Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[Kodiak Kid]

If you guys don’t want to feel compelled to buy new guns, do not join any Facebook groups that are specific to certain calibers or actions… The worst peer pressure ever lol

Then I’ve got @MechanicMatt pestering me to see if I went back and bought the octagon barrel model 94 lol.

I pretty much have all the firearms I've ever intended on collecting/buying over the years. With the exception of a .22-250 and a Barrett .50 BMG bolt gun.The Barrett will be in the arms locker soon, and I can't wait to dial it in at the range!

 

[Kodiak Kid]

Standard open face notch, then a bore cut to set the hinge, then a step down for the back cut, aka the "step cut". This leaves holding wood between the bore cut and the back cut which keeps the tree from going on its own, the more distance between the bore and the back cut the more holding power and the more you will have to pull in order to get the tree to come over. This is only to be used with equipment capable of breaking the holding wood.
I use it on back or side leaners with the skidding winch on my tractor. You can see how much back lean was on this one in the second video.

Many use a similar technique to fall leaders, notch, bore to set the hinge, then cut out to where a small portion of the back is left(strap/trigger), then cut just below the bore cut.

In the Felling industry. We call that specific method of back cut a "Post Cut"
It is very common for us to "Post Up" two, three, four, or even more sometimes and push them all over at once with one tree as the "Driver". Most often when the timber is prodominantly leaning in the opposite way of the lead the timber needs to go. It saves a ton of time vs. setting a wedge in a standard back cut in every tree that is crippled to be pushed over, as there are no wedges to retrieve under burried timber once the drive is complete and all the timber is on the deck! It also saves a tremendous amount of energy vs. lifting them over one by one from beating wedges! This type of felling can be very dangerous if a feller is inexperienced and must NEVER!!! be conducted in windy conditions!!! Each tree MUST!!! be posted up in a certain order! First you face your Driver. Then working out from your Driver, face and bore and ONLY!!! face and bore your crippler's! Then cut each of your bottom trigger straps as you work your way back twords your driver. Once you're back to your Driver. Execute your back cut, and let fly gentleman!!! That's one of a few different methods of "driving" timber.

Crippling 10, 20, 30 or more is called a "Domino Drive". We've probably all seen domino drives on the internet, and I've seen (but never done one myself) up close and in person. IMOP it is unprofessional, unpredictable, and like playing with fire. In my professional opinion. Any thing over five or six is to much crippled timber to pay attention too and concentrate on gentleman!

Cut safe, stay sharp, and be aware!

 

[Kodiak Kid]

Tuned up the chain on my 260 this evening to brush out some hunting trails this weekend. Man this little saw rips! I've heard some of you folks mention that you've ported your 026's, 260's and 261's!
I can only imagine!

 

[Kodiak Kid]

I got just a little bit of oak firewood today. I've been meaning to remove this spindly little oak next to my deck for awhile, I just haven't bothered to get at it. It had a hard side lean over the deck and I thought I was going to throw a rope in it.

If it was on a job, I would've still thrown a rope in it, or pushed it with equipment...but since it's my deck and it needs to be replaced, I just sent it with a swing dutchman. It's not on a 40" spruce like Kodiak's doing, but is impressive when it works on a hardwood. I wouldn't do it on one of the mature oaks, but it works on a young, hingey tree.

I said it was small lol... it was leaning towards the overturned pot, with an arch that would've tagged the deck had I gone downhill.

As soon as I finished piling the brush...it started raining...sunny to downpours within 5 minutes.

A swing is a swing is a swing! Nice work! Swinging timber can be a lot of fun to execute sometimes! Until one swings off the stump in the opposite direction it was intended too! But that's never happened to me! Ever!...Not!

Cut safe, stay sharp, and be aware!

 

[Kodiak Kid]

Snags, snags, and more snags!

Though this snag looks fairly sound from the outside. A simple bore test executed with caution tells a different story and the saw waste tells no lies! The entire trunk from the core to the outer surface was crumbly mulch! I very carefully put a conventional face in this hazard under its lean and then a slowly started to executed a back cut. keeping my head up as much as possible only taking quick split second glances at my cuts. Believe it or not? It Stihl slowly started sitting back away from its lean! I stopped my cut, got out from under it, and smashed it from a distance with a good size sound healthy tree.


Now from the outside. This snag "looks" worse than the previous one. With a flakey and cracked up mulch on the outside, but once again. The bore test tells all! The entire 2/3 of the trunk from the core on out. Stihl produced fibrous sound noodles. Indicating the snag was sound enough at the stump to have holding wood for a half ass hinge. IMOP, The biggest danger with this snag. Is the two smaller surrounding snags. The unhealthy but Stihl alive triple school marm behind it didn't help anything!

This snag was so decomposed I could push my saw bar into it clear to the power head. Without even spinning the chain! I simply smashed it!


