Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Watch your chainsaw boys….

Not an absolute, but for me,
small saws scare me.

Was running Mac 700's and 800's at 12, moved into Pro Huskys,
And thats been almost all my experience. Anytime I run a small saw,
usually with pro chain, I find them awful "kicky".

A big saw definitely will kick, but a longer bar usually has to go farther,
there is more weight in your favor,
And the handles give you better control.

As someone else said, it's usually from the knee up to the upper thigh.
With more experienced guys and big saws.
Sometimes it's kick, or a sprung branch,
other times it's the workingmans worst enemy.
Complacency!

Ever hear of a carpenter cutting his thigh with a circular saw.
Quick cut something, hold it on the leg......OH, FUDGE!!!
Only he didn't say fudge!


Not judging this guy or anyone that gets cut.
Complacency is a killer though.
One that worries me, personally.

Often times in dangerous work,
As knowledge and experience accumulate, caution decreases.


I worked at a huge trucking company known for training new drivers.
With over14k trucks running truckload freight, they could accumulate some interesting data.

New/inexperienced drivers had the majority of accidents.
Broken mirrors, trailer doors ripped off. Clipping another truck in a truck stop.
Small damage, few injuries.

Drivers with 3+ years under their belt had way fewer incidents.
But were the vast majority in fatal accidents.

That’s gross.

the older i get, the more cautious i am with saws. i've been nipped but never like that.

Imagine that without the chaps....

Had a kid from Indiana, claimed to work for the FS there on my crew in Alaska. He was clearing right of way for us. I heard the saw jam hard and shut off. I walked over and he was sitting there white as a ghost, red all over.

He asked me how bad it was. He has done this same move, also wearing chaps.

I explained that it was awful and that those chaps he just destroyed were expensive. He wanted to know about his leg before he passed out.....it never touched him. The red was all the Kevlar it spit out.

He was much luckier.

"Bushelor" "Busheling" I have used chain saws extensively for 40 years. Never heard either of these terms. Is this Yankee talk?

Bushelor- getting paid by the piece or by the thousand, as in board feet. Term used in North West, rocky mountains.

That's a new one to me and like I said,it sounds more like forest service or forestry talk,not logging..50 years in the woods and I never heard of it.


Jayco👍

Worked with some boys from Western Wa and OR in the early 90s. Heard the term thrown around by them. Definitely not Forest Service, as they have no idea what production means.

Me either.
Have known guys to be paid by the load.
We called it "Payed by the load".
But around here,
we aren't "Real cool and chitt".

I have a scare on my knee that his is going to match pretty close to that in the pic. that the OP posted. Amazingly it didn't hurt much when I did it.

A chainsaw is the most dangerous tool I am aware of, and if you are falling timber then sooner or later something is going to happen.
We have a saying....the unlucky get killed and the lucky get good.....I have had trees land beside me.... ...had barber chairs......had tops land beside me......had stupid skidderman push snags over in my direction...been hit in the face with debris requiring stiches a couple times...all that and you are still holding and controlling the most dangerous tool.
I sure do miss production falling.

My first year cutting I got hit by a top that was rotten enough to bust off when the tree went over. It was on a steep loose and rocky hillside and I slipped moving away. Ended up face planted into the ground. That one still causes problems 30 years later. I also got a pretty good nick on my left wrist when my bar tip touched my wedge and kicked back out of the back cut. That one was 25 stitches or so.

Just in the last few years 4 guys I know and/or worked with in the woods 3 have been seriously injured wiith one of them dead. 1 of the 3 ended up losing a leg at mid thigh.

The one guy who was killed probably had 30+ years of timber falling under his belt and was widely regarded as a very good timber faller. A widowmaker got him.

I was just talking to my brother a few days ago about logging and we both agreed we missed it for some reason.

It will feel better when it stops hurting.

Back in the late 70's I worked for one of the big commercial tree companies, the one with the silent H at the end of their name. Anyway they needed workers bad when the Twin Cities got hammered with the Dutch Elm moths. The fat guys got to use a bucket truck, the skinny guys had to climb, and the rest made up the grounds crew. For 5 weeks it didn't pay to learn anyone's name as people were getting butchered left and right. It was almost a game predicting which moron was going to get their digits shortened or removed. I often thought it was odd nobody died.

The op's bite looks bad, but in the scheme of things it will probably go down as a good reminder.


WS

Getting paid by the thousand was common in Northern California where I worked. I worked one season chasing and skidding for a company out of Klamath Falls and they paid the cutters by the stump inch. Measured across the hinge if I remember right.

Logging is the second most dangerous occupation in America, and I know why.
I was cutting down a pine tree in North Carolina so my neighbor could get a view of the river. 95 foot white pine, 18 inch diameter. It was growing on a steep hill, probably 45 degree slope. The tree was leaning slightly uphill and I dropped it uphill. Hell I am from the flatlands of Georgia I didn't know any better. The tree dropped right where I wanted, and the butt was aimed straight downhill. I turned to mess with something on the saw, and suddenly the tree began to slide downhill like a sled. Got on top of me and crunched down right on top of my right knee. The trunk landed right on my knee and I was pinned.

Fire dept rescue squad had to come up and cut that tree off of me, carried me off the mountain in a Stokes basket.
Broke the big thigh bone, the femur, right in the knee. Did 18 months on crutches and wound up with total knee replacement. Damn knee still hurts, night and day.

Of course you don’t know what I’m talking about. That’s why the dont pay hourly in old growth. Do you know how long it takes to dump one of those big bastards? Wal mart bushelors laziest of the bunch. Judging by Larry’s lifestyle , busheling wasn’t too fruitful

I was usually paid by the piece, that being the number of 33 foot logs in a tree. I never worked the coastal stuff and have the utmost respect for those who do. Big trees, steep and wet. Whole different ballgame. I always wore chaps, helmet and eye protection. Need to stay whole and healthy for the next day.

Also.....I have been pounded on the back and driven face first a couple times into the snow by a chunk of ice/snow that accumulates up near the top of evergreens usually later in winter.
A local Faller near me recently had his neck broken by a chunk of ice/snow and his 50+ year career ended. I can think of 4-5 guys with broken necks from falling.

I have never met a faller that wasn't a believer to full blown Christian LOL

I came very close to doing that, so I repaired the work pants, and wear them to remind me. Man, That photo will stick with me , too! I guess the only good thing is it looks like it can be fixed.

Chaps are cheap compared to the alternative. Saws want blood for some reason. So do some trees. And it's not just chainsaws. I've got scratches, and only scratches, but I remember every one like it was yesterday, and so far, not made the same mistake twice.