Razr augers

[zcm_82]

“ One thing to consider when looking at blades and their sensitivity to dulling is how they're actually cutting the ice. The lazer/razr/Pistol Bit style blades are shavers, so by shaving through the ice, they'll be quite sensitive to dulling and will decrease in performance quickly when dull. They cut pretty nice, but sensitive when dull."  WRONG.  Lazers are not shavers and go dull easily. Pistol Bits and Ions are shavers and stay sharp much longer, and reopen holes with ease. I’ve had lazers, and got sick of replacing them. Never again.

Same. I had a couple Lazers, and went back to Moras. The Lazers cut fast when they're sharp, but they go dull really fast on the ice around here. We generally don't get much snow, so the ice gets dirt blown on it and just mutilates Lazer blades.

[thomasthepikehunter]

“ One thing to consider when looking at blades and their sensitivity to dulling is how they're actually cutting the ice. The lazer/razr/Pistol Bit style blades are shavers, so by shaving through the ice, they'll be quite sensitive to dulling and will decrease in performance quickly when dull. They cut pretty nice, but sensitive when dull."  WRONG.  Lazers are not shavers and go dull easily. Pistol Bits and Ions are shavers and stay sharp much longer, and reopen holes with ease. I’ve had lazers, and got sick of replacing them. Never again.

While it's probably true, Lazer blades are not even in the same realm of how bad Nils can be. At least with Lazer blades you can finish your fishing trip with a slightly slower auger. Nils just flat out leave you stranded.

[RapShack]

While we're discussing Lazer blades does anyone know if the serrated Light Flight blades will fit onto the standard hand augers?  Seems like they would be a better choice for drill setups. 

[zcm_82]

The serrated blades fit. Reeds sent me a set instead of regular Lazer blades a few years ago and I ended up using them. They were a bit harder to turn by hand, but not terribly so.

[RapShack]

The serrated blades fit. Reeds sent me a set instead of regular Lazer blades a few years ago and I ended up using them. They were a bit harder to turn by hand, but not terribly so.

Good info, thanks.

[thomasthepikehunter]

While we're discussing Lazer blades does anyone know if the serrated Light Flight blades will fit onto the standard hand augers?  Seems like they would be a better choice for drill setups.

I was thinking the opposite, but this is the first Lazer I've had with the "serrated" blades if you will. Strikemaster seems to call them the power blades. I'm told they are the same bolt pattern and shape as the regular Lazer blades, I'll be kind of mad if they don't. I plan to try both blades, but based on what I've heard, I would run the Lazers on a drill or hand auger. I even had a standard Lazer auger on an old Strikemaster mag III gas head for a while. It cut like absolute mad that way, but with no center point it was kind of touchy to start. That's where I would use the power blades and center point. With a drill, you are limited on power and battery capacity, plus you have a trigger which should make starting holes really easy. Since this 24v head is only on or off, not variable, I suspect that's why they go with the center point and power blades.

[Jkoht]

I have the 24v and I'll never go back to a gas or hand auger again. It's so light and easy to use. So far I've never needed more than the one battery. It's even stayed sharp for 3 years now. I'll see what happens this year but I suspect I won't need to change the blade yet.

[thomasthepikehunter]

I have the 24v and I'll never go back to a gas or hand auger again. It's so light and easy to use. So far I've never needed more than the one battery. It's even stayed sharp for 3 years now. I'll see what happens this year but I suspect I won't need to change the blade yet.

The jury is still out for me. I've tried electric over the years, and they all cut holes. I guess you could say I was one of the earliest too, I used to have an Electra that you hooked to a 12v car battery. Absolutely impractical, but since I was doing lots of night trips at the time where i was hauling a car battery out anyway it worked. It drilled holes quite well. I don't miss it. I wanted to like the Ion when it came out whatever year that was, 2013ish? It drilled holes. I never bought one because they were hardly lighter than most  gas augers, slower, didn't cut that many holes, and were twice the cost. Actually I think a Nils and Tanaka gas head which was considered the cats meow then, was lighter than an Ion. I do like the cordless drill, that is a practical way to go, and I did that for a while. Other than having to baby batteries and keep them warm, it does work, and the setup is super light. That was a huge deal 10 years ago when a 22 pound auger was "light", and a 11 pound drill setup for dirt cheap was literally half the weight. I still didn't give up my gas auger or hand auger. I'm not holding my breath on this 24v Strikemaster. I like it, it's good and light. I'm going to give it a try. I just like trying new gear. It was a spur of the moment buy that I wouldn't have done if it wasn't that cheap. Just in handling I'm kind of underwhelmed. If I were to seriously consider an electric auger to replace a gas and hand auger, I'd have to take a hard look at the new Eskimo 40v which is the same weight, more powerful, variable speed trigger, and it actually feels like a solid unit with metal. This 24v feels kind of like a toy, and it's just an on-off button. That's enough thinking about it though, I'm going into this season with as open mind as I can.

