Auger bit on a cordless drill works but you need a few extra batteries.

 

Wing Supply sells a decoy punch for about twenty bucks.....
http://www.wingsupply.com/shop/Scripts/ ... ?SKU=WF200
Several other makes and price ranges available. Cordless drills get it done too....especially in hard frozen ground. I bought a 2 foot long masonry bit to save my back a little.

 

do those hole punchers work that well, or would a cordless be the way to go? I bet your back would get sore either way after punching or driliing 800 holes

 

I've got a homemade punch similar to the ones they sell. It will keep you from bending over so much, but if the grounds so hard you have to jump on it like an old panhead....then use the drill... :lol:

 

Anyone willing to give some directions for making a punch of some kind?
Thanks

 

I have not tried it (yet) but I've been thinking that a 2 foot piece of re-bar and a hammer might work.

 

we tried that last year, it worked but your forearms got tired in a hurry, maybe I need to get back into the gym :lol:

 

It really depends on what you are staking. For example, the old style RG silos or even Outlaws, they have a 3/16" x 3/4 stke, so a 3/4 hole is needed.

But a metal stake wind sock is usually 3/16" or 1/4" So a 1/4" bit would work. The plastic NW stakes, I think a 5/8" bit would be needed.

Needless to say. a small bit will be easier to drill.

The problem with a 1/4" punch is it'll bend all too easily. You need a hardened steel shaft to make it super stiff.

This is where the circle stands that some of the FB decoy use comes into play--no drilling ever if you have the stands. I know they are a bit bulky, but never needing to drill of punch a hole seems like a good trade off in my mind.

 

Get yourself about a four foot piece of cold rolled steel bar(round), i think mine is 5/8 diameter. Get ten or twenty wide washers of the appropriate inside diameter and weld on about a foot from the bottom, this is your stop. Weld another piece of rod onto the bottom in the diameter you want, 1/4" 3/16" etc etc. I used 1/4" cuz some of my decoys are on 1/4" alum, and some are on 3/16" steel and the bigger hole seems to work just fine on the smaller stakes.

Now get a piece of steel pipe that will fit over the 5/8 rod. You now have a slide hammer and they work great. You can weld some metal to this pipe to make it heavier if you want.

Works fast, you can stand up straight while you do it ( I usually have someone come right behind me and drop a decoy in the hole, this way you dont lose holes in the dark).

Oh yeah, if you look in the right places the cost is about 1.25 for the welding rods. the rest can be had for free usually.

 

We've never had a problem pushing our 3/16 steel stakes into the ground.

 

For 3/8 Hradwood dowels, like rags, for example... Get a 1/2" diameter drill bit, that is 30" long. No bending over :wink:

 

We've never had a problem pushing our 3/16 steel stakes into the ground.

If you get into super saturated spring mud after a reallllllllly cold night, youll never get a 3/16" into it without bending or hurting yourself.

Slide hammers whack right through it though.

 

What is a slide hammer?

 

What is a slide hammer?

Get yourself about a four foot piece of cold rolled steel bar(round), i think mine is 5/8 diameter. Get ten or twenty wide washers of the appropriate inside diameter and weld on about a foot from the bottom, this is your stop. Weld another piece of rod onto the bottom in the diameter you want, 1/4" 3/16" etc etc. I used 1/4" cuz some of my decoys are on 1/4" alum, and some are on 3/16" steel and the bigger hole seems to work just fine on the smaller stakes.

Now get a piece of steel pipe that will fit over the 5/8 rod. You now have a slide hammer and they work great. You can weld some metal to this pipe to make it heavier if you want.

Works fast, you can stand up straight while you do it ( I usually have someone come right behind me and drop a decoy in the hole, this way you dont lose holes in the dark).

Oh yeah, if you look in the right places the cost is about 1.25 for the welding rods. the rest can be had for free usually.

 

Bareback, ours is similar. I use about a 5' piece of 1" rebar and weld a landscaping spike to the bottom leaving about 6" sticking past. Sounds heavy, but it works great, even in frozen ground. It's definately a two-man operation but it goes fast. We have had frozen ground where we couldn't even begin to get 3'16" steel into.

 

Last year we used a Dewalt drill and some decent sized bits. Worked like a dream.

 

We were forced to use a drill 2 days last spring- we had trouble with some of our headless windsocks on wood stakes freezing into the holes. Now we welded up a slide hammer similar to the one mentioned about-I was testing it out and it will split a 2 by 4 into pieces and put a hole right into the asphalt--loaded for bear this spring. The plus side of frozen ground is that you can drive all your gear out to the "X".