biggest tree fell?

[Meadow Beaver]

That 3120 sounds like a stocker isn't it

 

[MCW]

That 3120 sounds like a stocker isn't it

Yeah its bog stock but has the Aussie delivered 12,000rpm limited coil.
Bar tip was semi seized at the time too which I wasn't aware of. Saw was working a lot harder than it should have been. Front sprocket seized solid not long after this tree.

 

[Mountainman]

I think I still have a newspaper clipping of the news story. Yes, it made the news. Again, during my dad's tenure as Superintendent at Vail, they came across a 14-foot diameter Sitka Spruce. Unfortunately, I didn't see it falled. They cut the back end off one 60-inch roller nose bar, and the tip off another, welded both bars together end to end, and wrapped a whole bunch of chain around it. They dropped the tree with an 090G. I believe they loaded the logs with the yarder mast, and somehow, they loaded the logs without ripping them, on to off-highway trucks. They put 'em on the train at the reload, and eventually they were rafted up with the rest of the logs, and towed to Mill B in Everett. Now THAT is one tree I wish I had seen fall.

 

[gallegosmike]

Yep, we don't have the timber they do in the PNW, that's for sure. But it's still fun to get into a few good ones here & there.

Old Earl was there when I took that one, he laughed his azz off at me. We had been on a sale that should have been a thinning unit, and about to starve cutting by scale. When I cut that big Doug I took out 3 leave trees with it that scaled another 4000 or so ft.
FS was a little unhappy about that. I tried to convince PJ that the tree was too big, and I just lost it. But he just looked at me and said BS.
The little slap on the wrist I got seemed worth it to have a decent check coming for a change.

Andy

Up in the Sandia mountain range. I found a 42" x 60ft white fir that the USFS cut down! That bastard was huge by new mexico standards. The largest tree for me so far is a 32" cedar on my grandfathers land in norther nm...

 

[bullbuck]

Up in the Sandia mountain range. I found a 42" x 60ft white fir that the USFS cut down! That bastard was huge by new mexico standards. The largest tree for me so far is a 32" cedar on my grandfathers land in norther nm...[/QUO
thats a big cedar!when i was a kid me and a couple friends fell an alligator juniper with a 394 w a 32"inch bar and we had to come around the other side to get the last six inches of the notch out,that tree had like i wanna say at least six cords in it,kind of a shame if i only knew what i know now!the first twelve feet where clear with no taper whatsoever,just gold if you where to run it through a mill...oh well stupid kids,we got our 120 a cord delivered haha

 

[tramp bushler]

Big trees , But pictures I hold in hand ..

Some of the ones I remember , Western Red Cedar Prince of Wales is. 9'x13' Tolstoy Bay . Red Cedar 9'&x 11' Revilla Is. . Several Sitka Spruce in the 8-9' dbh . Biggest Yellow Cedar was a snag that hed had the top blown out around 245 years earlier , 96"across the stump perp. to the face . Last tree of that day . Fell it with a Madsen.s modified 044 Stihl with a 34" Sugi Hara bar and full skip 3/8 . It had about a 2 ft dia. hole in the center of it or I wouldn,t have been able to get it over . Putting in the face it kept splitting and setting on my bar .... I made 28 bucks falling it . . The next day I was dinkin around ,gettin bored as it had been a long season , so I counted rings . as near as I could tell .That tree had been standing for more than 1500 years ............Sometimes I had to use my pocket binos upside down as a magnifying glass to count the rings .... Took a while !!!!
Several Sitka Spruce were over 200 feet tall . Some Western Hemlocks close to 200 feet tall . Some 5-6 ft on the stump ........... Some nice wood ...

 

[tramp bushler]

Both Humptulips and I have worked in Port Alice . . Tho there wern,t the huge monsters like on Tuxikan Is . there was a place called " The Spruce Patch" ... You could jump from 6'stump to 4'to 8 to 9' to 5' ...... Margarita Bay on Revilla Is had a nice patch like that ..... Katlian Bay on Baranof Is was like that 200 foot tall Sitka Spruce ,and Western Hemlock some that tall 5-10 feet on the stump , and packed tight together .............. Long Island had alot of places like that ....I know where there are some of those patchs still standing :greenchainsaw:

 

[hammerlogging]

If you need any help with those....

 

[ropensaddle]

I can't remember them all but the biggest I can remember was 82" Sweet gum about 100 foot tall I have done taller but this was a monster in diameter in these parts.

