Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Saw Size ?

I have an old Stihl, forget the size, but 18 inch bar, needs a new cylinder/piston and rings, will be a backup.

Then have a newer 271 with 18 inch bar.

Also keep a tiny echo for small stuff.

But figuring soon enough will be up there, and probably would be a good idea to have one big saw. Stihl is located in Delta so thats service/parts and so we stay with Stihl. I can buy one here in the meantime.

Question, what bar for a big one? 30 or 36 inch? I'm assuming I can find both sizes. Have not googled yet. And what model or "engine" size.

Would be for 10-12 or so cords a year, IE our winter heat generally, I don't think I"ll be cutting firewood to pay the bills and if we do end up I'd bet we'll have to buy bigger and better saws or at least a couple extras anyway.

Appreciate the input. This will be bought some time this year but in no super big hurry anyway.

Jeff

Get the bar long enough to cut a hole for your spear fishing house.....6' maybe?

Run a Stihl 440, love that thing! Got it with a 32" bar, skip chisel, usually run a 25" bar with full chain. 28 with skip would be pretty handy too..
25 is long enough that yer not always stooping over, short enough that you don't have to worry as much about getting too close to rocks and such, 28 probably be pretty similar..

Classic!

I have an echo 800 saw with the 36" bar. I've only used it a half dozen times and we have some big trees here in MI. I'm thinking of buying a smaller bar for it. . It's just too damn big. I usually just grab my 18" and take my time on bigger wood.

Was planning on spearing in the clearwater so no ice cutting. LOL.

Just realized that my new saw is a 291 not a 271. One chain and cut down 24 inch oak yesterday evening and cut it all up in about 4-5 hours this morning. I'm beat. 99 degrees when we quit. Tired of working in this crap.

Will have to google 440. And probably would think 30 inch bar is the shortest I'd want, since I have 1 working 18 and another 026 that I think I can repair...with an 18.

Thanks, Jeff

My vintage 056 came with a 48" bar and I have a bunch of shorter bars, but 20" is the longest it has seen in over 20 years. It is dropping birches right now in my son's yard. It thinks they are made of butter.

I have 5 chain saws, the biggest being a Stihl 066 with a 36" blade. IMO it's too big and heavy for most work. If I drop a large Oak or Ash, it's nice for cutting it up on the ground where gravity (weight) works in your favor, but 95% of the time I'm using a 20" Husky.

My dad put a short bar on his saw, 15" if I remember correctly. When I asked him why he said our wood furnace wouldn't fit anything longer. Can't remember the size of the saw for the life of me but it was a farm boss model. That thing would never bog down with that short bar on it, and it made it easy to measure out the logs when we cut them to size.

An ms440 or 460 would be a good saw for that size bar. I have an ms461 with a 20” and 28” bar and use the smaller bar 90% of the time

Jeff;
Good afternoon to you sir, I hope all is well with you folks.

While I'm cognizant I'm not in Alaska and we don't have coastal size trees here in the Okanagan, I have been cutting firewood for more than 3 decades in the mountains and in that time tried a few different saws.

For me, I don't really prefer a saw much heavier than a 70-75cc ends up being - they're a young, large man's saw in my view and certainly much trickier to use on steep terrain.

Speaking of terrain, in my experience that makes a huge difference on how long a bar can be before it gets a tad unwieldy. I've used 80cc plus saws with 36" bars and frankly wouldn't take one if it was given to me - well unless I could sell it immediately.

Anyway for me 28" is plenty of bar to control on steep wet conditions - again I'm neither a giant, nor a spring chicken - and I've been running a Husky 372 XPG since '05, so I do practice what I preach for saw size.

Good luck with your move and saw choices, etc whichever way you decide Jeff and all the best to you folks as we head into summer.

Dwayne

Dwayne
Jeff will not be dealing with coastal giants either! You probably see bigger trees than he will ever see in DJ.

But it is a bit rude relying on factors absent conjecture!

Not trying to be a Richard here, but this "---" bar chainsaw cap is stupid and meaningless.

Husky has two bar mount sizes, large and small. The small fits 20ish cc - 60 cc saws. 14" to 20 odd inch bars.
Large fits 60 something to 120cc saws.

I think Still uses the same mount for everything.


The point, bar size is just that.

It really does not tell anything about power head size.

i would think the saws you already have would be adequate for firewood cutting. They will pull a 20" bar pretty well. But if you want a bigger saw, I would look at a new 441 C-M or 461 Magnum, 28-32" light bar.

Sitka Deer;
Good almost evening to you Art, I hope all is well with you and your fine family tonight.

One thing I neglected to mention is that I picked up an offshore electric 6½ ton splitter from Canadian Tire about 3 years ago and I absolutely love the thing. If it died tomorrow I'd buy another one in a heartbeat.

Its one of those things that I really should have picked up years ago, but for a multitude of reasons didn't.

Anyway for a guy whose age is closer to 60 than 50, I still split the firewood up enough to load onto the pickup, but then chunk it up with the electric offshore when I get it back to the yard. It's sped up the curing process a whole lot and is much, much easier on the body than the 8lb maul and twist wedge.

Since we brought that up Art, I'm a big fan of the drop forged steel, twisted splitting wedge. Mine is made in France of all places - gotta be 25 years old though Art and I see Husqvarna have a similar one available. Some have aluminum ones and while they might work, I can't see them lasting 25 years like my steel one has - but I could be wrong there too.

All the best to you all as we head into summer Art.

Dwayne

Sheesh, virtually everything that hasn’t been baptized in a silty Alaskan river cuts like butter I’m learning.

I think I prefer silty over salty, at least you can pick the less-silty side to start the cut! But it is the silty and salty that drives me nuts!

Being a fair piece older than you, I can appreciate your points! I will have to look that splitter up, it sounds like a winner.

My ancient, museum-piece Stihl 031AV (49cc) has a 20" bar and I've never wanted more.

It's the perfect size saw for 99% of our trees, IMO.

Good words, keep it up, not sure I want a twin of the 291 right now, but then again there might be more merit in that.

Our trunks down here can be a bit large, worst I generally deal with is around 40 inches or so.

After a day of cutting oak in the heat, cutting birch would have been nice. LOL.

First birch I ever cut, I almost cut my leg as it cut so quickly.. LOL