Never underestimate the power in a falling tree...

[Lowdown3]

OK, so I had a run a few weeks ago of just plain dumb luck in the wood lot. A lot of stupid stuff that normally doesn't happen to me- lots of pinched blades, etc.

So I'm cutting a small tree (maybe 8-10") but the tree has grown in two parts, kinda like a "V" and it's not possible to cut below the two parts.

Anywhoo, long screwed up story one of the sections first hangs up, then slides off the V. It pushes the saw down to the ground and then it lands on the bar.

The result is in the picture...

They say you shouldn't work with firearms when your mind is pre-occupied. They say the same of bees, explosives, etc. I'm gonna add chainsaws to that list.... I still can't figure out WTH was wrong with me that day. But Praise the Lord, He was looking out for me.

Also, most people don't think to stock another bar as part of their chainsaw logistics. I had one spare and an identical saw, so I was able to keep working. This bar probably could be repaired, but I doubt it would be as safe as the factory sent it out...

[Hawkeye]

I've seen/experienced some things like that before myself. It happens. I'd can that blade and just replace it. It'll never run right.

[rice paddy daddy]

I've seen/experienced some things like that before myself. It happens. I'd can that blade and just replace it. It'll never run right.

Amen to that. Blades and bars are cheap compared to having a failure that could possibly throw a chain spinning at high rpm's into your thigh. I'm very careful when using my saw to fell trees, a lot can go wrong very quickly.
I wore out a Poulan clearing our property, and now have a Husky.

[Benn Gleck]

Thanks for this post. I'm gonna go buy another bar for my saw this weekend.

I have a Farm Boss and like it real well.

[slingshot]

Sometimes the most innocent looking tree can turn into a "widow maker." I was cutting a huge cedar one day that had a natural lean to it. Just as I was completing the back cut, a gust of wind came up and the cedar acted like a sail. It pinched my saw and I left it right there and took off running! The tree stood straight up for a few seconds and then settled back down into it's natural lean.

I was cleaning up ice storm limbs & trees, stopped to gas & oil up and put a couple of strokes on the chain and drink some water. Kept hearing something popping and squeaking. Got paranoid fast and walked all around the tree I was getting ready to down. Couldn't see anything creepy and went to cutting on it. Then a big hanging limb in the tree NEXT to me hit the ground with a thud that I felt in my feet. It missed me by a good 12 or 15 feet, but still scared the dog turds out of me! Dumba$$ didn't bother to look all around, just the tree I was working on!

I've learned to quit chainsawing & bushhogging when I get hungry & tired in the afternoon. I just get incredibly stupid. Wife says I have low blood sugar, I don't know. I do know that I can pull some super-stupid crap! I've only gassed & oiled up a chainsaw about a million times, but twice now I put the bar oil in the gas tank and the gas in the chain oil tank, both times in the late afternoon when I was tired & hungry and trying to hang on until I got to a good stopping point for the day! Now that's stupid.

There's a big rock in one field. It's been there since I bought the place, it hasn't moved. I know it's there and have bushhogged around it for years. One afternoon I drove the tractor & hog right into it! Started a fire that ran like a deer through a big field of old dead brown cheat grass about thigh high. That was exciting! My neighbors didn't seem to appreciate the excitement I brought to them on that lazy hot summer afternoon. Broke my shear pin on the hog! Had to get the tractor out of there fast because of a fuel leak that I've been meaning to fix for years now.

If anybody ever starts a "Dumb stunts that you have pulled" thread, I can be a big contributor with tired & hungry afternoon brain farts I've had over the years!

Lowdown, I've never mangled a bar like that one you showed, but I have tore up, broke, burred up, and messed up more stuff then I'd like for anyone to know. So, don't feel bad. You make me look like Forrest Gump!

[eeyore]

Thanks for the reminder. I friend recently cut down a tree, notched and had a tractor with the bucket leaned against it, it fell on the bed of his truck. Boy was he mad, but he thanked God anyway, because it did not hit the house or his family.