I am normally a Dewalt guy however the price and warranty are pretty attractive for a drill to use for a 3"auger bit. Any personal experiences would be appreciated. Thanks

i have had really good luck with ryobi tools. i use ryobi 18v drill with a 3 inch auger for several years and put it through the ringer and still going. i also like ryobi because you can get a charger that holds and charges 6 batteries at a time and they have a car charger that plugs into your power point/cigarette lighter. and there 18v batteries fit tons of different tools.

I have Ryobi and Dewalt,,lots of each,,Dewalts are great for building and continuos work,, Ryobi has a better skillsaw and recip saw but drill and nutdrivers are lacking,, no complaints though! Light years ahead of 1st battery tools,,,

Had Ryobi drills since they introduced the blue 0ne+ 10-20? years ago and still have two of the originals, have some of the later green one+ tools also and I wpuld not swap one of them for two Dewalts.
3" auger is really too big for any hand held drill though, in any but soft dirt.

Before I bought my Hilti set I would have thought the same thing

I have a 20volt Dewalt that I've punched a bunch of 3"holes with here in Indiana
I was just looking at the Ryobi due to it having an extra handle and there is a special price going on at Home Depot.Thanks

Do they make a 2-3" drill that fits a cordless impact gun?

$272.70??

People using drills in dirt usually have an auger custom made. I personally have never used a hole that big, I knock mine in with a trap stake; it's a bad habit I learned before they had internet. Doesn't look professional at all.

3" auger will kill most cordless drill's in short order.
I just knocked first gear out of a porter cable. That was a new drill just for trapping. It was a 20v max red battery.
Brush less drill is my next drill.

Yesterday I just bought a brush-less Milwaukee.Its going to take a truckload of coyote to pay for that. Man unreal what "Good Stuff" costs

I bought a set of used Ryobi, drill, saws all, impact, charger and battery's from a guy at work really cheap two years ago. And I have beat them to death. First ones ive ever owned, very happy with them.
I usually buy the best so I only cry once, but sometimes ya get lucky.

In construction work for over 40 years and never saw a 3" hole drilled (except wells) large holes are usually cut by some means, in general a drill motor will work a drill twice the chuck size. So 1/2" chuck should not be used for over a 1" drill. The SDS Roto Hammers in concrete are OK up to 3/4"-1", but for lots of holes that big or larger holes I'd want a spline drive like this https://www.gamut.com/c/power-tools...erm=4574724286467288&utm_content=All

Frozen dirt isn't much different than concrete, I've drilled bunches of holes in frozen dirt to drive form support stakes. Pick a tool that is capable of doing what you want to concrete. Obviously if we are still trapping, money is no object so don't cheap out. It is my feeling that battery tools are not designed for trapline work and using them on the line is likely to be a net loss.

To get a large hole, you could drill a few 3/4" holes and break out the rest, but, really what digs a 3" diameter hole? Mouse/vole holes are what 3/4" ? and chipmunk holes 1 1/4" ? Only ground squirrels make 3" holes that I'm familiar with and they don't occur on many of our lines.
Other animals make large holes and are also large enough that they aren't commonly part of dinner.

So why pick 3"?

So why pick 3"? [/quote]


It's what I have the best results with

Just make sure you get the bigger (high capacity) batteries for the more heavier duty functions (impact wrence, etc)

Twice a year, here, they have "Ryobi Days" at Home Depot. You can get batteries at about half price then. If you can, it pays to wait until this happens.

I've switched all my power tools to Ryobi. Just a lot easier to be able to use the same batteries for every tool.

Yes Home Depot's current special is a tool with a 4 amp hour battery with 2 extra 4 amp batteries my DeWalt does a good job it just has small capacity batteries and I find myself changing them more often than I want and basically I can get the Ryobi drill 3 4 amp hour batteries for what 2 high capacity batteries would cost for the DeWalt

This is a timely thread. I have a Ryobi impact driver that runs on 18v. Is this enough to run a 3" custom auger from Stalker Fabrications?

Don't know about the impact driver but I bought the hammer drill and have drilled about 30 3" holes 18"s deep with no problem in Indiana clay/dirt.

I have never used Ryobi.

However, I have had exceptional service from all of my Milwaukee cordless tools. I have both 12 volt and 18 volt tools. If Milwaukee is an option, here is my Report.

For running a dirt auger the 18 volt 1/2” hammer drill has been flawless with either a 2” or 3” auger. Many holes per battery charge. It has the extra handle that makes all the difference to control the torque. Handle is easily removed. I also use it to predrill stake holes in soft and frozen ground. Ship auger bit for soft dirt and Bosch carbide masonry bits for frozen ground. Also a 1” carbide bit to drill out trap bedsand then use a hand tool to break and chop out the remains.

I always credit Taximan for moving me onwards with more drilling and less beating in the stakes.

Best wishes.