Ice augers..2 stroke? 4 stroke? Electric?

Anyone have an Eskimo P1 Rocket? I keep eyeballing the 8” and would be interested to hear opinions from someone who has used one.

Kevin here is a little help, based upon many hours and countless holes cut all over the Midwest and Canada. A very nice product that performs very well is the Strikemaster 40V. Strikemaster’s 40V simply cuts holes in shallow and thick ice faster than the 8″ Ion and much faster than the 10″ Ion. No offense to the ION it does cut fine it is just slower. In addition the 40V will perform/cut ice as well and in some cases faster than gas or propane ice augers without the hassle of gas and oil, propane or any other fuel.
In regard to overall life of the battery packs: Let us assume you fish 50 days per year and cut 50 holes per day in 20″ of ice. Your battery pack will last between 7-10 years if you store it properly at year end. Although extreme for a normal fishing person if you fish 100 days per year and everyday cut 50 holes in 20″ of ice your battery would last 3.5-5 years.
Hope this helps))

I hate to be the bad news bears guy but gas augers are on the out… Electric is the future. I run a Dewalt 20V Brushless drill on the clam plate. Only reason I use the clam plate is to keep the drill up off the snow/ice. I’ve been running this setup the past 5 seasons. Started out with a lazer auger 7″ but the last 2 seasons I went to the K drill 6″ to lighten it up even more. Light weight and reliable (starts every time) are what I’m interested in. I drill a ton of holes each time out and never have any issues. Never needed more than two batteries in one day and had well over a hundred holes. I used to run a Honda 4 stroke lazer and it was quiet and fairly quick but at the end of the day my back was shot and I was exhausted from all the drilling and hauling it around.

Do yourself a favor and at least look into the electric drill options. I cannot speak for the Ion or Strikemaster electric. Both seem a little too heavy still for my liking. I’m sure they do a great job as well. Good luck on your purchase!

Forgot to mention the weight savings from switching from the Honda 4 stroke to the Dewalt Drill/Clam plate and 6″ K drill. Honda dry weight is 23 lbs but after you put gas in it that adds another roughly 3 lbs. So the Honda weighs in at around 26 lbs.

Drill/Clam plate and 6″ K drill 15lbs and that included my ram mount for my GPS(See pics)

Let me know if you guys have any questions. Thanks!

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I am still using my grandpa’s old jiffy model 30. Its still in great shape and usually starrs on the first pull. So i will stick with what works until it quits. At that point i would go to an electric drill powered option so it servs dual purpose to justify the cost.

Bigwalleye30 wrote:

I’ve got two Strikemasters. The 2 stroke Lazer Mag 3hp and the Lithium 40v. The 2 stroke does cut a little faster, but doesn’t make up for the time needed to start the 2 stroke and let it warm up. If you drill 40 or less holes an outing and aren’t drilling through 3+ feet of ice, the 40v is the way to go. Only time I use my Lazer Mag now will be up at Lake Winnipeg. Will the 40v last 10 years without needing new batteries? Only time will tell.

Same boat.

I’m a huge fan of using electric when panfishing. I typically only drill 15-30 holes. When I’m walleye fishing, I bounce around a lot and drill more holes, so I would prefer gas. I’ll be getting a gas auger shortly, because I ran the electric out of juice nearly every single time I walleye fished, usually on Mille Lacs. I was forced to essentially “ration” the battery, knowing I only had 30-40 holes I could drill thru thick mid-winter ice.

I also prefer 8″ for panfish and electric, and 10″ for walleye and gas. It’ll be nice to have two augers that each serve a purpose, and I’ll have a backup in case one needs repair.

Ideally, I think a combo of a 6-8″ drill auger and a 10″ gas auger would be perfect.

turkeynate wrote:

I hate to be the bad news bears guy but gas augers are on the out… Electric is the future.

I’d have to respectfully disagree. Gas augers have been proven to last 20-30+ years with no more maintenance than a carb cleaning and few new spark plugs. The jury is still out on electric ice augers. I will completely agree that they have some advantages over gas, but they won’t come close to the longevity of gas augers. Once your battery craps out after X number of years, who knows if they will still even manufacture the same model of battery because the manufacturer stopped making that line of augers and replaced it with a new one.

Plus, if something ever goes wrong mechanically, with a gas auger, you can fix the problem yourself if you are mechanically inclined or at the very least, bring it to a small engine guy to get it fixed. If something ever goes wrong with an electric auger, you are looking at spending a significantly more money to get it fixed and thats if its not totaled.