 

[Daybagger]

Hey Man

My Brother-in-law fell this tree. Nice Sitka Spruce, (funny story behind the writing on this pic if anyone is interested?). I am fairly sure he said It was 11 feet? Don't want to down-play his tree, cuz it was a dandy (hell of a lot nicer than anything I cut in Alaska...add in funny story here). Can't remember how much scale, maybe around 20 bushel?, but will try to clarify later. Anyhow I know I am ranting again:rant:. I figured out how to use my scanner , so here it is. Also a couple more pics of my redwood...with my chainsaw!Yayeah! And I was off by a year...spring of 02! Breathed too many chainsaw fumes I Guess

Cody

Hey there, its me, your infamous brother in law. Guess I should not say that anymore. Have to short'n it up to Brother. Can't find the picture you where telling me about. Every time I click on the top link it tells me that I do not have access. Like my username? lol!!! Fits me dont it? You better get yourself back up here and go to cutting with me. Looks like you got way to much time on your hands.lol!!!

 

[tramp bushler]

Saw something pretty scary

Big saws with short bars .... And guys back baring the back cuts in , with short bars and big saws ....... Recipe for disaster ............. IMO the saw manufactures shouldn,t sell saws over 70 cc with half wrap bars ...........If you are going to fall timber , the saw needs to be able to be used comfortably from either side of the stump and either handed .........................

Oh one large Cotton wood tree I fell was a bit over 60"
on the stump '. It was at the Alaska Aggregate, pit site in Eklutna , north of Anchorage .. Fell it with a 441 R Stihl with a 25" bar and chisel ground 3/8 ......

 

[bullbuck]

Big saws with short bars .... And guys back baring the back cuts in , with short bars and big saws ....... Recipe for disaster ............. IMO the saw manufactures shouldn,t sell saws over 70 cc with half wrap bars ...........If you are going to fall timber , the saw needs to be able to be used comfortably from either side of the stump and either handed .........................

Oh one large Cotton wood tree I fell was a bit over 60
on the stump '. It was at the Alaska Aggregate, pit site in Eklutna , north of Anchorage .. Fell it with a 441 R Stihl with a 25" bar and chisel ground 3/8 ......

me and pops took a trip to ak.a couple years back,was in anchorage for a couple days until a local showed me the way to the great alaskan bush company,i came home broke,but man thats a good time right there...:greenchainsaw:

 

[Greystoke]

Big trees

Hey there, its me, your infamous brother in law. Guess I should not say that anymore. Have to short'n it up to Brother. Can't find the picture you where telling me about. Every time I click on the top link it tells me that I do not have access. Like my username? lol!!! Fits me dont it? You better get yourself back up here and go to cutting with me. Looks like you got way to much time on your hands.lol!!!

You are Right...Brother, you will always be. I do like the username, a little ironic, considering how much fun we used to make of day-wagers huh! I would love to come up there and fall timber again, but I just can't give up on what I have going here...even though I threaten to go fall timber about once a week, especially when I have an annoying client, or I am underneath a heavy horse, and the owner is standing there telling us how great their horses are. And, I do have a lot of time on my hands, I just make more money now so I don't need to work as much Ha! I wish! No, really these forum are very invaluable, especially when trying to go it by yourself like me, and if it was not for being able to share the wisdom on here, I would be lost in the tree biz Anyhow Here is the picture, and it definitely belongs on this thread. Also I copied the accompanying story that I posted on another forum where a guy was giving me a hard time about posting pics where I was not wearing safety glasses.

