Best Auger for Milwaukee Drill

Need to replace my 6″ Striker auger that got lost fishing yesterday. Do I go with Striker or Nils? Or something totally different.

Thanks

Can’t beat the Strikemaster lite flite in whatever size you need.

A year or two ago I would say the K-drill hands down. After using the strikemaster lite flight a few times this year I will say that is your best option right now. The only downside I see to the lite flight is that you will need to replace the blades fairly often ( Depending on how much you use it and the ice conditions you use it in ) It looks like they cost around 50.00. I will add that I still like my old K-drill for reopening old holes more than the lite flight.

Strikemaster lite flight. The 8 inch cuts with ease so I sold my 6. But if you only want a 6 then the lite flite 6 is the only thing I’d consider. As for blade replacement I dont understand? I drill more then any one I’ve ever fished around. Early season to late. Dirty river ice to lakes. Still have original blades on mine with no sign of dulling.

Gerty wrote:

Can’t beat the Strikemaster lite flite in whatever size you need.

Thanks! I have never tried the Strikemaster lite and wondered how it was. What is the major difference between the lite and the reg auger?

fishthumper wrote:

A year or two ago I would say the K-drill hands down. After using the strikemaster lite flight a few times this year I will say that is your best option right now. The only downside I see to the lite flight is that you will need to replace the blades fairly often ( Depending on how much you use it and the ice conditions you use it in ) It looks like they cost around 50.00. I will add that I still like my old K-drill for reopening old holes more than the lite flight.

Thank you! I have tried the K-drill and for some reason did not care for it. I will check out the strikemaster lite!

Bearcat89 wrote:

Lite flight. The 8 inch cuts with ease so I sold my 6. But if you only want a 6 then the lite flite 6 is the only thing I’d consider. As for blade replacement I dont understand? I drill more then any one I’ve ever fished around. Early season to late. Dirty river ice to lakes. Still have original blades on mine with no sign of dulling.

I also fish a lot, so I am glad to hear you did not have any blade issues. 95% of the time I fish for perch..5% Pike/Walleye. So I guess this was the reason for going 6″ vs 8″.

You mentioned Nils; I have a 6″ Nils convertible auger (the orange one) and it’s awesome. It cuts so effortlessly and fast. I’d certainly recommend it. Only downside is blades/sharpening. As far as I know the only person to sharpen the blades is Frank DeLuca in Saginaw, MN.

Do you favor smooth cutting or light weight? The Nils cuts smoother while the strikemaster is noticeably lighter. The smooth cutting is probably not as big a factor with 6″ compared to 8″.

SM blades are less than half the cost of a new Nils head. Both can be resharpened but it’s common to just replace the SM blades. The Nils head needs to be shipped out for resharpening and is roughly $40ish to sharpen, shipping included.

tswoboda wrote:

Do you favor smooth cutting or light weight? The Nils cuts smoother while the strikemaster is noticeably lighter. The smooth cutting is probably not as big a factor with 6″ compared to 8″.

SM blades are less than half the cost of a new Nils head. Both can be resharpened but it’s common to just replace the SM blades. The Nils head needs to be shipped out for resharpening and is roughly $40ish to sharpen, shipping included.

I am a smaller female so I prefer both light weight and smooth cutting :). With that said. Smoother cutting prob would be my pick if I had to choose one.

blank wrote:

You mentioned Nils; I have a 6″ Nils convertible auger (the orange one) and it’s awesome. It cuts so effortlessly and fast. I’d certainly recommend it. Only downside is blades/sharpening. As far as I know the only person to sharpen the blades is Frank DeLuca in Saginaw, MN.

Thanks for the reply!

Eskimo Pistol Grip is the lightest. Has a blade protection cover that is secure and goes on much easier than Strikemaster or Kdrill. The fall in protection disc is more rigid than the Strikemaster. I have used it this winter and sold my Strikemaster 50 volt, the Milwaukee drill and Pistol Grip were flawless.

Bearcat89 wrote:

I drill more then any one I’ve ever fished around. Early season to late. Dirty river ice to lakes. Still have original blades on mine with no sign of dulling.

Glad to hear you have not had any issues with your blade’s I know several guys who are on the 2nd season with theirs and said they can really notice that the blades do not seem to cut as nice and fast as they did when new.
As far as cutting more holes than anyone you fish around i have a buddy who I bet cuts far more holes than you. He ice fishes 3-4 times a week and almost always cuts 100+ holes a outing and not uncommon for him to cut over 200. After him and another fishing buddy of his are done the lake looks like swiss cheese. When fishing with him we often go thru 2 9 amp batteries, and 5 5 amp batteries on his lite flite alone, and that’s in addition to his buddy going thru 2 9 amp batteries on his Lite flite

David Bollig wrote:

Eskimo Pistol Grip is the lightest. Has a blade protection cover that is secure and goes on much easier than Strikemaster or Kdrill. The fall in protection disc is more rigid than the Strikemaster. I have used it this winter and sold my Strikemaster 50 volt, the Milwaukee drill and Pistol Grip were flawless.

