Used this thing for the first time on a camping trip last weekend. After camp was set up, it rained heavily towards us for a while, then drizzled for the rest of the day. The next day I went to shoot the stake and it stuck pretty well despite the damp ground. The puller bent almost immediately, just not by much. That aside the hammer seems to hit the stakes pretty well, but without something to pull the stakes out I'll probably leave that at home and go back to a standard hammer. A friend of mine had the same model and on the same trip part of the hammer came loose from the wooden box.