12-20-2012, 08:29 AM
Hole size comes into play depending on how you cut your hole with a saw. An 8"X8" square hole measures real close to 12" on the diagonal so to stay legal you will have to pay attention to how big and how square you hole is.
Some of the cons of a chainsaw is that with the thickness of most of the ice in this state and cutting a hole that is no more than 12" any direction would be more of a pain than it was worth in my opinion. Then there is the weight, getting it to start in the cold, and the chance of getting wet out on the ice right at the first of your fishing trip. Another thing to think about is how long the bar on you saw is. As the ice gets thicker it would suck to come up a couple of inches short of punching through after all that work. This almost happend to us once at Fish Lake about ten years ago. When we punched through with our auger there was under an inch of space left between the handle and the top of the ice.
Augers have their problems also with blades getting dull and motors on the power augers not wanting to run so in the end it is just a matter of choice.
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Some of the cons of a chainsaw is that with the thickness of most of the ice in this state and cutting a hole that is no more than 12" any direction would be more of a pain than it was worth in my opinion. Then there is the weight, getting it to start in the cold, and the chance of getting wet out on the ice right at the first of your fishing trip. Another thing to think about is how long the bar on you saw is. As the ice gets thicker it would suck to come up a couple of inches short of punching through after all that work. This almost happend to us once at Fish Lake about ten years ago. When we punched through with our auger there was under an inch of space left between the handle and the top of the ice.
Augers have their problems also with blades getting dull and motors on the power augers not wanting to run so in the end it is just a matter of choice.
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Live to hunt----- Hunt to live.