Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[JustJeff]

My first deer rifle was a 30-30 model 94 Winchester. I hunted a lot of thick woods and cut over. I later bought a savage bolt in 25-06 which was a great flat shooting gun that when sighted a couple inches high at 100, would still be pretty much point of aim at over 300 yards. It knocked them down pretty good but when I was in the woods I hated the extra weight and longer stock and barrel. So the 30-30 became my fave. It was very accurate for a gun bought at Walmart. Lol. Put 3 inside a silver dollar at 100 yards. After that it would start to string them up (maybe the heat, maybe the weight in the tube mag...). Either way it didn't matter, I don't like shooting them farther than 100 yards and prefer under 100 feet.
I shot a 7mm mag and it scared the crap out of me. Lol. Some guys can shoot em well but that thing made me flinch. I'd rather take a lesser round that I can shoot well. If I had to replace the 25-06, I'd probably go 243 for all the difference it would make for the ranges I like to shoot at.
Deer rifles are like chainsaws, there are all kinds of good ones to choose from and everyone has their favorite.

 

[nomad_archer]

Got my last day of rifle season firewood scrounge today. I would rather have been hunting but this was nice. It was hot, who would have thought I would be scrounging in a t-shirt in December.

Three truck and trailer loads of walnut and locust. Time to fire up the splitter.

 

[Axfarmer]

I thought I was done bringing home loads of wood but it was 62 here today so I packed up a few saws and my atv and hit my friends property for a nice load today. If the weather is good I'm headed back tomorrow.

 

[MustangMike]

Try splitting that Black Walnut by hand and you will not bother with the splitter, at least for the straight grain pieces.

 

[Bullvi22]

I have mixed feelings. The mild weather makes living easier but in the industry I am in, coal mining, it puts people out of work. 2 more local mines have shut down in the last 2 weeks due to a surplus and dropping prices and other things I'm not going to get started here.

For now I am enjoying it and plan on digging out a stump today. I don't like doing that in the summer. I also don't like processing firewood in the summer which is what I did all summer, first time in over 30 years. WTF

I am sure of one thing, tis the season to be jolly. Some years we just have to work a little harder at it.

Cheers

I hear ya, I work in coal power plants or on parts for coal power plants the majority of the time, people just can't appreciate how tough the last 10 years or so have been on the coal industry.

Hang in there partner, hope your stump therapy is just what the doctor ordered!

 

[Bullvi22]

Try splitting that Black Walnut by hand and you will not bother with the splitter, at least for the straight grain pieces.

How many of you guys have burned black walnut? I've got a couple of them in the backyard and always scheme of selling the trunks for veneer one day, anyone ever done it? I know people get some crazy ideas of what a 20" DBH tree would be worth, I've always been curious. Anyone have any idea?

 

[stihly dan]

Worked at finishing up the scrounge site today. More of cleanup and bring stumps down. I split the stumps because I was tired of Carrying heavy rounds. Who would have thought 6 stump rounds would fill the truck.

 

[stihly dan]

Load of shorts and a load of poles to the btothers.

 

[stihly dan]

Finally finished up that scrounge for this year. Last load out, the skidder.

 

[farmer steve]

How many of you guys have burned black walnut? I've got a couple of them in the backyard and always scheme of selling the trunks for veneer one day, anyone ever done it? I know people get some crazy ideas of what a 20" DBH tree would be worth, I've always been curious. Anyone have any idea?

black walnut is ok to burn. kind of fast but makes a great fireplace wood as the oils in it give off some nice flame colors. not sure about prices on logs. it can be all over the place. i've prolly cut 1,000's of $$$$ into firewood.

 

[MustangMike]

Black Walnut logs do not fetch what they used to, although you still have to pay to get the wood, go figure.

 

[Philbert]

Not sure where this fits, so I'll stick it here.

Guy at a local grocery store using one of those alligator shears to trim Christmas Trees for customers.

Philbert

 

[dancan]

Sure looks like she's happy with his wood __________ saw

 

[Oldman47]

A deer load here is simple. It is always a shotgun slug. Rifles are not allowed for deer in Illinois.

 

[dancan]

Yup bout that weather , up here guys that do landscaping usually shut down in early October , one of my customers that lives to hunt and fish , he's still going strong , sez that the monies is gonna buy him a better boat with a new motor for this spring LOL
Was real nice up here today , I wanted to get a load of firewood this weekend but I got a call from one of my buddies that runs a small excavating company Friday , "If you want your driveway spruced up I'll be there at 8:00 am Saturday before we run out of good weather and get shut down till spring" So no scrounging today but I now have a wider driveway with a lot less slope , filled in a dry ditch so I can now use it as parking for the truck and 16' trailer if needed and flattened out the slope behind the house to make it easier to get to the wood piles and for my snow plow lane

Even got to the little Bota , got it apart to fix the steering .

The Bota will be haulin firewood tomorrow

 

[Oldman47]

How many of you guys have burned black walnut? I've got a couple of them in the backyard and always scheme of selling the trunks for veneer one day, anyone ever done it? I know people get some crazy ideas of what a 20" DBH tree would be worth, I've always been curious. Anyone have any idea?

A yard tree is worth basically nothing for veneer. For veneer you need a nice straight tree with no branches at all in the first x feet. For me x would be about 18 feet so that I could cut it to become 2 peeler logs. Yard trees keep their branches fairly well and the wind that acts on them means they are seldom very straight.

 

[hardpan]

Walnut is not great firewood. Physically it is easy splitting but yet I get bogged down. I have to stop or at least slow down with each split and admire such beautiful wood. And then I have to burn it? LOL

 

[stihly dan]

Yup bout that weather , up here guys that do landscaping usually shut down in early October , one of my customers that lives to hunt and fish , he's still going strong , sez that the monies is gonna buy him a better boat with a new motor for this spring LOL
Was real nice up here today , I wanted to get a load of firewood this weekend but I got a call from one of my buddies that runs a small excavating company Friday , "If you want your driveway spruced up I'll be there at 8:00 am Saturday before we run out of good weather and get shut down till spring" So no scrounging today but I now have a wider driveway with a lot less slope , filled in a dry ditch so I can now use it as parking for the truck and 16' trailer if needed and flattened out the slope behind the house to make it easier to get to the wood piles and for my snow plow lane

Even got to the little Bota , got it apart to fix the steering .

The Bota will be haulin firewood tomorrow

With the rain coming Monday/Tuesday I see a possible muddy mess there.

 

[dancan]

I'll be running a plate tamper on it tomorrow , not shown is a tandem load of crusher run gravel on top of the fill

 

[Bullvi22]

A yard tree is worth basically nothing for veneer. For veneer you need a nice straight tree with no branches at all in the first x feet. For me x would be about 18 feet so that I could cut it to become 2 peeler logs. Yard trees keep their branches fairly well and the wind that acts on them means they are seldom very straight.

I've always suspected this, it seems to me you would need a big straight tree with a good size trunk to amount to anything. I'm not even sure if anyone does veneer around here anyways, just curious. Thanks for the input!