I really do believe there is something there with the concept of a super light hand auger though, and if I do a BWCA trip this year, no power augers are allowed, not even battery.

P.S. One last issue I've found is at least with my Milwaukee M18 batteries is they only had a good usable life of about 5 years. I think my oldest is now 8 years old, and it holds a charge, but if its below freezing it does not last long. Not the end of the world, but that's a worry I have with proprietary batteries is now the auger has an built in obsolescence. I've never had a gas auger fail yet. My oldest, a Strikemaster Mag III is very likely older than I am. Other than a non-adjustable carb that runs really rich, it runs fine. I got my Eskimo Mako I think the same year I bought into the Milwaukee M18 stuff, and it will not die anytime soon.

[lowaccord66]

Razr was dodging the question hard. After refusing my first email, replying to me second email with "in our factory" (seriously, that's all they said), and playing dumb on amazon, I finally got an answer from a distributer. Razr augers are straight up imported Chineese augers. Nothing special about them. There's no way Razr owns any factory in China. As far as I'm concerned they are a bunch of liars. They're just a brand that imports augers and pretends they manufacture things, and to claim to have been "manufacturing" for 30+ years. OOF.

Back to the drawing board. Still no Fin Bore augers to be found. I might have to try my hand at fabricating some offset handles for a Strikemaster lite flite auger.

I have a 6" fin bore for sale.

[Splattypus]

My first auger was an Eskimo 6" hand auger, whatever cheap one they had for like $50. It did okay, but more than 12" of ice and you started getting tired drilling after the first dozen. Plus the blades seem to have dulled a bit in just 1.5 seasons, and that didn't help. But worst it was just a pain to totally open the bottom of the hole. Not to mention it didn't pack down into as narrow a profile like some of the nice ones with the folding handle

The I got an absolute steal on my 24v strikemaster with 8" lite flite. What a game changer. On 2 occasions, punched about 30+ holes through about 18" (as long as I kept the battery warm. Worst performance I got was still about 300" on a charge in single-digit temps. Still better than I could drill by hand.  Its a bigger hole, packs nicer in the sled, only a few lbs heavier than the hand auger. Love it so much I bought a second battery for this season.

Had I known Eskimo electric was coming down the line, I might have waited. Maybe. I don't fish in 24+"of ice (or haven't yet, anyway). I wouldn't expect a lot of holes from the 24v, but I'm sure it would punch a bunch. Thick ice you definitely want 40v, or better yet, gas (there's no replacement for displacement), but I've been soundly impressed by all I've seen from electric in any size and style.

[thomasthepikehunter]

I can only assume you are quite new to ice fishing then. If you only fish right in Ramsey/Hennepin counties, then maybe it doesn't get as much ice. Anywhere else in the state, at least the northern 2/3rds 24" ice is not that much for January/February. It's pretty rare to get over 40" of ice, but it does happen, mostly on shallower lakes. Over 24" is very common on a lot of lakes. The thickest I've drilled through was on Pelican lake near St. Michael, and that winter I had an extension on the auger and it still came close to bottoming. I don't think it was 50" of ice but it wasn't far from it. It also winterkilled that year. Once you get to the big/shallow lakes like upper Red, LOTW and even Mille Lacs its not uncommon you need an extension later in the winter. It can vary so much by year.

I think the Strikemaster 24V will serve you well. It's a 4ah battery, which is right inline with what most people are using with 20v Dewalt and 18v Milwaukee drills, and those work fine for most people. One good thing that came of the electric push is you don't see people swiss cheesing the lakes anymore. For a while it almost seemed to be some kind of ego trip that people had to drill 50 holes every single spot they went, they would even brag about it online. I swear Clearwater lake in Wright county would end up more holes than ice in a lot of spots. Honestly if I don't see fish within 5 holes it's usually bad, I might drill 10 for a spot I have a good feeling about. I know a lot of people have replaced their gas with a 40v auger. Myself, I just don't see it the same. You might save 5 pounds on the electric. But you are giving up that longevity and ruggedness, along with you don't get to smell 2 stroke. As of now none of the electrics can touch the number of holes a properly tuned gas engine can per tank, but it doesn't seem to matter much. I rarely use more than 1/4 tank of my gas, and I don't think I've seen anyone drain two 40v batteries yet. Of course you can bring more batteries too, same as you could bring extra gas. You do have to dump your shavings more with an electric, but I'm not in a race. If it takes 30 seconds vs 20 seconds to drill a hole, I don't care. Its a non issue under 24" of ice. This may change in the future. If that Eskimo 40v really is only 14 pounds, and really can keep up with other augers, then that's for sure going to draw attention.