So why am I posting these danger tree pics on a firewood scrounging thread? Because IMOP. Snags can, but don't always. Make excellent firewood, and a lot of us harvest snags fir that particular reason! That being said. When judging the soundness of a snag before felling. Never judge a book by its cover. There can be more underneath than meets the eye!
BORE TEST IT FIRST!!!

Cut safe, stay sharp, and be aware!

 

[Vtrombly]

Snags, snags, and more snags!

Though this snag looks fairly sound from the outside. A simple bore test executed with caution tells a different story and the saw waste tells no lies! The entire trunk from the core to the outer surface was crumbly mulch! I very carefully put a conventional face in this hazard under its lean and then a slowly started to executed a back cut. keeping my head up as much as possible only taking quick split second glances at my cuts. Believe it or not? It Stihl slowly started sitting back away from its lean! I stopped my cut, got out from under it, and smashed it from a distance with a good size sound healthy tree.
View attachment 1018994View attachment 1018996View attachment 1018997

Now from the outside. This snag "looks" worse than the previous one. With a flakey and cracked up mulch on the outside, but once again. The bore test tells all! The entire 2/3 of the trunk from the core on out. Stihl produced fibrous sound noodles. Indicating the snag was sound enough at the stump to have holding wood for a half ass hinge. IMOP, The biggest danger with this snag. Is the two smaller surrounding snags. The unhealthy but Stihl alive triple school marm behind it didn't help anything!View attachment 1018991View attachment 1018992View attachment 1018993

This snag was so decomposed I could push my saw bar into it clear to the power head. Without even spinning the chain! I simply smashed it! View attachment 1018998


So why am I posting these danger tree pics on a firewood scrounging thread? Because IMOP. Snags can, but don't always. Make excellent firewood, and a lot of us harvest snags fir that particular reason! That being said. When judging the soundness of a snag before felling. Never judge a book by its cover. There can be more underneath than meets the eye!
BORE TEST IT FIRST!!!

Cut safe, stay sharp, and be aware!

I appreciate it. There is allot of standing dead ash here that needs to be treated similar. I appreciate the tips and the pictures.

 

[chipper1]

In the Felling industry. We call that specific method of back cut a "Post Cut"
It is very common for us to "Post Up" two, three, four, or even more sometimes and push them all over at once with one tree as the "Driver". Most often when the timber is prodominantly leaning in the opposite way of the lead the timber needs to go. It saves a ton of time vs. setting a wedge in a standard back cut in every tree that is crippled to be pushed over, as there are no wedges to retrieve under burried timber once the drive is complete and all the timber is on the deck! It also saves a tremendous amount of energy vs. lifting them over one by one from beating wedges! This type of felling can be very dangerous if a feller is inexperienced and must NEVER!!! be conducted in windy conditions!!! Each tree MUST!!! be posted up in a certain order! First you face your Driver. Then working out from your Driver, face and bore and ONLY!!! face and bore your crippler's! Then cut each of your bottom trigger straps as you work your way back twords your driver. Once you're back to your Driver. Execute your back cut, and let fly gentleman!!! That's one of a few different methods of "driving" timber.

Crippling 10, 20, 30 or more is called a "Domino Drive". We've probably all seen domino drives on the internet, and I've seen (but never done one myself) up close and in person. IMOP it is unprofessional, unpredictable, and like playing with fire. In my professional opinion. Any thing over five or six is to much crippled timber to pay attention too and concentrate on gentleman!

Cut safe, stay sharp, and be aware!

I've seen a few drives of crippled trees, never heard them called post cuts, just the guys saying they crippled them.
A post cut in the tree service realm is a cut made on a limb to reduce the chance of "chairing"(although the limb is vertical), cut a small notch out of the bottom, reduce the sides to make three sides of the post, then cut from the top down(kinda like a coos bay/triangle cut but rectangle instead of a square).
As far as safety goes, many techniques have inherent risks, much like using a Dutchman or swinging, but no risk, no reward. With using the step/post cut I'm utilizing, I'm long gone from the stump when the tree is pulled, the biggest concern is a side lean or a strong wind breaking the hinge and the bypass wood .
Right after I dropped that last one this storm came thru, glad it was on the ground and I was bucking and limbing by then.

 

[Kodiak Kid]

Good on ya Brett! Thanks fir explaining your work!

I've actually also heard others call it a "strap cut".

We use the term "crippled" for any tree with enough wood removed at the stump that it is close to or at the point of felling. Like your step cut or our post cut, or a tree with a little back lean and standard felling cuts sitting on a wedge in the back cut and ready to fell, (or sitting on a hung up saw because a wedge wasn't set.) These are just a few examples of what we call "crippled" timber.

Cut safe, stay sharp, and be aware!

