That has been my experience. It's also why I went out and bought a moisture meter. We cut dead standing red oak two Winters in a row. Each year the tops were 18-22% fresh split faces. The trunks were closer to 30%. Cut, split and stacked in November/December the tops were great firewood in January - all under 20%. This was all top covered as some of the non-heart wood was an outside layer of punky which can hold rain water like a sponge and freeze. I was surprised to find a majority of the trunk heavy splits were down closer to 20% by March. I didn't need my wood those years as I was ahead but the guys I was cutting with were out and had customers in need. They were all happy burning it.
