Camping equipment, whether it’s a tent or a simple mallet like this one, needs to be strong and hold up to a lot of abuse.  Camping is rugged and having to be careful with equipment isn’t plausible.  This rubber mallet drives the nails and stakes in, but does not hold up to the abuse.

Our camping trips are all about sleeping in tents, setting up an outdoor kitchen, and providing shade for relaxing.  We needed a good rubber mallet to do all these tasks, and it needed to last for multiple camping trips (we love to camp).

We found that it does a great job driving the tent and shade stakes in the ground.  Our area has compacted clay in the ground and the rubber mallet drove them without struggle.  I also noticed the stakes were not dented or damaged from the mallet.  I used a lot of force in order to get the stakes in so that was a plus.  The rubber part was sturdy enough that I could use it for things that it was not necessarily meant for.  Back at home I had used it for some household fixing up projects.  I saw that the metal nails and small pegs were also left unchanged.  Very impressive!

The handle was comfortable to hold.  The wood was soft to the touch and it was flexible.  It was also sturdy because I missed a couple of times with the stakes and the mallet did not show it.

The worst thing about this mallet is the cheap metal hook at the bottom.  It is for removing tent pegs, but just know that if you decide to use it for this purpose, you will have to buy a new mallet!  Ours bent after our first try in removing the tent pegs.  We then tried to use the top part to remove them, but the rubber completely came off the wood handle.   Not good quality! But, it was so much better than having to pull out the stakes any other way.  It worked on both metal and plastic stakes.

A good tool, but pay more for a better one if you can.