Christians: Can you see why atheists don't buy this stuff?

[RoadRunner79]

I think that this is certainly one of the more understandable and reasonable of the contradictions pointed to by skeptics.  I can also understand your criticism of the explanations given. I also wouldn't expect a non-believer, to believe in Biblical inerrancy. When I first became a Christian, I was quite a liberal one, and didn't hold to inerrancy, and it is not necessary to believe the Gospel.  Even now, while I do believe in inerrancy, I don't hang my hat on it, and if my views changed (on inerrancy), I would still believe the Gospels, even as just a mere human account with all our flaws and inadequacies.

So I can see your point, and I don't know if the explanations given are that good for these two accounts of Judas's fate.  It's one of those things, that I simply hold in tension.  Some of them even get quite extravagant detailing that perhaps the tree was next to a cliff and he fell after hanging himself.  I also wonder, what type of fall it would take (in a field) to burst asunder in the middle, with ones bowels gushing out.  This seems like an odd description to make up, and the speculation does somewhat account for this (even if some are a little wild).  Then we have the following commentary to consider

Polhill in his Acts commentary [92n] notes that the phrase translated "becoming headlong" (prenes genomenos -- translated as "falling headlong" in the KJV, but literally being "becoming headlong" as shown in Green's Interlinear translation, 366) is a mere transcription error away from being "becoming swollen" (presthes genomenos). The latter may well be what was originally written, and as such might describe Judas' body swelling up after hanging for a while. This reading is found in later Syriac, Georgian and Armenian mss., though perhaps as an attempt at textual criticism of the sort we are doing. 
Tektonics.org

With a little study, it also seems that the ancient commentary (~4th century) has a number of different reconciliations and traditions for Judas's death and these two tellings of it. Qutie a few say he was removed from the noose, before dying, and died as stated in the account of Acts some time later. 
Some commentaries say that Matthew was pointing to a type, and was just saying that Judas committed suicide.  Which would certainly be consistent with his writing. And yet others make note of the audience stating that the Jews would relate more to being hung from a tree (cursed) while the gentiles in Luke's audience had seen suicide as honorable in some circumstances and focused more on the gruesome aftermath (relating to the answer you found). 
So I think that it could be two separate focus's of the same account.   I can also see (in this case) why you might just think they are telling what they heard and one or both is incorrect.  I don't advocate for those getting into a lot of unnecessary detail about in number of things.  Both accounts are quite brief in the scriptures to go into much speculation.  And while I can see your side here as well, I don't think that it is necessarily a contradiction; especially with the extent that some go to find contradictions in every nook and cranny (perhaps I have become numb to these claims to get too excited).  In any case it is a minor detail, concerning the scriptures and I don't think that it makes that big of difference either way.