I will check it out. Thanks!

Jesstocky wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>David Bollig wrote:</div>
Eskimo Pistol Grip is the lightest. Has a blade protection cover that is secure and goes on much easier than Strikemaster or Kdrill. The fall in protection disc is more rigid than the Strikemaster. I have used it this winter and sold my Strikemaster 50 volt, the Milwaukee drill and Pistol Grip were flawless.

I will check it out. Thanks!

Pistol Grip would be my pick for you as well. Pistol Bit is significantly lighter than the Lite Flite which is significantly lighter than the Nils.

Nils is fast and smooth, but leaves a hole full of slush. That’s the reason I went with strikemaster. Nice clean hole so no need to use a skimmer

Craig Sery wrote:

Nils is fast and smooth, but leaves a hole full of slush. That’s the reason I went with strikemaster. Nice clean hole so no need to use a skimmer

Strikemaster Lite flite? So the only difference you found was one left slush and the other didn’t? Otherwise preformace was the same?

love my nils. don’t care about the slush. all holes need cleaning. I have the 6 inch and 8 inch nils.

David Bollig wrote:

Eskimo Pistol Grip is the lightest. Has a blade protection cover that is secure and goes on much easier than Strikemaster or Kdrill. The fall in protection disc is more rigid than the Strikemaster. I have used it this winter and sold my Strikemaster 50 volt, the Milwaukee drill and Pistol Grip were flawless.

X2

Wildlifeguy wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>David Bollig wrote:</div>
Eskimo Pistol Grip is the lightest. Has a blade protection cover that is secure and goes on much easier than Strikemaster or Kdrill. The fall in protection disc is more rigid than the Strikemaster. I have used it this winter and sold my Strikemaster 50 volt, the Milwaukee drill and Pistol Grip were flawless.

X2

I was surprised but confirmed the Pistol Grip is lighter than the Lite Flite.
6″ Lite flight = 4.4 Lbs
6″ Pistol grip = 3.2 Lbs.

10 years or more ago, having gotten tired of the Jiffy and Strikemaster blade alignment issues (They’re easily bent out of position and then fail to cut properly), I dug deep into my wallet and bought a 8″ Nils Convertible and haven’t looked back. Using an 18V M18 Fuel Milwaukee drill to power it, it absolutely smokes the two different versions of Ions my buddies own. On average I can cut about 40 8″ holes though 2′ of ice on a single 5AH battery. More it it’s warm out, and less if it’s significant below zero. An additional plus is that it also comes with a handle for manually drilling holes that doesn’t require any tools to assemble(“good bye allen wrenches”). When I bought it, Russ Fransisco from Marine General, asked me why I was even considering powering it with a drill because it cuts sooooo freely. “Too many shoulder surgeries” I replied.
Don’t worry about dropping down the hole. It’s impossible to loose in an 8″ hole if it becomes disconnected from the drill. (on average, I “loose” it about every other time out because I fail to tighten it all the way. But that’s on me, not Nils.)
In drilling, everything is about cutting edge geometery (I should know. I spent 40 years as a toolmaker/master machininst) Nils has hands down, the best cutting head on the market. The down side its the hassle of getting it resharpened. I fish a lot, and in those 10+ years I have yet really needed to have it sharpened(although it’s getting close) and like I said earlier, it still smokes the Ions. Yesterday I was out with them a one of them came over and borrowed it rather than fight with his Ion. The blades (cutting head) are so durable that I’ve dropped it right on the head(several different times) and have never had any damage. Try that with a Jiffy or Strikemaster. K drills cut nicely, but there’s just something not quite right about mixing plastics with the extreme temps we see out on the ice.
Anyway, don’t just take my word for it, borrow a Nils for a tryout before making your final decision. Happy Drilling!

