Best electric auger.

[Rick]

 

Tesla Patents New Battery

Chemistry Cheaper & Longer Lasting Than Current Li-Ion

 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/electrek.co/2019/12/26/tesla-patents-battery-chemistry-cheaper/amp/

[leech~~]

5 minutes ago, Rick said:

 

Tesla Patents New Battery

Chemistry Cheaper & Longer Lasting Than Current Li-Ion

 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/electrek.co/2019/12/26/tesla-patents-battery-chemistry-cheaper/amp/

 

Their cars don't like Ice what makes you think their auger batteries will?  

[PurpleFloyd]

6 hours ago, nofishfisherman said:

 

Based on your description I got to agree with those recommending the kdrill with milwaukee M18 fuel drill.   I needed a new cordless drill 2 years ago and also wanted a new auger so it was a no brainer for me to pair the 2 up.  I've got the smaller Kdrill but with the 2 batteries I can easily get 40-50 holes through 12-18 inches of ice no problem.  Thats way more than enough for my purposes.   It also cuts really nice and easy.  My wife was out with me and the kids once and she's never used an auger of any kind and she wanted to give the kdrill a shot.  She was cutting holes with ease and the auger is so light there really isn't any issues with fatigue.  Its also really nice to throw the drill into reverse and clear the hole by pushing the slush down the hole and up under the ice.  No more scooping holes.

 

A smaller advantage but one I still notice is how easy it is to store in the off season.  The drill is always in its spot in my workshop and the auger itself is small and easy to store compared to the bigger units.  If space is an issue and you know it may sit for awhile between uses that advantage becomes more noticeable.  

Probably a good choice. It doesn’t take long to lmitout anyway when you use the right bait so why drag along all the dead weight. 

[PurpleFloyd]

1 hour ago, leech~~ said:

 

Their cars don't like Ice what makes you think their auger batteries will?  

 

[eyeguy 54]

After 3 years with my 6 inch nills I sold it and grabbed a k drill last spring. I liked the speed of the nills but just got tired of too much slush. which bugged me when doing a lot of holes for hole hopping. Really like the K drill. Fuel 18 and 2, 5 amp batteries is working fine so far. Great setup for panfish. 

[PurpleFloyd]

1 hour ago, eyeguy 54 said:

After 3 years with my 6 inch nills I sold it and grabbed a k drill last spring. I liked the speed of the nills but just got tired of too much slush. which bugged me when doing a lot of holes for hole hopping. Really like the K drill. Fuel 18 and 2, 5 amp batteries is working fine so far. Great setup for panfish. 

this seemed like a great option but after watching some youtoob videos it looks like the strikemaster Lite flite cuts faster than the kdrill and the Eskimo pistol drill. 
 

 

[bobbymalone]

1 hour ago, PurpleFloyd said:

this seemed like a great option but after watching some youtoob videos it looks like the strikemaster Lite flite cuts faster than the kdrill and the Eskimo pistol drill. 
 

 

The strike master and eskimo have more of standard shaver blade and there are two blases. The kdrill has kind of a hybrid shaver chipper blade. 

 

I wonder how the edges hold up between them.  

[Wanderer]

If you’re going to be cutting any dirty ice stay away from shaver blades.  They are great when in perfect shape but grit will nick up the leading edge and make drilling a chore pretty quickly.

[Wanderer]

9 hours ago, eyeguy 54 said:

After 3 years with my 6 inch nills I sold it and grabbed a k drill last spring. I liked the speed of the nills but just got tired of too much slush. which bugged me when doing a lot of holes for hole hopping. Really like the K drill. Fuel 18 and 2, 5 amp batteries is working fine so far. Great setup for panfish. 

Still liking the Nils but I haven’t had much real experience running the K drill.  I just have to assume they do very well based on their popularity.  I read your post on the lake today then drilled another 20 holes with my 6 inch Nils.  If the K drill leaves less slush, then it must leave next to none! 

