Long ago, my GOL Instructor -- a bona fide magician with his Dolmar saws -- said that, "When it comes to all-around use, you don't need anything longer than a 20-inch guide bar." Well, I don't always agree with that, but I've found that a 20" bar does work quite well for a lot of our work, so I'm thinking that I'll give the new 70-something cc saw in my mind a go with a 20" bar first.
As for what we'll use a 70+ cc saw for ... I'm thinking about all-around use for anything from roughly 11" dbh (mixed species) and larger. Obviously, we pull out an MS660 when we want to fell large timber, so the saw I'm thinking about will be used for other tasks associated with producing saw logs. When I think about it, there are times when the MS361 -- albeit a great saw in its own right -- is simply a bit small for certain tasks. I was using an MS361 to buck up a pile of logs for cord wood a couple of years ago, for instance, and one of my [older] friends was putting me to shame with his Dolmar 7910 (also with a 20" bar). That was the day when it occurred to me that "there's got to be something" that fits in between the saw I was working with and a [too heavy for bucking long term] MS660.
