Best Way to Free Up Frozen Ice House

[spearchucker]

nobody steered you back to the 30-06 but i will. a few well placed shots around the house will break it free. the concussion in the ice will break your runners free. yes its safe , you will not break thru. think about it you drill holes in the ice inside and outside of your house that are much bigger. but if you want to chop for 3 days go ahead

I have heard of people doing this but never seen it. It was for a house that flooded over the floor and froze. They said they shot into each corner of the house and it broke free.

[The_Seasock]

Guys I know use guns all the Time, .22 up to .300 mags, just shoot right thru the floor or into the holes in the corners. Don't be a safety sissy, git-r-done.

[Acemac]

that is how we got all our houses off when I was a kid I used a 300 savage though.

[jentz]

Get a spud do the work.Lesson learned for next year.

[TruthWalleyes]

If you want to shoot the ice, go ahead, but bullets do mysterious things when they hit hard objects!

Things can deflect and go bad quickly...and you won't be doing much fishing in the ER.

[BronzeBrother]

Not to mention a citation for unsafe discharge of a firearm. Imagine all the anti gun people waiting for a story like that to pounce on. Ugh

[GotALunker]

as long as you dont set the house on fire, try the roofing torch. if the roofing torch doesnt work (which is what I would try since my father in law has one) then try dynamite. If dynamite doesn't work, just have a beer and let 'er sink in the lake. if letting 'er sink in the lake doesn't work, just keep fishing.

[Gordie]

I have done the rifle method and it works but you only shoot thru the floor from the inside of the house NOT the outside of the house also You better wear some really good ear protection when doing this because if you dont you wont hear nothing for about three days as a friend of mine found out.

I was shown this by a resort owner on Mille Lacs I dont recomend it but it does work.

After the experience of a frozen in fish shack I built new skids out of pipe and capped them on both ends and if it ever frozen in again I just take a cap off and insert a weed burner/roofing torch in the pipe and heat it up for a few seconds and the house pops free

[BLACKJACK]

Lot of good ideas here, I think it will take a combination of ideas. I'd start with the chainsaw, use a power tool!!! Make a trench down to the bottom of the runners. Then a couple bags of solar salt, heck 3-4 bags of salt. Let them work an hour or three. In the meantime you could be hooking up the eyebolt, chain, and handyman jack. If that doesn't work, then its chisel time. I'd keep the brewski's in the cooler until you have it moving....

Good luck!!! I don't envy you!!

[McGurk]

It amazes me the effort you guys put in to not put any effort in. I saw 4) teenage guys hacking away at a house a couple of years back with a sledge, a pickaxe, and an axe. They were at it for 45 minutes, trading off and doing everything they could with no luck. I walked over to them with my 5' long chisel/spud bar with a GOOD EDGE on it, and told them to bring it back when they were done. 20 minutes later, back it came with a very sincere thanks, as the rest of them started to load it up on their trailer. It's amazing what a sharp edge with some weight behind it will do.

Trust me. Get a spud bar that has some weight to it, and make sure it is sharp. Like this one: Spud Bar example

[bigtimeelectric]

if you know anyone in the trades borrow a big hilti with a chisel bit and use a generator. works good

[FishLocker]

[ After the experience of a frozen in fish shack I built new skids out of pipe and capped them on both ends and if it ever frozen in again I just take a cap off and insert a weed burner/roofing torch in the pipe and heat it up for a few seconds and the house pops free

[stealth3350]

i got the eskimo red neck ice chipper the 2 piece one.. boy this thing is heavy.. after i cranked the house up my 2x4s wer a inch under the ice no more than 3 wack and i got them back... these suckers are well worth the money

[Pooh]

a good chisle is worth the money. when i was in the market for one I couldnt find one i liked. so i built one. its a 1" 6 foot long bar with a sharpened old leaf spring (i had replaced a leaf in my truck.) the head has 3 points on it and boy will it cut ice n weights about 20 lbs or better. find something like that and the right bunch of guys to swing the thing and u will have it out in no time.

[Ed Carlson]

Guys I know use guns all the Time, .22 up to .300 mags, just shoot right thru the floor or into the holes in the corners. Don't be a safety sissy, git-r-done.

So...why do I somehow expect that comment to be listed in the "Darwin Awards" Top 10 in the not so distant future?

[topcat3820]

God, I hope you're trolling with this one !!!

[Hardyboy]

a 30.06, that is funny.

works better than you could possibly believe

[Snowking]

get a gas powered air compressor and an air chisle

[Big A]

If you use a rifle.. please take a video and post (if possible) once your done!

Id love to see this.

This thread starts up every year. Its always interesting to hear the ideas. Good and bad. Makes for a good read.

ELWOOD... that is an AWESOME idea! You win in my books! if i ever build a permanent.. thats exactly the advice I will be using!

[mtbucket]

Heck, go big! Bring out a skidsteer with a hydraulic pavement breaker hammer attachment. With all of the people that post complaints about people drilling holes and running little generators near them, you may as well really give them something to complain about. A few well placed charges of C4 should also do the trick. (JK of course)

[Fisherman45]

You need to call the same people who remove ice dams and they can steam it free for you or get a gas powered high pressure washer with a water tank.

[GotALunker]

if you had steel skids, could you hook up a set of jumper cables to them on your truck?

[Tom7227]

Sure you could but I doubt they'd hold very well while you tried to tow it.

Are you kidding - sounds like a great way to fry your alternator and get absolutely now where.

Seriously for a minute - what causes the shot through the floor to work? Fracture all the ice under the house? Just the shock wave enough to break the runners free?

As for the solar salt - why does anyone think that we need salt in a MN lake? That seems like the worst idea I've read so far.

[bradyd]

How many millions of gallons of water are in an average lake?

Would putting the amount of salt to break a house free really do any harm to a lake?

I'm guessing it wouldn't do as much harm as all the vehicles leaking fluids onto the lake during the winter.

[Northlander]

If every perm owner on the lake started this year after year Im sure it wouldnt be good for the lake.

If your too lazy, bussy or whatever to properly block up your house than you should have to do some chopping to get it out.