[monstermoose78]

I run a brushed dewalt with a clam plate and 6 inch strikemaster auger and have close 8,000 holes cut. My blades are still sharp and when I bought my setup I ordered 3 sets of blades. I could put a new set on but it still cuts great. 
 

I cut holes with many guys from here and is my set up is not the fastest but it’s not slow either. I seen Eyeguy buzz holes with the nils and many use the kdrill. So far no fish refused to come up my hole because it was cut with strikemaster. I like the plate to hang onto and to set my auger down.

 

i was on Osakis and it had 40+ inches of ice and I was getting 32-35 holes per 9 amp hour battery. They make car chargers and I never ran out of battery power with the big batteries.

 

choose the electric auger you like but i will tell you that gas auger will stay home from then on. 

[AlwaysFishing23]

13 hours ago, monstermoose78 said:

choose the electric auger you like but i will tell you that gas auger will stay home from then on. 

Well said! I had the mentality for many years electric augers were a joke and gas was the Only way to go. Fast forward a few years and now I’m running basically your same setup and love it dearly. It’s so awesome. I like the fact all I had to buy was the 6” bit and clam plate since I already had the dewalt drill. And Black Friday I got a steal on some bigger dewalt batteries so now I’m set. Actually today was the first time this season, since last spring I started my gas auger and that’s because I need it for spearing other than that it will still at home! 

[PurpleFloyd]

5 minutes ago, AlwaysFishing23 said:

Well said! I had the mentality for many years electric augers were a joke and gas was the Only way to go. Fast forward a few years and now I’m running basically your same setup and love it dearly. It’s so awesome. I like the fact all I had to buy was the 6” bit and clam plate since I already had the dewalt drill. And Black Friday I got a steal on some bigger dewalt batteries so now I’m set. Actually today was the first time this season, since last spring I started my gas auger and that’s because I need it for spearing other than that it will still at home! 

Good point. Like with anything technology gains increase the value of products and the gap is closing or is flipping in the market on augers. 
 

 

[elkrivermn]

On 12/27/2019 at 12:47 PM, leech~~ said:

 

I wonder if they still have that?  I was just there the other day and all I saw was gas Earth augers?  

Good question Leech they might have changed vendors on us.

[PurpleFloyd]

19 hours ago, monstermoose78 said:

I run a brushed dewalt with a clam plate and 6 inch strikemaster auger and have close 8,000 holes cut. My blades are still sharp and when I bought my setup I ordered 3 sets of blades. I could put a new set on but it still cuts great. 
 

I cut holes with many guys from here and is my set up is not the fastest but it’s not slow either. I seen Eyeguy buzz holes with the nils and many use the kdrill. So far no fish refused to come up my hole because it was cut with strikemaster. I like the plate to hang onto and to set my auger down.

 

i was on Osakis and it had 40+ inches of ice and I was getting 32-35 holes per 9 amp hour battery. They make car chargers and I never ran out of battery power with the big batteries.

 

choose the electric auger you like but i will tell you that gas auger will stay home from then on. 

Looking to the future we can look forward to heading out on an electric tracked wheelchair with a built in electric auger and on board sonar . 

 

and I will still catch my lmit before lunch. Just drop the jig and set the hook. 

[leech~~]

9 minutes ago, PurpleFloyd said:

Looking to the future we can look forward to heading out on an electric tracked wheelchair with a built in electric auger and on board sonar . 

 

and I will still catch my lmit before lunch. Just drop the jig and set the hook. 

 

Yeah, then we will be hovering over the ice and drilling holes with lasers so there's that! 

[Tom Sawyer]

On 12/25/2019 at 2:24 PM, PurpleFloyd said:

So with a lot of new electric augers on the market, which would you consider to be the best? I have been considering putting my gas Eskimo on mothballs and getting an electric. Out of all of them the Clam looks like a good option. Anyone else have experience with the newest models 

 

 

If you don't have a good drill already, or don't use it year round, I would go this route. What you need to keep in mind is, shaving blades will cut ice with less effort then chipper blades. Giving you more battery life and way less torque. However, if you like to reopen old holes, or overlap holes for sight fishing, spearing, or targeting larger fish you will want a chipper blade setup. Also, keep it mind augers are inner changeable, customizing is now the craze.

