects! So I get year round use out of it- which made it much easier to justify(the expense)
Also, much easier to transport! Just loosen chuck, pull auger off, and put drill and batteries back in case. No fuss, no muss(or mess!)
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I switched from hand auger to gas about 20 years ago. Strikemaster Lazer Mag 8" on my 3rd set of blades and one recoil rebuild. Back then electric wasn't much of an option. The old Tecumseh power head has been so reliable that I have never found a reason to consider other options. I really like it.
If it died today I would probably stick with gas because caring for a gas engine is simple for me and I see batteries as having a more limited lifetime.
Although I must admit that prospector's electric setup is pretty sweet.
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The new eskimo auger look good, light weight is a big plus in a gas auger as it seem to me you chase the fish hard. A friend has a jiffy 10" man o man that thing is a pig to lug around. I have a ION a love it
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I'm thinking...
Ion x
Strike master Honda lite (4 stroke)
Strike master lazer pro
All in 8 inch
I'm leaning heavily towards the strike
Master Honda 4 stroke
But my go to bait shop nearly has me convinced to get the ion...
Few more days and I'm ordering 1 of these units.
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Oh, and on the noise thing. After getting bites on nearby deadsticks while drilling holes, I'm convinced it's not an issue.
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I'm thinking...
Ion x
Strike master Honda lite (4 stroke)
Strike master lazer pro
All in 8 inch
I'm leaning heavily towards the strike
Master Honda 4 stroke
But my go to bait shop nearly has me convinced to get the ion...
Few more days and I'm ordering 1 of these units.
If those are my choices, I’m going with the Honda motor. Since you already have an electric drill, you may as well get a gas one for the long days. I have the luxury of using my drills for work year-round, so buying batteries and drills in the future is no biggie. Different strokes for different folks but I think you will be happy with the strike master. You definitely can’t argue with how much it weighs for what it does. I own three tools that run on the four stroke motors. Two are running power screeds for doing concrete and also a water pump to run one of my dredges for gold mining. Every year when I go to fire them up, it always amazes me how few problems I have had with them. I look forward to hearing what you bought and how it works for you!
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I'm an old fashioned gasser.
Like Chris said, take care of them and have no issues.. Personally, my opinion,.... I don't want to have to worry about batteries, charging them, or having extra on hand, thick ice, thin ice or dirty ice.
Eskimo Shark 10" Z-71cc gasser tank of 50:1 mix gas and drill for days......... @)
I have 2 gass augers.1 is 25 yo.
Still runs well.did a few carb rebuids threw the years but still runs great.
Its a jiffy 8".
Got a new jiffy 10" last season,i run premix 40/1 ratio no problems.
The premix in the can seams to go further than the gas oil mix.
Im with mike.old school gas augers.
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:icefish:.....Yep,old and old school here. 'Cept my Jiffy runs on propane.But I don't think you could go wrong with any of those three.
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Go electric with gear reduction, you will RARELY need a gas auger, but nice to have as a back up
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I have a12+year old strike master lazer mag runs great , I see no reason to get another auger , last couple years with the ice only 12" tops I ran my nils 6and 8" hand screws ,I didn't even bother with my dewalt set up
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I started using a Milwaukee drill with my 6inch mora. Upgraded to a 8.25 strikemaster gas auger, worked very well, but gas smell and ethanol issues were problems. I have used a propane, which was nice. Bought an Ion and absolutely love it. I bounce around a lot and looking to buy extra battery this year, I drill about 90 holes in 10 inches of ice with it before it slows down. Other issue with gas is can be difficult to start when very cold. Nez
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I've never had a gas auger or hand auger not work when I needed it.(I do know how to care for them and maintain them though) But I have had drill batteries just up and die for no reason when I needed them most. Some were not even a year old. Never had the old Nimhs crap out suddenly just Lion batts. Hell a couple my NiMh drill batteries were 10 years old and still kicking before I bought newer Lion stuff.
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I add some Seafoam and Starttron with my gas mix and never had any problems. Last year I got lucky because my local gas station started selling non-ethanol gas which is all I run anymore.
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I agree with what was said about lithium batteries crapping out. Most lithium batteries use 3.7v Samsung 18650 cells which are great, but the problem lies in the charging systems. Lithium cells need to balance charge and can not be charged above 3.7v per cell. The crap chargers that come with these drills balance the cells for poo and once one cell falls below 2.7v the charger will recognize it as a bad pack. Where really just one cell is just low. I gave up on lithium and still spend the big bucks on NiCad, $120 for two dewalt 2.6 ah but it is worth it...I like how dewalt still offers both NiCad and lithium tools!