Unfortunately you probably had the worst hand auger they made in the last 10 years. Those Eskimo blades stay sharp, but they really dig in hard. That combined with the inline handle. At least you bought the 6". If you get a good set up blades and offset handles so you can use both arms, hand augers are spectacular things. The rest of the world figured it out, it seems to be just the USA that would rather use inline handles, and cheap garbage blades. You don't get away with much with hand augers though. What is considered "sharp" on a power auger, might be dull on a hand auger. Using only one arm with an inline style handle is not fun either, since you are nerfing yourself 50% of your power right off the bat.

[thomasthepikehunter]

I have a 6" fin bore for sale.

Thanks, but I'll pass. I'd consider a 7", otherwise I want 8". 6" is great for general fishing, but I do too much pike fishing where the bigger the hole, the better.

[thomasthepikehunter]

Here is an unforseen turn of events. Due to a recent post on weighing Lite flite augers, I decided to weigh my own.

My bare Lite Flite 8" auger came in a 5 pounds 6 ounces.

I fabricated an adapter to use Nils offset handle, the adapter and handles together came in at 2 pounds 12 ounces. The adapter is still very long until I figure out the height. I'm guessing the final product will be about 12" shorter, which must be 4 to 6 less ounces

I don't yet have an 8" Lazer hand auger. Instead I weighed my Mora 7" auger with handle and everything. It is 6 pounds 9 ounces.

My Cold Snap cover alone for the Lazer is 11.5 ounces.

Based on that I'm going to assume Strikemasters listed 8 pounds for the Lazer hand auger is correct, if not overstated.

With my handle on my Lite Flite auger it will likely total about 8 pounds even. While it's true I could pull two sections of flighting off to match the Mora/steel Lazer it not going to save much weight.

At this point I think I'm going to say forget the lite flite hand auger idea. Im going to buy a steel Lazer 8" for sure to use my offset handles on. It can be more compact with no modifications and may even weigh less. I know I said I was going to give the 24v an honest try, but I might just return it at this point.

[thomasthepikehunter]

I returned my 24v lite flite auger for full refund, and bought a 8" steel Lazer hand auger.

The bare auger, no handle weighs 5 pounds 11 ounces. With the exact same handle as before put in this steel auger, the total comes to 8 pounds, 8 ounces. The steel auger is only about a half pound heavier than the lite flite, if that much. They are practically the same. I guess I learned a lesson, not sure what it is yet though. I'm glad I got my money back. The lite fite is nice compared to the steel power augers, but they offer nothing over the steel hand augers.

[SLAYERFISH]

Dude if you put it on a capable drill you'll see the difference.  Absolutely no reason not to do the drill thing. IMO of course-

Unless you WANT the exercise.

[RapShack]

My bare Lite Flite 8" auger came in a 5 pounds 6 ounces.

I fabricated an adapter to use Nils offset handle, the adapter and handles together came in at 2 pounds 12 ounces. The adapter is still very long until I figure out the height. I'm guessing the final product will be about 12" shorter, which must be 4 to 6 less ounces

I don't yet have an 8" Lazer hand auger. Instead I weighed my Mora 7" auger with handle and everything. It is 6 pounds 9 ounces.

For whatever reason the Mora is considerably lighter than the Lazer, probably extra material where the blades mount.  I weighed up a bunch of my stuff the other day as I have a plethora of drills and augers laying around.
I weighed the augers bare, just the flighting and blades no handle or cover.
7" Lazer 4lb 10oz, 8" Mora 3lb 10 oz, 8" Thunder Bay 4lb 9oz.

I'm not sure if you noticed my post earlier in the thread but the Thunder Bay augers come with a folding offset handle and supposedly will accept a set of Lazer blades. 

[thomasthepikehunter]

Dude if you put it on a capable drill you'll see the difference.  Absolutely no reason not to do the drill thing. IMO of course-

Unless you WANT the exercise.

Don't shatter my dream dang it.