My feelings on gas is they will never die. Once ice gets 24" its time for gas power for the style of fishing I do. By then I'm driving out so weight and portability isn't an issue.  You'll rarely find me fishing community holes, sitting over pressured fish. I like to venture out away from the crowd and prospect virgin ice, and new fish. Which some days can mean cutting up to 8000 holes, LOL!

With thick untapped ice, gas rules. If I do find holes off the beaten path, I grab the K-drill/Fuel setup and quickly reopen them.....

 

 

Edited December 30, 2019 by Tom Sawyer
word

[eyeguy 54]

On 12/28/2019 at 7:00 PM, Wanderer said:

Still liking the Nils but I haven’t had much real experience running the K drill.  I just have to assume they do very well based on their popularity.  I read your post on the lake today then drilled another 20 holes with my 6 inch Nils.  If the K drill leaves less slush, then it must leave next to none! 

With my nils I could get the slush out but had to get a lot of water on the ice also while flushing. No biggy if only doing a few holes. Big diff if lots of holes and a tiny 3 mm jig I noticed a big difference between ricks k and my nills. It was ok and a great auger I just got frustrated so switched.  I grabbed the pistol bit before I got the k to test. Did half dozen holes and took it back. Careful with that one. It likes to walk. 

[Hawg]

Tom S, just clarify my feeling on your post. Yes, chippers reopen great. But, there is a difference between shavers and lasers. Shavers (ion) reopen extremely well also, it’s lazers(Strikemaster) that have problems. There’s a guy on all these sites that showed lazers could reopen holes too        He drilled an 8 inch hole in a frozen 10 inch and reopened a couple 8 inch holes in super thick 4 inches of ice. That’s not the issue, he could have kicked those open! Wait for a couple feet or more after a few frigid days in a permanent. He’ll get thru but struggle and be buying new blades after a couple times. Shavers will glide right thru. 

[eyeguy 54]

The nills I had didn’t like to reopen. It would do it but not a good idea. 

[Wanderer]

22 minutes ago, eyeguy 54 said:

The nills I had didn’t like to reopen. It would do it but not a good idea. 

Like cut through and and pull you down like a giant screw without breaking the hole completely open when it’s a little thicker?  Most of the time I’ll just drill another hole when it gets to that point.  
 

But I can see where you Swiss cheesers need to reopen old holes better than drilling new.  There’s hardly enough space left when you’re done!   60 holes in a day is the high end of my average.  You guys will do 60 holes on a spot.

[Tom Sawyer]

58 minutes ago, Hawg said:

Tom S,  Shavers will glide right thru. 

 

You are correct, Lazers are terrible for reopening. A rock can pound nails, but a hammer works better

 

 

1 hour ago, eyeguy 54 said:

With my nils I could get the slush out but had to get a lot of water on the ice also while flushing.  I grabbed the pistol bit before I got the k to test. Did half dozen holes and took it back. Careful with that one. It likes to walk. 

 

mr eyeguy, didn't your drill have reverse? 

 

Here's more that might help......

 

 

[Tom Sawyer]

9 minutes ago, Wanderer said:

You guys will do 60 holes on a spot.

 

Not always, it really depends on the structure and specie targeted. Sometimes, less is more 

[Tom Sawyer]

Another great option.....

 

 

[eyeguy 54]

No reverse on my drill. Lol. Don’t care to run slush down. Would rather be drilling more holes. 

[Getanet]

I have a 6 inch Nils that I use with a Dewalt 20V.  If I could do it again I might go KDrill, but maybe not. Either way, these new augers that connect to a cordless drill are amazing. Just like when I switched to a Helix w/GPS or got Lasik done, get one and you'll be asking yourself why you didn't do it sooner.