 

[svk]

I was just thinking about it too… I have five kids and so far four have shown some interest in hunting. If I end up with four or five deer hunters and each of them need a couple, I’m gonna need a lot of deer rifles lol.

As I mentioned it’s one of my goals to have a rifle for every cartridge in each of the 30–06 family (so far I’m 2/6), .308 family (5/7), .30-30 family (2/5) and Remington rimless ie 30 Remington with is rimless 30-30 (1/4).

There’s others too that I find interesting but I should really complete the sets first

 

[svk]

This summer I went to Boone’s Fine Guns in Isle Minnesota. Reportedly they have the largest collection of Winchesters in the world. Not all of the Winchesters are on display unfortunately, many are in his private collection.

I ended up finding two of my bucket list guns, a model 71 and also a .35 Whelen improved based on a Springfield action. They had a couple of nice 32 specials that I wanted to add to my collection but had already spent way too much on the bucket list guns lol

May take a ride down there after quarterly bonus time in a few weeks.

 

[Kodiak Kid]

This summer I went to Boone’s Fine Guns in Isle Minnesota. Reportedly they have the largest collection of Winchesters in the world. Not all of the Winchesters are on display unfortunately, many are in his private collection.

I ended up finding two of my bucket list guns, a model 71 and also a .35 Whelen improved based on a Springfield action. They had a couple of nice 32 specials that I wanted to add to my collection but had already spent way too much on the bucket list guns lol

May take a ride down there after quarterly bonus time in a few weeks.

Boy I sure would like to get my paws on an original Winchester model 1901 I'll tell ya!

 

[sean donato]

Three of us , about to order my 3rd Gun Case .

Makes 4 of us, have a 32 gun safe filled to the brim no it doesn't have 32 guns in it either. Should have bought a bigger safe. The gun cabinet is "full" since the kids have taken an interest in shooting I got them both air rifles, so to make my life easy and not give them access to the rest of the guns, their "guns" go in the cabinet. Bb's and pellets just sit in the top of it. Fortunately they are both much too short to get up there lol.

 

[North by Northwest]

Tuned up the chain on my 260 this evening to brush out some hunting trails this weekend. Man this little saw rips! I've heard some of you folks mention that you've ported your 026's, 260's and 261's!
I can only imagine!View attachment 1018988

2 saws that really perform well after a good woods porting are 260 Stihl & 346 xp brother !

 

[husqvarna257]

Never seen this but it is on craigslist. Not my thing but it is different

© craigslist - Map data © OpenStreetMap
623 Deep River Road
condition: new
delivery available
make / manufacturer: Fire Woodbot
model name / number: Model 5730
Fire Woodbot
Experience the Fastest Way to Spilt Wood
Approximately 16 Cords of Firewood on 10 Gallons of Fuel.
Model 5730, 5" Hydraulic Cylinder, Frame is 7" Tube x 5/8" Thick. 30" Stroke. 16 Second Cycle Time, 8 Seconds out 8 Seconds Back, Approximately 12 Pieces Per Minute. Making all manual firewood splitters and log splitters obsolete.

Fire Woodbot Specifications
Model 5730, 5″ Hydraulic Cylinder, Frame is 7″ Tube x 5/8″ Thick. 30″ Stroke. 16 Second Cycle Time, 8 Seconds out 8 Seconds Back, Approximately 12 Pieces Per Minute.

Fire Woodbot - $8,400.00 (starting at) w/ Quick Coupler $400 (additional fee and subject to change)

 

[Philbert]

Never seen this but it is on craigslist.

Lots of those available, typically for use on skid steers. Can be a real help, especially with large diameter rounds.

Philbert

 

[JustJeff]

One round stack finito! Finished about 5 ft tall. Figure there's 4+ facecord in there. One more and I'll be set for next year. Have to get the saw out for this next go, I'm out of rounds. Finally cooler so I feel like working on it. Chance of frost tomorrow

 

[muddstopper]

My second favorite movie.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107050/

If you want a good series, look up Still Game on netflix/bbc. 8 full seasons of Grumpy old men, you will laugh your ass off.

 

[chipper1]

May take a ride down there after quarterly bonus time in a few weeks.

Good thing you're not on one of those high pressure gun forums

 

[tfp]

A neighbour had some short rounds left in a pile after they had a tree cut down sometime in the last decade. Dirty, hollow, slightly punky, more crotches than barrels, and lots of big hairy spiders. By some miracle, no nails.

 

[tfp]

Cleaned up a wind blown Hill Gum (Eucalyptus fasciculosa) on a friend's property. 1 tank of fuel and one sharpen with my MS250. I never split green but I thought i'd give it another go. 3 to 6 hits with the maul compared to 1 to 3 for dead. No crotches or anything with a branch - maul almost rebounds into face.




Shot two feral pigs. Cut a load of narrow-leaf ironbark for my own personal stash. Good weekend.