I run an 8″ lite flite on a Clam plate with a Dewalt brushless 20 volt drill. The only time it is NOT smooth is when the battery is getting ready to go dead. I love the setup.JMO

duh queen wrote:

10 years or more ago, having gotten tired of the Jiffy and Strikemaster blade alignment issues (They’re easily bent out of position and then fail to cut properly), I dug deep into my wallet and bought a 8″ Nils Convertible and haven’t looked back. Using an 18V M18 Fuel Milwaukee drill to power it, it absolutely smokes the two different versions of Ions my buddies own. On average I can cut about 40 8″ holes though 2′ of ice on a single 5AH battery. More it it’s warm out, and less if it’s significant below zero. An additional plus is that it also comes with a handle for manually drilling holes that doesn’t require any tools to assemble(“good bye allen wrenches”). When I bought it, Russ Fransisco from Marine General, asked me why I was even considering powering it with a drill because it cuts sooooo freely. “Too many shoulder surgeries” I replied.
Don’t worry about dropping down the hole. It’s impossible to loose in an 8″ hole if it becomes disconnected from the drill. (on average, I “loose” it about every other time out because I fail to tighten it all the way. But that’s on me, not Nils.)
In drilling, everything is about cutting edge geometery (I should know. I spent 40 years as a toolmaker/master machininst) Nils has hands down, the best cutting head on the market. The down side its the hassle of getting it resharpened. I fish a lot, and in those 10+ years I have yet really needed to have it sharpened(although it’s getting close) and like I said earlier, it still smokes the Ions. Yesterday I was out with them a one of them came over and borrowed it rather than fight with his Ion. The blades (cutting head) are so durable that I’ve dropped it right on the head(several different times) and have never had any damage. Try that with a Jiffy or Strikemaster. K drills cut nicely, but there’s just something not quite right about mixing plastics with the extreme temps we see out on the ice.
Anyway, don’t just take my word for it, borrow a Nils for a tryout before making your final decision. Happy Drilling!

Thanks for posting! I am leaning towards a Nils right now :).

MX1825 wrote:

I run an 8″ lite flite on a Clam plate with a Dewalt brushless 20 volt drill. The only time it is NOT smooth is when the battery is getting ready to go dead. I love the setup.JMO

I run the same set up with clam plate and my hilti drill. I really enjoy it. I have a good endless supply of batteries so I buy the hilti drill and batteries are free from our tool program. The drill is fast and powerful. Beats the 24v strikemaster w ease. I own both so we have raced them in a few situations 😆.

fishthumper wrote:

I was surprised but confirmed the Pistol Grip is lighter than the Lite Flite.
6″ Lite flight = 4.4 Lbs
6″ Pistol grip = 3.2 Lbs.

By confirm, do you mean look at the websites? Weights on the SM site can be a little deceiving, can’t say for sure about the Eskimo site. For example an 8″ Lite Flite is 1.5 lbs heavier than a Mora fully set up, but you’d swear it’s 3 lbs lighter based on what the website says. For the Lite Flite they don’t include the adapter & disk in the weight.

tswoboda wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>fishthumper wrote:</div>
I was surprised but confirmed the Pistol Grip is lighter than the Lite Flite.
6″ Lite flight = 4.4 Lbs
6″ Pistol grip = 3.2 Lbs.

By confirm, do you mean look at the websites? Weights on the SM site can be a little deceiving, can’t say for sure about the Eskimo site. For example an 8″ Lite Flite is 1.5 lbs heavier than a Mora fully set up, but you’d swear it’s 3 lbs lighter based on what the website says. For the Lite Flite they don’t include the adapter & disk in the weight.

I just went off what came up when I GOOGLE searched the weight of each 6″. never seeing a pistol bite in person I had a hard time believing how they could be even lighter than the Lite flight. I’ll have to find a pistol bite to look at. My first guess is that the flight material is probably slightly thinner, but without seeing one I have no idea where the weight savings is coming from.

Eskimo piston bit, got the 8 inch, its light and cuts extremely fast.

replaced my lazer with it.

I apologize, I’m not trying to hijack this thread…

To Dee J Anders
I read your response to the person that was looking for a smooth cutting auger and thought you have a very informed(?) response regarding the Nils…
I have both 6 and 8 inch blue flighting’s with two cutting heads each, in the event I need sharpening I’ll have a backup, which I haven’t in about ten years (give or take) I used these setups on a tanaka 270 power head but have since moved to electric due to weight and etc.., I plan to put the 6inch Nils flighting on a clam drill plate because I finally found the correct Kdrill attachment to do so and have found a Nils drill adaptor too… I’m planning on using a Milwaukee 18 fuel for that, anyway longer story short, are you referring in your response to the blue or orange Nils flighting?
Sorry for the lengthy question…. I hope you can respond, Thank you for your time….

PM sent

Lite flight. On my second year and still cuts awesome with original blades and will reopen holes no problem. My buddy just bought a pistol bit this year and after he used mine he wished he would of bought a lite flight also