Gallagher Medium Geared Handheld Reel

Good tool, could have bigger capacity for wire

Just ordered my second one. Just began rotational grazing with the cattle and didn't want to buy two and once until I could try it out. Well designed and very happy I got one that was geared. The reel has been a God send and made my life much easier.

We have been rotational grazing cattle for several years and used may brands of reels and wire. This reel is hands down the best in functionality and is way more durable than other brands we've tried. We have some reels that are 7 years old.

Works. Easy to use. Smooth operation.

Great reel! We have 4! Just don’t forget to keep the wire tight when reeling a fence up.

Cannot buy a medium geared reel for under $90 so I went this route. My comments about the Gallagher version: the plastic reel lock does work well, but I am afraid a run away cow will break it as it appears to be made of a brittle plastic. I prefer the metal locking bars for reels. They are also faster to engage and easier to disengage than Gallagher's plastic version which uses a decent to disengage. The reel mechanism is smooth and works well. One feature I really like which is unique to Gallagher is that you can hook the reel to something and then lock it. Absolutely love that feature as my rambunctious cows cannot knock it off the fence, they can only smack it. The slight downside is if it's a deer that gets Tangled in the fence and then panics, you have a big mess on your hands and/or a broken, expensive geared reel. I intensive graze and will never buy a non-geared reel again. This Gallagher is roughly equivalent with all other medium geared reels I have encountered (Stafix, O'Brien, etc) with the one slight advantage of the locking hook, but a detraction in the clumsy and plastic reel lock. I'd buy it again in a pinch but there are other options for $10 less but don't have Amazon shipping. Also, the hook they give you doesn't give you the option to energize the fence without a jumper wire. I threw the hook away and bought one that gives you the option to either insulate the hook or energize the fence. Saves a lot of time (and money as those jumpers aren't cheap.)

I have several of the cheaper versions you can find here. Moving cows daily and building apx 1/2 mile of fence this is the best one yet. The small details like the hairs for the knuckles to protect you from your over zealous reeling, the latch the keep it from getting popped off a wire, the sturdy lateral support of the reel lock. I won’t buy any other version. 2x the cost but it’s a 100x better

I do rotational grazing with cattle, and have several of these fence reels. They are much, much better than the cheaper economy fence reel Gallagher also sells. I also got one of those to try, and only use it if all of my good geared versions are in use. (And I curse it every time I have to use it!). These geared reels are easy to use and have held up very well for 3 years so far on the oldest ones I have. They're a little pricey, but well worth the extra initial investment. I use them with Gallagher's Turbo Wire, and am pleased with the combination.

It works as expected, and I trust (and hope) it will work for many years.