Ice Gator Augers

[springermnguy26]

Hey guys. Just wondering where you can get one of these? Do you have to go through there HSOforum? How well do they work? Or do you guys suggest any other electric augers?

[Steve Foss]

If you do a search for Ice Gator going back 18 months on this (ice fishing) board, you should find a bunch of chatter about them.

I love mine. Great unit. For top speed/efficiency, put an 8-inch Nils drill on it (the drill without the powerpoint is best). When you order, I.G. throws in an adapter as part of the unit. You just have to specify which drill you have so they know which adapter to include. If you already have an auger and don't want to shell out extra jing for the Nils drill/blades, you can use the drill you have. I picked up the Nils because it's the fastest cutting system I've seen in the industry, and I use it as a hand auger on early ice. The easier you can cut a hole, the longer the I.G. battery charge lasts.

I bought mine at Red Rock Wilderness Store in Ely, and they have an online catalog and ship everywhere in the world. It's hard to find a Minnesota business that carries them. Mostly when I was in search mode last winter I found them by looking at the Ice Gator dealers list on their Web site and calling around. Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan were where I found dealers. No one had any in stock, but then I found one right in my back yard.

I'd hope they are attracting more interest from MN stores this winter. I know Joe at Red Rock wasn't going to be a dealer for them until I bought the one I did (it was a used-once demo) and gave him a detailed review on its performance. Reviews show that Ice Gator is way out ahead of other battery-op ice augers. No doubt the others will catch up eventually.

You can get I.G.'s phone number off their Web site and call them to see if there's a dealer near you (not sure where you are in MN). If none are near, you'll have to get it shipped, so you might as well go directly through I.G. if Red Rock doesn't have any in stock.