Felling direction

[bitzer]

faced and crippled and the dumb ass walks infront of it like 4 times. we'll hear about him soon enough.

the real frightening thing is he's passin hisself off as a pro

He's got the outfit for it.

 

[rwoods]

Classic case of incompatibility. Costume and saw don't match. He must have dressed in the dark. Or grabbed the wrong saw. Ron

 

[GilksTreeFelling]

jees, im no where near a "pro" but even i have enough smarts to not get in front of the tree once the back cut is started.

 

[Bwildered]

I wouldn't get that worked up over it, it was just the last few standing metres of the tree left standing after being lopped down to size, his mates pulled it over with a rope to finish it off, he was very smartly dressed I must say!
Badinski

 

[Woos31]

on thinning of the kale im suggesting a full clearcut and slash and burn replant with taters or radishes

Corn..........sew in the old growth corn kernel

 

[Woos31]

It appears this guy stuck the rear handle in the face notch and looked down the bar to aim the tree?

What's with guys using tiny bars on big saws to fell trees? YouTube is full of MS661's with 20" bars felling 40" trees. Yeah with practice it can be done correctly but doesn't a longer bar make things easier?
I'm far from being a professional and I get nervous every time I fall a tree with a bar shorter than the tree diameter.
Must be a European thing. They also like to abuse their saws by throwing them around and hard loading them all the time on YouTube also. I usually move on to the next video if the guy spends most of his time time bogging down and stopping the chain.

That was painful..............I'm not abussive or what I consider abussive I guess but a saw is a tool and tools get thrown and crushed. I'll never understand the short bar on a big saw thing ever, however star of the video could've done the job from one side of the tree and not walked a mile around it before he was done. I don't like bending over for one thing so my short bar is 32" and for two I always figured better accuracy gunning a longer bar than short, like a torpedo level..............yes it will show you where level is but will it still be dead nuts level if a 4 foot level is set on there?

 

[pdqdl]

I am surprised nobody commented on his complete inability to drive a wedge. That axe looks dull enough; maybe he was using the wrong side to knock in the steel wedge?

I found this thread looking for an old picture of gunning sticks. RandyMac: still got your original pics? This 5 year old thread seems to have lost the original links.

 

[muddstopper]

I would like to see the pic of the gunning sticks too.. I have never cut any really big timber like you west coast folks. Biggest thing I ever cut was a 6ft dia white pine, but those are few and far between.. I usually just eyeball a tree to see which way its leaning and cut toward the lean. Might notch to pull a little one way or the other. If it dont want to fall the way I want it to fall, I use a cable and winch to pull the direction it has to fall. Aint even done that for a long time. Anything bigger than firewood size, I give to a logger and just take the tops. While I probably wont be using gunning sticks anytime soon, I would like to see what they are and how there used.

eta, I like carrots too.

 

[ray benson]

I am surprised nobody commented on his complete inability to drive a wedge. That axe looks dull enough; maybe he was using the wrong side to knock in the steel wedge?

I found this thread looking for an old picture of gunning sticks. RandyMac: still got your original pics? This 5 year old thread seems to have lost the original links.

Using gunsticks at about 3:15 in the video

 

[muddstopper]

thanks for the video. I had never seen anyone use gunsticks before.

 

[pdqdl]

It occurs to me that using the gunning sticks might really be helpful for those situations where the facecut was not made level, whether by plan or accident.

Has anyone used these enough to know how well they predict the swing of an off-level hinge?

 

[RandyMac]

used what?

 

[pdqdl]

gunning sticks...to predict the fall of a non-horizonal face cut on a tree.

 

[RandyMac]

Define non-horizontal face cut.

 

[pdqdl]

Left corner higher than right corner...or vice-versa. Tree doesn't fall on a "straight down" arc, but swings to the side. Useful for starting the fall in one direction, but hitting the ground on a different line. I don't do that very often, but it can be useful.

How much swing you are getting can be hard to predict.

 

[RandyMac]

Asymmetrical face cut. Useful for many things and largely predictable.

 

[pdqdl]

Sure. If you do it all the time, but I can still see a need for using a better sighting tool.

I guess those old timers used the gunning sticks 'cause they lacked experience?

 

[RandyMac]

And you would be making the wrong guess.
The use of ''sticks'' has been around for ages, it is an accepted practice in very large, very tall timber where precision is required.
The most experienced choppers I worked with used them every day. I made a set and learned the proper way to use them.

 

[JTM]

Using gunsticks at about 3:15 in the video

I hate to get into a fight with one those guys from back then. Probably knock my head clean off.

 

[Gologit]

Sure. If you do it all the time, but I can still see a need for using a better sighting tool.

I guess those old timers used the gunning sticks 'cause they lacked experience?

If you're falling small trees, say anything under 48"dbh, just use the gunning sights on your saw. You can also stick your axe head into the face and use the handle for a gunning guide.
Gunning sticks work well on bigger stuff when hitting the lay is important and saving out the entire tree is a major goal.