Drill Baby Drill

When we are out chasing perch, or any fish for that matter, we drill a ton of holes. Upwards of 100 holes pretty easily in a morning. Currently our auger is an older (2007ish) Lazer Mag Express with an 8 inch drill assembly. It cuts fast enough, but I always wonder about getting a 6″ assembly to put on when we go on a new body of water that may take a ton of drilling. I know the hole is a little smaller and may be troublesome to get larger fish through, not concerned about this.

Has anyone put a 6″ on a LME? How much faster/easier could you cut through 2′ of ice? I would assume their would be a significant reduction in weight also, right?

RoyalFish

If you are fishing for perch I don’t think you’ll have any problems using a 6″ hole. I worry more about getting tangled in the transducer cord then actually being able to fit a fish through the hole.

Can’t help you on the rest of your question though!

Weight would be less than 2# difference. The only thing you are removing is a 1″ wide and 48″ strip of 16g a steel going from a 8″ to a 6″.

Using area of a circle. A=πr2

Area of 8″ hole = 158 sq. in.
Area of 6″ hole = 89 sq. in.

That is a 44% difference in area.
Could one assume it would cut 44% faster? Most likely… No true testing here though only math.

mark-bruzek wrote:

Area of 8″ hole = 158 sq. in.
Area of 6″ hole = 89 sq. in.

LOL try again

Yeah it’a going to be a littke faster. This last week on URL Pat had a lm8 and I had a LM with a 6″. The speed wasn’t a gigantic difference but what I really noticed was the weight difference when you’re at the end of a 40 holet string, it went a long way.

tswoboda wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>mark-bruzek wrote:</div>
Area of 8″ hole = 158 sq. in.
Area of 6″ hole = 89 sq. in.

LOL try again

yup, ya got me. Dang those ( )
8″ = 50.24
6″ = 28.26

Sorry for the wrong math.

I think you’d notice a difference. Should drill somewhat faster, and I bet it will feel like more than 2 pounds lighter, just because if you carry your auger at an engle like most of us do between drilling holes, that 2 pounds is spread out along the shaft, and we’re on the wrong side of the lever.

Exaggerated example, but put a 2 pound weight on the end of a 10 foot pole and try to hold it perpendicular to the ground. There will be less of an effect with the 6″ vs 8, but if doing some major drilling, I bet your body would notice a difference.

I thought the 6 or even the 5 inch would be far faster than the 8, but also remember that the 6 and 5 don’t have the chipper blade, just a solid blade which doesn’t cut as fast as the 8″, so in my opinion it didn’t cut any faster than the 8″ and didn’t turn the bit any faster. But yes, the weight difference was huge.

I run a 7″ lazer on the same powerhead as u all season and just went up against a 6″ solo multiple times last weekend and 7″ won every hole drilled. Sounds crazy but it’s the truth, I wouldn’t of believed it if we didn’t try it. Hope this helps.

So, from the responses it doesn’t seem as though many people have truly tried this. With some math provided it looks like I would be removing about half the amount of ice by switching to a 6″. I don’t see how this won’t speed up drilling. The reduction of weight by 2 lbs is probably somewhere around a 10% reduction, so that doesn’t seem to be negligible!

I want to try it, but don’t want to spend the $120 bucks on it!

royalfish wrote:

..it looks like I would be removing about half the amount of ice by switching to a 6″. I don’t see how this won’t speed up drilling.

If you have two different sized drills, both in good condition, you’re not going to notice a huge difference in speed. The largest limiting factor is the RPM’s, which is essentially constant for any size drill. An 8″ drill removes more ice per revolution than a 6″ drill.

I can fit a 27″ walleye through a six inch hole.