I have a fence with 1/2” dog eared pickets nailed to 2x4 rails. Can somebody please tell me what nails will hold the pickets on for good? This is getting ridiculous.
The best I have used are what I call a barn nail. Have a ring shank portion from the point back. The best ones are a black. Tried some galv. ones and they broke in a year or two. The black ones worked great. I could not find the last time I was after some though. If you need big ones might need to pre drill to get them started. Before torx bolts became all the rage we used them on pole barn builds, etc. Simply worked great on fences too.
Edit, I see now the type of fence you are building. Not the type of fence I build so my advice is not useful. Sorry.
Stainless screws or those ringed nails. But make sure they are galvanized or they’ll rust thru in a heartbeat. I built a fence around my first house. 281 linear feet and I wish I’d have used screws v nails.
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Screw it/them and use stainless if you can... the down side is they will last longer than the wood. I prefer the star drive heads to square.... if the wood wants to split then just drill a small hole in the board first.