Finally, a tree to buck that is in the open forest and not gnarly vines and saplings! This red oak was struck by lightning a good while back, might have been two summers ago or this past summer, can't recall. I figure I better get it before it goes punky. Some of the bark fell off nearer the top when it hit the ground but the wood is still solid. Sap wood is intact but might be a little suspect, I'll know when I split. If I'm reading the forester's tape correctly, it's 63cm (24.8in) DBH and that seems correct. I have a number of bigger red oaks but this is a nice tree. It'll take me awhile to haul this out with my John Deere Gator a few rounds at a time. It's 1/4 mile down a windy trail to the truck. Might have to split or noodle the bigger rounds, we'll see. The Gator bed is certainly higher than a low trailer! I started out felling it with a Stihl ms362 but it wasn't cutting right and I did it with the Husky 346 with 18in bar. Great saw! I messed up the cut a little and it fell slightly sooner than I wanted and some of the holding wood on the right side was thicker than the left side and as I was finishing the cut, I'm thinking "Uh-oh, I wish I could cut that right side holding wood a little" and yep, it did alter my aim slightly. Only 3ft of deviation but that was enough to explode a 30 ft tall red maple that got dead centered. I first thought it was a dogwood (I protect all dogwoods I can) and I was mortified but upon inspection saw that it was maple, so, no big deal, I have a thousand of them. And I can salvage some of the maple that didn't explode. A red oak like this sure has a lot of good wood!
Wait - a husky had to pinch-hit for a Stihl, to save the day? Love the oak. Nice and straight makes for easy splitting.
Yeah, go ahead and send that heap to me. I’ll pay shipping even but no point in running a bad saw. That can be dangerous. It will be well at home next to my 362cm Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Nice to see Caujins got some "DBH" down there ! The 346 is a bro to the 261. That'll get some hot talk flushed out here. Red oak is some heavy hard wood. It needs a saw slot to begin to get a wedge into the butt end for splitting. It does noodle well with the 261.
Ford/Chevy, Husky/Steel. No matter what you used you got it down safe, nice job! One of the benefits of having multiple saws in the fleet, just switch it up for another one. That's great firewood and happens to be my fav!
