Ice Augers

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half_full

half_full

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Williamston, MI
We use a strike master hand auger adapted to our stihl drill, if you already have the drill then it's a no brainier, but we just use a 6" and a foot of ice is a lot for us


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I use an adapter to hook my DeWalt 18V NiCd to a lazer hand auger. Super fast, light, reliable and easy holes when the ice is less than 10ish inches.
The newer LI-ION batteries don't like the cold so much.
 
TreeTangler

TreeTangler

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Northern Maine
I do a ton of ice fishing. I had a jiffy lightning and a 76. 3 years ago they needed to be replaced, they must have been close to 30 years old. i bought the new jiffy propane auger the weekend of a big tournament and sold it that monday. it was heavy, slow, and kept freezing up. i like a light auger that starts easy and cuts fast. It is not uncomon for me to drill 75-100 holes in a weekend! (The ice shack is usually full and I have several friendsand family that dont have their own augers) After trying out a bunch of augers, I finally settled on an 8" eskimo and I LOVE it.
 

BTY

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Northeast MN
I run a Echo EA-500 with a Nils Master 8 inch power point auger. I also have an Eskimo 10 inch auger for it.

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The Echo EA-500 powerhead was NOS that I bought cheap off of eBay a couple of years ago. The Nils and Eskimo augers were "2nd's" also found on eBay.

I had an adapter made at the local machine shop so I could run the Nils auger on the Echo. I've MM'd it, deleted the base gasket, and I swapped out the carb body for one with an adjustable high speed needle. It cuts ice pretty well.

It's a great set-up for what I have in it. I've run one of the Tanaka/Nils augers and they are nice. I mean really nice. They are light and fast. I wanted one bad but I have hundreds less in my set-up and still have 20 more cc's for easily turning a 10 inch auger when I want to do some sight fishing.
 
snuffbandit

snuffbandit

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Sep 19, 2014
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minnesota
i have a strike master ice auger (older model) but i mainly spear fish and i use a chainsaw with bar oil drained out or a ice spud and a ice saw to cut my 3x2.5 hole my auger runs great till it gets to -30 or lower. if i were to buy a new auger i would buy a propane auger. just my 2 cents
 
Four Paws

Four Paws

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I wanted to post an update. Ice is plenty thick here now for fishing. Spent part of the day on the ice with my family. Good times had by all despite the sub-zero temps.

The Solo powerhead moved the 10" auger without issue. In fact, it would have moved it better if it wasn't so rich - the super cold temperatures and high altitude where we were fishing kepto it four-stroking clear through the ice.

Kids managed to keep their feet and legs out of the holes. The adults managed to land a few nice fish...heating the oil as I upload these pictures.

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Starts ridiculously easy with the primer. First pull. No decomp needed.

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I like the thumble throttle and on/off switch.

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My father-in-law with a gorgeous cutthroat.

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A couple rainbows ready for the knife.
 
hamish

hamish

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Would have to be either the Husqvarna or the Strikemaster with the GX35. The Gx35 does like to be warmed up well before boring, but is still second to the husky. Most likely because I have been using my husky for the past 8 years, its rock solid, not as fast as others but always on task at drilling holes vs being cursed at and chucked on the ice.

I like the 4 stoke all position GX35 however have seen many fail in other applications, they sure are sweet when they work though.
 

MOE

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Dec 12, 2004
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Minnesota
One thing to look at with ice augers is the clutch size and gearbox. I do quite a bit of ice fishing as do my friends. I have an old school jiffy 3 hp that sounds like an old homelite. The gear box is all metal and huge compared to the lazers, strikemasters and magnums. which are smaller and plastic. a few of my friends have had to rebuild theres over the years. I take the auger off my Jiffy and use it to power a big old PTO winch I mounted on my tag trailer. We had 44" of ice last year,( alot more than normal). all of the propane augers I"ve seen run great in bitter cold as do propane heaters. I think the propanes really shine if you have a larger permanent that your are re drilling holes every time you go out doesn't smoke them up too bad.
 

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