Well I finally had a chance to try my new 346XP today on some dead (fire-killed) pine that was waiting to be bucked. When it came time to put the chain on I appreciated the inboard clutch of my 372Xp....guess I'll get the hang of the 346XP's outboard (but that's already a different thread). She started up nice and easy....the priming bulb is a nice feature. The saw came with Oregon 95VP on an 18" bar. At first I thought wow this cuts nice....then after about 6 or 8 cuts of 8-10" pine I started thinking the chain wasn't performing as it was initially. I tightened the new chain and started again.....it didn't get any better. Cut a few more, checked chain tension, repeated, etc.....no difference so I finished the bucking with the 372XP. As Saw Troll has said I felt like I needed to stand on the saw to get it to cut with that 95VP. I was wearing my PPE but standing on the saw just didn't seem the safest thing to do. It being the saw's first tank of gas I didn't really want to work it to hard either. I have some Woodland Pro 20NK (made by Carlton I'm told) on order from Baileys so hopefully that will work better. If not I'm giving up on the narrow kerf and going with full 3/8 which will mean a change in bar, rim, and another order of chain...
The rpm was about 2900 at idle out of the box. My elevation is 5,000ft......just as an fyi. I wasn't going to mess with the carb during break in but just might (I didn't check max rpm).