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If it isn't the batteries themselves crapping out its the circuitry within the battery. If you go below a certain voltage per cell (like say when the batts are sitting for a while) some of the circuitry will not allow the charge. They set the battery circuitry to work with the charger circuitry. If you try a few times to charge a battery (on some of them) with no avail it will brick the pack. Sometimes you can get lucky and trickle charge a Lion or Lipo in NICD and Nimh mode to get the voltage up and the charger will recognize it but most times that don't work.
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I've never had a gas auger or hand auger not work when I needed it.(I do know how to care for them and maintain them though) But I have had drill batteries just up and die for no reason when I needed them most. Some were not even a year old. Never had the old Nimhs crap out suddenly just Lion batts. Hell a couple my NiMh drill batteries were 10 years old and still kicking before I bought newer Lion stuff.
What was the brand? Thanks.
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If my 18v NiCad cells fall below recognizable volts to the charger, I tap my battery terminals with 36v, giving them a surface charge that can be seen by the charger and SOMETIMES they will come back to life after a few cycles. I would not try that with lithium or lifepo4 batteries though, if a cell goes above 3.7v it can burst! That is why lithium batteries fail a lot of the times, it is a safety feature in the charger.
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My big concern with the larger Lithium batteries is the problems they're having with them bursting and catching on fire in other products such as lap tops and the hover boards. I know this isn't a problem with the "smaller" batteries but I'm leery to taking chances with the "bigger" ones.
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I run an older jiffy with the tecumseh motors still. Louder than ever, and never seems to scary fish. I’ve drilled a hole dropped through the slush two pumps and boom a slab. I’m planning on retiring it though this year, and getting a jiffy 4g model 41. Thought about the electric augers or a propane. But just feel like if something were to ever go wrong and I can’t figure it out there’s more people who can fix a gas engine than an electric or propane.
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Thanks Jason1817 for bringing this topic up. I have a Eskimo Lazar hand auger which I love, but I am thinking about some type of power auger.( I'm not as young as I used to be). I do however like the fact that the hand auger it very light and up to about 8" of ice takes very little effort. I am finding these comment helpful as well, weight and ease of use are very important, I don't want to be yanking a pull cord when I should be yanking a tip up line to set the hook.
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Based on recommendation, I ended up ordering up the lazer pro 3hp 8 inch. Thanks you
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Excellent. Please remember to give us a report after you use it!
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Absolutely I am thinking about breaking it in, in my garage this weekend.
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Ran a Lazer Mag 3000 for years, two seasons ago I was in my flip over and heard an auger running and I had never heard that quiet of an auger before. It was a Jiffey pro 4 . the guy let me drill a couple of holes really liked the unit. couple of days later I could not get my gas one to stay running and another guy with the Jiffey propane was close and he let me use his 2 days later I got a Jiffey at BPS on some kind of close out and have never looked back starts first or second pull every time.
Keep it safe! JDL
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Tried out my new strikemaster laser pro 3hp today for the first timeout on the ice for the season wouldn’t start and no spark....returning and getting electric ion too much messing around....my dewalt and hand auger never let me down....waisted 3 hours of drive time and $40 in gas lucky amazon has a superb return process
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If you buy a great portable drill you can justify the purchase with the wife “ it’s for the home improvement project” you plan on working on next spring...
Truer words never spoken....
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Yeah the only problem with that is they remember and will be watching to see what project you're doing and if your using it. And then there's the other big set of teeth to bite you, if you don't manage to find a project to use it on they'll find one for you and usually their's is a lot bigger and more expensive than what you wanted to get into. ;D
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I've been using a 20v dewalt with a custom insert to use the lazer hand auger works great however, I find myself drilling loads of holes and have ran 2 batteries dry many many times....with that said I'm looking for a gas auger leaning towards strike master lazer pro 3hp 8 inch bit....from the videos I seen they seem so loud....do u think a gas auger scares fish ? Is that auger the best choice ? Any suggestions would be much appreciated. As I only been ice fishing for the past 3 years
I use a Nils auger with a Milwaukee cordless 18 drill, have not had any problems with it.
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Hey All, I am a relative newbie/ novice... I have ice fished for about 10 years but have and average of 1 trip per year :( However the plan is to Fish this year! I had a nice Jiffy gas auger that I liked. Used startron all the time and it has run great for the past 8 years. ( I had a habit of running it 2X each off season to keep the carbs clear. However, I may be fishing a private lake with homes around it so I sold it for $200 and added my Cabela's points to but an ION 8. I did this because there is a restriction of no gas allowed on the lake (and also to be quiet for the residents). For the amount of holes I make (20-30) I should be fine. I will give a report on how good, efficient, and easy to use the ION is. I will keep you posted. Danny
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went to harbour freight bought their gas auger,20 percent off coupon got it for 100 dollars. took my hand auger took apart and cut the auger they give you and adapted to my hand auger works great cheap and can still use hand auger and auger for drilling in ground.my buddy saw it did same thing perfect.