Okay, so the guy on the left was the lead Bullbuck/safety guy for Columbia Helicopters Inc., the guy in the middle is my Brother(notice the safety glasses in his hand...that dog! he always had the same opinion of safety glasses as myself), and the guy on the right was the Bullbuck on that job. We were working on Dall Island in Southeast Alaska and I was informed that this tree was above me in my strip...Yayeah! The day that I was supposed to cut it (had my 088 with 54" bar and a couple of laser chains primed and ready), and the Bullbuck, and Lead Bullbuck/safety man come out to watch me fall it...dang! Columbia's policy always was to have eye protection on your person; you did not have to wear them unless you were told, so I always kept a pair tucked in my hardhat to comply. Well, when the safety guy sees me not wearing them he tells me I have to...sigh, so I put them on, but they had been tucked away in my hat and were quite caked with dirt; I tried to clean them, not to mention it was rainy(as it is most days in Southeast); put them on and it was like trying see my work while looking through a murky fish tank. Now, the ground on Dall Island is quite treacherous...sometimes deadly, one wrong step and it is a broken bone, or death! I wore them for a few minutes while clearing out all the snags around this glorious tree, and I tell him about the problem I am having with my glasses. He tells me "You are a young guy and I would hate to see you blinded", which I retort "I would rather be blind, than dead or broken", which he retorts that "you have to wear them anyway", which I retort "can't I just not wear them today because they are really hindering me, and quite frankly I am scared, and tomorrow I will gladly bring my george jetson hat to appease" he retorts "you either have to wear them or you are out of here", so I smile, throw my saw on my shoulder, and hike out...TRAMPED! The little devil in me still wishes I would have just complied right up to the point that the tree was toppling over, then I would have thrown those dirty glasses in the undercut, and then tramped. So...next day my Brother brings me this picture with a nice little thank you card(he always was a funny guy). Now, I am not saying that you should not wear safety glasses, as everybody should, they just did not work for me at that time, and that scenario. I still try to make myself wear them on occasion, but more often than not, I don't; Is that good? No; Bad? Maybe, but that is why I love being a free man, and also why I am self employed now. Later Brother, I miss ya!

 

[Real1shepherd]

Great responses...enjoyed some of the stories!

I started loggin' in the late 70's out of Woodburn, OR and Molalla, OR. Problem there was that I was an 'outsider' and well, everything you hear about native born Oregonians is true (or was). Of course they started me as choker setter...teens have the reflexes to avoid death better than older dudes.

I wanted to learn falling....but someone has to die and you have to be standing there when it happens....or have some sort of suck that I never got figured out. One older guy who was a faller did take a shine to me and I started working with him, on 'probation'.....LOL, whatever. He was a big fan of Douglas Dent and gave me his book to absorb. So...biggest tree I was 'allowed' to fall (after my probation period was over, of course), was a second growth Doug Fir that ran 10' inside the bark. Didn't completely swamp out the lay, broke part of the top.

Anyway, never quite fit in with the Oregon crowd and I got tired of fighting in their bars and being expected to do same every weekend. So I headed out for CO. All I can tell ya there is that their best gypo shows were nothing but cowboys....even though they got into decent timber. I did all my work on the Western Slope...know nothing about Eastern Slope logging.

I worked in their big timber for a gypo named Frasier Bros Logging (don't remember how they spelled their name anymore, or care). What a joke and they were 'the best'. They were also the best for cheating you on scale. I'd cut three loads a day and they would scale them as 1 1/2 loads. They're all dead now (most probably), so I don't care what I say. I think I was the only directional faller they had ever seen. One of the Frasier brothers had his son (Ron, I think) work for them every summer. The dude was about my age, college boy, used no wedges, let the trees fall about where they were inclined to....worked with a saw 10-12 hrs a day. He was an accident waiting to happen and I stayed clear of his lays. No hard hat, tennis shoes etc, just a virtual 'thrasher'.

Soo...we got a contract on top of The Grand Mesa and I moved my trailer up there. This was in early Fall. We were fallin' first growth Englemann Spruce. The Forest Service had marked all the trees. Basically, loggin' in CO was just tree thinning. Day in and day out I had 6-7' trees, many of them over 140'. Not spectacular by OR standards, but damn nice stuff. I only ran Husky 2100's souped up, with a six foot bar. I had a O75 once, but too much vibration and not good power to weight ratio IMHO. Last yr I did this, one of my 2100's was stolen from my trailer. Since the Frasier's were cheating me and starving me, I couldn't spring for another 2100. So for a backup saw, I bought a freshly rebuilt Jonsered 80. It was OK and serves me well still today in my business....although parts are well...mostly unobtainium.

I really miss the work even after all these yrs, but ya know what, as hard as ya work, it doesn't make sense to be cheated and always running down your money with gypos. I worked for Crown Z for a little and Boise C, but it was like they lived in another world...as far as your work day-too slow of a pace for me after gypo work. I'm sure others had different experiences, but those were mine in the loggin' woods.

Kevin

PS/ Safety glasses???? HA! We weren't even required to have fire extinguishers in those days!