[thomasthepikehunter]

I know a lot of people want offset handles for their hand augers, so here is a dirt simple way to do that. Razr does sell them, but I already stated my opinion on that company. If you search around, way back Mora and Lazer augers have come with offset handles, but I've never seen one in person. Both Mora and Lazer hand augers use handles .708" OD, which is exactly what 1/2" EMT conduit pipe is. I suspect Eskimo is the same. If you wanted to use this on a power auger, what I was going to do was make a bushing from 7/8" OD DOM tubing, which has about a .710" ID, and should work perfectly.

The only two materials you will need is about 2' of 1/2 rigid EMT pipe, and a small about 2" or 3" long bit of steel round stock 5/8" minimum, I used 3/4", bigger would work too with a little bit more grinding work. This is to make an adapter to use a set of handles from a Nils auger, which you can buy for $25 plus shipping if you call the USA dealer. 802-658-1070.

All I did was take my 3/4" round stock and ground one end down to be a super tight fit in 1/2 EMT, which is about 5/8" ID. If you take your time you could probably get a great fit. I just ground it until it kind of started, then pounded it in. It came out surprisingly concentric, nearly perfect. I then welded the top edge. Even without a welder you could certainly just drill and bolt it. My round stock already had a flat milled in it, but you could grind, and then file that flat in easily. It doesn't have to be perfect at all. You then drill the center hole for the handles which are 12mm, or .472". A 1/2" MIGHT work, but I'd really want a tight fit here. I had a 12mm drill bit, but I suspect a 15/32" and a little bit of ream action would do fine. The smaller looking holes are for the taper pin that aligns the handles. They don't have to be exact, just kind of close. You definitely want them on the centerline though, so make sure to get it as inline as possible. I used a smaller bit on the center line top and bottom, then a 45 degree countersink to taper the holes. It's easier than it sounds. Finish by drilling holes in the 1/2" EMT for your handle height.

Here is the 8" Lazer hand auger. I'm extra tall at 6'5", so I made my top hole nice and tall. The auger packs way down to 34" total, and has a nice carry handle. I was going to paint the adapter, but I might just leave it, it looks pretty good like this.

[thomasthepikehunter]

Interesting that the Moras are lighter yet. My 7" is an old one with welded on handle. My dad as an 8" Mora on a drill, I might compare that at some point.

[lowaccord66]

Thanks, but I'll pass. I'd consider a 7", otherwise I want 8". 6" is great for general fishing, but I do too much pike fishing where the bigger the hole, the better.

Can confirm, my pb squeezed through a 8" hole.

[thomasthepikehunter]

Can confirm, my pb squeezed through a 8" hole.

Yes, I'm not a big fan of the 10", but an 8" is really a great size for pike, yet doesn't hand drill too hard. If I had an electric, I might consider a 6", but drill two holes side by side. I'm not going to hand drill double holes for every tip up. I really like the 7", and the only reason I don't like it more is because my one shot skimmer doesn't quite fit.

[Reel trouble]

Here is an unforseen turn of events. Due to a recent post on weighing Lite flite augers, I decided to weigh my own.

My bare Lite Flite 8" auger came in a 5 pounds 6 ounces.

I fabricated an adapter to use Nils offset handle, the adapter and handles together came in at 2 pounds 12 ounces. The adapter is still very long until I figure out the height. I'm guessing the final product will be about 12" shorter, which must be 4 to 6 less ounces

I don't yet have an 8" Lazer hand auger. Instead I weighed my Mora 7" auger with handle and everything. It is 6 pounds 9 ounces.

My Cold Snap cover alone for the Lazer is 11.5 ounces.

Based on that I'm going to assume Strikemasters listed 8 pounds for the Lazer hand auger is correct, if not overstated.

With my handle on my Lite Flite auger it will likely total about 8 pounds even. While it's true I could pull two sections of flighting off to match the Mora/steel Lazer it not going to save much weight.

At this point I think I'm going to say forget the lite flite hand auger idea. Im going to buy a steel Lazer 8" for sure to use my offset handles on. It can be more compact with no modifications and may even weigh less. I know I said I was going to give the 24v an honest try, but I might just return it at this point.

I did this same thing I can run the nils handle or run it off my drill works fantastic the adjustable height makes it really nice.

[thomasthepikehunter]

I did this same thing I can run the nils handle or run it off my drill works fantastic the adjustable height makes it really nice.

Very nice. I was impressed with mine yesterday. Not much of a test, 4" ice on one lake, 5" on the other. Drilled about 30 holes, and I can't ask for better performance. Seemingly no fish in either though.

[Reel trouble]

Very nice. I was impressed with mine yesterday. Not much of a test, 4" ice on one lake, 5" on the other. Drilled about 30 holes, and I can't ask for better performance. Seemingly no fish in either though.

You will like it ran mine all last season and it did fine too bad about the fish tho