Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Dig or Get a Power Auger?

Lots of very helpful comments. Thank you!


It's just a little antenna that will be supported by a piece of galvanized pipe, 2 feet in the ground, 8 feet above. The sunspot cycle is coming around nicely, and the 28 MHz band is coming back to life. A dear friend sent me a halfwave vertical antenna for that band, so I want to get it up and try it out. It should have a nice low angle of radiation, and let me haul in the distant stations. When the band is working, Europe is available in the morning, South America in mid-day, and Asia and Oz a bit later.

The inexpensive augers probably wouldn't get deep enough unless you buy a separate extra long bit. You'd still need to use a post hole digger to get down to 2'.

denton: Based on how you describe yourself do not use a one man auger. I've seen them catch rocks and really wreak havoc on the operator. One young guy wasn't four or five inches deep and he got hit in the chest so hard you would have thought a truck hit him. Granted he was a newbie helping on an Eagle project but he was a big kid.

I would suggest a post hole digger and dig bar if rocky. Go out every morning or evening when cool and work on it for a bit. Aim for four or five inches a day and you'll be done in less than a week with no pain. Plus you'll feel good knowing you can still do stuff like that. Just stick a 2x4 in the hole you're digging so no one steps in it. Also I wouldn't cover the concrete with soil. I would build it up a bit and taper it from the pole to prevent rust and corrosion. Plant some flowers around it to clean it up. Good luck, -tnscouter

I've dug a lot of post holes, son Jake's skid steer auger is something else!

For two lousy feet? One hole?

I just came through Ogden last night, you guys are soaking wet. Just start digging, and add a little more water as needed to get things out. Right now, you’re going to be more dipping mud than digging. Shovel, bar to move a few rocks, pickaxe if you can get to it.

For one hole two feet, loosen it up with a digging bar and clean it out with a twin handle post hole digger. How many radials do you have to run for this antenna?

Going price is 200 to 250, illegals have caught the woke...

Kent

+1, dug a bunch with a two-man augur when I was in my 20s, it's no fun with rocks. I'd go with hand tools.

Roto hammer set on hammer with a digging bit to loosen up the dirt/rocks, shovel it out. easy peasy.

Rent a decent one or buy one for under a hundred bucks at Harbor freight.

Kent

I'm pretty old myself, but still dig my holes the hard way. No shortage of rocks here either. Take your time, rest as needed. I can’t believe any hand-held power auger is going to be easier to manage than hand tools.

Years ago, a rented auger gave a couple of neighbors a wild ride. One was thrown off early, but the other hung on a bit. Then they had to dig the auger out….

We were rebuilding a water catchment once with the G&F, since I was involved with the youth hunt camps and they knew I was in concrete and could run run a backhoe/tractor I was asked to help. It was 5 of us construction workers from the public and 6 G&F wardens. We were camped out all week working, a lot of interesting stories from the wardens, plus an education on all the hoops they have to jump through from the state or federal land managers just to get a project approved.

Anyway Dave was the region wildlife manager, he was a funny guy, hated lions killing his sheep, interesting stories around the fire each evening.

Besides digging and installing a new 10,000 gal tank and inflow, we were rebuilding the exterior fencing, digging new post holes, Arizona desert rocky ground. Dave was running the auger, the rest of working on various things. Dave wore white dress shirts to work in, said they were cool in the sun and he got them at goodwill for a couple bucks.

That auger caught a rock, Dave was a big guy but it jumped out of his hands and caught in his shirt tail, wrapped around. Luckily when it got tight the shirt just ripped off him, split down the back, like a rip away shirt a stripper would use, and he got away.

Scared the crap out of all of us. Of course when he was fine and the scare went away, he was christened... stripper Dave for the rest of the week.

Kent

Get hold of him and pay him again..

I'm lucky - I have a JD 3039R and a 3-pt post hole digger I can mount.. Saves MUCHO time/effort..

What everyone else said, those one person augers can give one or two people a "ride" if they hit a big rock or tree root plus they won't penetrate well if ground is really hard. The one I have doesn't have a reverse either so it can get "stuck" hard enough (partially under tree roots typically) you'll learn new curse words.

If ground doesn't have rocks or roots, they are definitely faster than the manual ones though.

We set the flagpole in Wabigoon with a spade, and a leather glove.

Dig the soil loose and take it out with a hand.

Didnt read the posts so if this was already covered, I apologize. Digging by hand is the only way if you live where its rocky. Power auger can straight up hurt you if it catches a rock correctly. Where I live its 6" of top soil then rocks everywhere. Every post hole Ive dug is mostly with a digging bar. Sometimes a sledge hammer to bust them up enough to get them out. It isnt work for those who arent in the proper shape for it

Haha did you return with the auger?

Very interesting Denton. Thank you.

I mentioned those Hilti hammer drills earlier. We had one at work with a 1" bit 36 inches long capable of drilling concrete. It probably weighed thirty to forty pounds and would be controllable by an elderly gentleman in a vertical orientation.

On the farm, when I was a kid, we had a post hole bar made from an antique auto drive line. It was 1 1/4" diameter tool steel X 60 inches long. One end was heated and hammer forged into a 2 inch blade shape and tempered. The other end was hammer forged into a point, and tempered. In your situation, I could have worked and driven that point straight into almost any wet rocky ground three feet deep, without removing dirt. But that was a long time ago. I was a lot tougher. I would not have a clue where a guy could obtain such a steel bar today, let alone a man handle it.

Don’t you have a wife?

The good ol' 'fire enough energy spent to build a half mile of fence,

Don’t you have a bull that needs milking or something?