 

[tramp bushler]

I Love You guys having to wear saftey glasses ... .... I,m blind as a bat , Have been since I took a header down some stairs as a kid .. There,s a reason why parents tell kids to Not play on the stairs ..........
.
.. The reason I love you guys having to wear safety glasses , is it levels the playing field .. I have had to clean my glasses 35 or more times in a 6 1/2 hr day .... ... There is a 2 part steam generator in the timber in Southeast Alaska .. . The 1st part is the hot muffler on your saw , the 2nd part is the wet moss at the base of every tree right where you have to put the face and back cut ...... I,ve cut around alot of guys who wern,t nearly as good or fast as I was , but they could see ...And sometimes they would cut more scale , because every time I turned around I was having to clean my glasses ......... I finally went to contacts and screen goggles ... ..
. Then started asking so and so who had far too high an opinion of himself what his scale was ... Get the mumbles so I start rubbin in my scale .. Mr High opinion ends up gettin tramped for long thumbin .. Seems he wasn,t nearly as good as what he wrote down , And I even beat what he wrote down .... ..
. Tarzan , Did you stay at the Columbia Camp in View Cove on Dall Is .....

 

[Greystoke]

I Love You guys having to wear saftey glasses ... .... I,m blind as a bat , Have been since I took a header down some stairs as a kid .. There,s a reason why parents tell kids to Not play on the stairs ..........
.
.. The reason I love you guys having to wear safety glasses , is it levels the playing field .. I have had to clean my glasses 35 or more times in a 6 1/2 hr day .... ... There is a 2 part steam generator in the timber in Southeast Alaska .. . The 1st part is the hot muffler on your saw , the 2nd part is the wet moss at the base of every tree right where you have to put the face and back cut ...... I,ve cut around alot of guys who wern,t nearly as good or fast as I was , but they could see ...And sometimes they would cut more scale , because every time I turned around I was having to clean my glasses ......... I finally went to contacts and screen goggles ... ..
. Then started asking so and so who had far too high an opinion of himself what his scale was ... Get the mumbles so I start rubbin in my scale .. Mr High opinion ends up gettin tramped for long thumbin .. Seems he wasn,t nearly as good as what he wrote down , And I even beat what he wrote down .... ..
.

Tarzan , Did you stay at the Columbia Camp in View Cove on Dall Is

.....

Yep, I stayed a grand total of two days the first time to Dall (i hate stayin in camp). The second time I drove from Thorne Bay to Hydaburg every day and caught a ride on the boat...that lasted about a week before I tramped over the safety glasses. I think that was in 04.

 

[John Ellison]

Were any of you guys in Ak. before 94? I worked all over S.E. Maybe I know you.

 

[tramp bushler]

.. I was in View Cove in 05 . I was cutting for Tongass Cutting in Coco Harbor ... It was the first place I cut where a cutter NEEDED a long bar EVERY day ..........I got stuck in alot of wind , and my saws were too small for good results with that size wood ... The bull buck was Gene Colbert .... Good hand . Really good cutter !! Clean Gene ........ Worst ground I,ve ever been on . And I,ve been litterly ALL OVER ALASKA ..For the past 31 years ... No place as bad as Dall Is. .........Nice big timber tho .... All I had for saws were a 372 Husky and a 460 Stihl ......... . Good place for an 84/88 or 3120 ...... Need to have at least a 395 or 660 . I really prefer the 395 .......
.
.
.
. Yes I was working in the brush from 82 on up here but in the riggin starting in 83 .... What camps did you work at ???

 

[John Ellison]

The first one was Jim Campbells camp at Little Naukati. Mostly in southern SE. I did work for Whitestone and Larrabee which is up in your direction. Also worked for Harbour Log (sled yarder)on Dall Is. Did you see any of the sinkholes on Dall? Unbelievable.

 

[tramp bushler]

You worked for Hawkeye .. He passed away a few years ago ...... I camp watched for him on his float camp in Windy Bay , Dall Is ... Windy bay is the right name too ... His and Rick Zog,s Cessna 185s were wrapped up in each other . . It blew so hard the staples pulled from the logs Rick had used to tie his plane down , It picked up his plane and sent it nose first down beside Don,s plane ... We had to use the A Frame to pick it up ......... It wouldn,t have taken much to get in a fista cuff match with Harbour ......... He could start an argument with himself ..................... I worked @ Port Alice , and Coffman Cove , but never @ Naukiti .......... Course I cut for Whitestone ........... Ever work for Blackwell , or Bueler ???? John , did you ever work @ Rowan Bay ???

.
.
. Tarzan ,, You drove back and forth from Thorne Bay to Hydaberg , Everyday ???????????? .. Not for me .... But then . Pheonix was pretty suck about camp , no commissary , my phone didn,t have reception , and the mail was always 2 weeks late ....