A hole in the ice: RAK or RAT 7?

jca21 said:
light a fire nearby ice and throw rocks into fire once fire heats up rocks throw rocks onto ice.
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I was about to suggest the same thing. :D

It works pretty well, although be sure to collect an abundance of rocks, larger than fist size works well for me. And be carefull, sometimes the rocks will explode when they hit the ice.
 
Admittadly, I have never lived in a cold climate so I will defer to those that do. Are there situations where there is no snow or ice except for a lake or river frozen solid with no edge to the ice? In my southern mind this seems unbelievable and in pictures and TV I have never seen this. If it is cold enough to freeze the water that deep there is always snow and or ice accessable.

Where do you live that all water is frozen in chunks so large that it has to be chopped and there are no small pieces or snow? Chris
 
Wabajack said:
I was about to suggest the same thing. :D

It works pretty well, although be sure to collect an abundance of rocks, larger than fist size works well for me. And be carefull, sometimes the rocks will explode when they hit the ice.
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ya i've noticed to exploding rock thing too. kinda cool however something to keep in mind..

i like to use large flat rocks.
 
mete said:
Make sure you use a lanyard !! The was a 'survival show' where the idiot didn't use a lanyard - if he had lost the knife in the hole he would have been in big trouble.
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Very good advice!
 
A knife dosn't need to be to super rugged to put a hole in ice. I have successfully chopped a coffee can size hole in ice between 2"-8" thick with hatchets, old hickory boning and beef skinning knives plus a few different hunting knives. If you have a hatchet / ax you can cut the hole very fast, and it dose not harm the edge. That way would also be faster than gathering the materials for a fire, digging frozen rocks out of the ice and snow covered bank, and dealing with burning hot rocks and walking on slippery ice to get them to the hole you want. I like the hatchet because it also keeps my hand up higher away from the watter. Be careful not to drop what ever you use through the hole. Up here though it isn't unusual for there to be 18" of ice on ponds. Then an auger or heavy pointed steel rod is the only way to go......... Joe
 
runningboar said:
Admittadly, I have never lived in a cold climate so I will defer to those that do. Are there situations where there is no snow or ice except for a lake or river frozen solid with no edge to the ice? In my southern mind this seems unbelievable and in pictures and TV I have never seen this. If it is cold enough to freeze the water that deep there is always snow and or ice accessable.

Where do you live that all water is frozen in chunks so large that it has to be chopped and there are no small pieces or snow? Chris
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I've lived all my life in a cold climate. It's absolutely normal to have a body of water frozen so heavily there is no edge to the ice where open water would be available. But if it's that cold, there will also be snow. If for some freak reason there is no snow, then the ground will be bare, and it should be trivially easy to find a good rock to smash the ice up with on the lake shore.

But sometimes things are a little difficult. Around where I live, lakes will develop very thick ice, easily up to 2 to 3 feet. That's a lot of ice to chop with your knife. Of course, it will be less thick on the shore where the water isn't deep, but still not much fun to do. Much easier to melt snow.

But if you just have to do it, any good knife will go through ice.
 
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