Most of the hammers you see sold have one flaw or another mostly because one guy I guess copies the other. I make my own, I dig beds like beav, but Jim cundiff is who I patterned my trap beds after. Jim's power bedding book is well worth owning.

90 degree bed walls for me as well. In unfrozen ground, I use an old folding military shovel to dig my beds; the blade has a perfect contour for my 650s and #3s. Punch the blade into the ground twice, lift the clump of dirt out, and the bed is almost finished. I probably carry more digging tools with me than most. The all-in-one tools have been more of a frustration for me.

Lets say you take your cordless drill and set It up with a 2" or bigger hole saw. I would bet that It would work good In frozen ground. Just drill out a few different spots and you have a trap bed shaped just like your trap.

I don't think so Beav.The hole saws aren't deep enough,if they hit a small stone,they will stop and I believe the frozen plug will stay in the bit.There is an answer but you have to stop thinking CHEAP.

Years ago (20-30?) Estwing made this same hammer in 32oz, but somewhere I lost it. with out a doubt the best stake hammer I ever had. The 28oz works well enough though.

If 4 oz. makes a difference I'm in trouble LMBO ,. sorry tbn I couldn't help myself .


Nice try Beav...

I think a lot of it is a well balanced hammer. I got the estwing the other day and its well balanced. In another month its gunna get tested in regular ground and I will beat it till February.

I don't worry about a tight fit. I hack out a hole and dump in some dry dirt. Mash my trap in. goes pretty fast. I carry dirt to the set in those square one gallon ice cream buckets. dirt comes out from under bridges on gravel roads. I sift it into five gallon buckets so its ready to use. get the dirt when its bad cold and the ground is froze. any loose dirt is dry dirt. after while you will have located multiple dry dirt mines

That's not TBN Gary last I knew he got a perma-ban. I guess I always worried more about what I was holding onto which was where the hammers I've used failed. Took a pretty good shot to the nose three seasons ago from one of the orange ones, and haven't looked back since. I power bed so the size of the trap bed just doesn't matter to me.

Thanks Wade, I see now. I did the same, right in the forehead. Saw a few stars LOL.. I think its more about the length of the handle than the design or weight of the head. Example I broke the handle on my sodbuster and replace the handle with wood that was longer. Made a big difference.

I used a masonry hammer last season on a super stake driver and after a few blows it peened the head on the driver. No issues with using 3 or 4 lb hammer. I used it because I forgot my hammer at the previous set and it was what I had in the truck. May work just fine on rebar.

Tom Stalker out of NY makes some fine trapping hammers with the cutting blade out straight.

Mac

[/quote] I tried 1 time using a cookie cutter in frozen rocky ground...never again. In perfect conditions I think they would be priceless just don’t work for my style, and the one I tried was to bulky. Just my 02[/quote]

I recently purchased a cookie cutter and practiced with it for the first time. It is bulky and rather heavy but probably has to be to work properly. I also would not use it in frozen or rocky ground. In soft ground, works great.

Ive been using a Mason's hammer for the last few years it's worked pretty great for me

I have made some small hammers as back ups. They are 3# but I use 1/4" thick walled pipe for the cutting side. They work great but the shorter wooden handles are why I don't rely on them as a primary hammer...

I have had 2 orange and black hammers and I broke both.So I went too the metal handle one seems a lil lite but will see soon.