scary tree cutting situations

[Good Feller]

I was wondering if you guys would like to share any tree cutting situations/close calls that really got your heart pumping.  I cut down an 18" dead elm tree that was leaning over the highway in front of my parents house last weekend.  I got it wedged back over the opposite way but it sure got the blood pumping!
Several years ago when I first got into cutting wood I cut down a 22" red oak with a 14" poulan (my only saw at the time).  No safety gear, no experience, nobody around.  I got it down but boy that was an ugly stump.  I burned a whole tank of gas cutting on that thing.  That was really dangerous. 
Two years ago when I took the game of logging course they asked me which tree I wanted to cut down....  I said "the biggest one out here."  So they found a 25" white oak and told me to cut it.  I really started to get nervous.  I didn't know what I had gotten myself into.  On top of that, I didn't like having a crowd watching me cut.  My mouth was dry as a bone, my heart pounding, I was shaking!!!  I don't know if anyone noticed but I was sh*@ shook!!!! I made the final cut and............ nothing happend!!!!  Nobody moved.  And then Finally, it slowly started to fall where it was intended. 

[Good Feller]

Don't be shy ya'll. 

[Burlkraft]

I don't think anybody is shy, but I think rather it's that none of us have ever done anything like that before       

I remember a long time ago, when I was in high school and on the farm, we were clearing fence rows. I had a Mac 1010  saw and that was it. No helmet, no safety glasses, no chaps and no brains.            I was dropping a big cherry tree. We were using flat hay racks to haul logs on. I don't think I even cut a wedge in the tree. It was leaning the right direction        The tree spun on the stump and landed right on that hay wagon. I never really had seen a wagon fold up like that before     

Oh yeah, the Old Man was quite...well.....let's just say mad        

[sawdust]

I had no idea what I was doing.... a spruce tree about 12 diameter with a drastic lean. I was falling it in the direction of the lean. I have no idea what exactly happened, I was doing the back cut expecting it to start moving. My bar got pinched and quit, off to the truck to get another saw, I was walking back and the tree started to move. It did one of those fancy spit up the trunk chair maneuvers. Thankfully I was a long ways away my saw survived too. To this day I have no idea what happened, I learned just enough to stay away from ugly trees.

[jokers]

I had no idea what I was doing.... a spruce tree about 12 diameter with a drastic lean. I was falling it in the direction of the lean. I have no idea what exactly happened, I was doing the back cut expecting it to start moving. My bar got pinched and quit, off to the truck to get another saw, I was walking back and the tree started to move. It did one of those fancy spit up the trunk chair maneuvers. Thankfully I was a long ways away my saw survived too. To this day I have no idea what happened, I learned just enough to stay away from ugly trees.

This is a good example of why you should bore cut a heavy leaner, the tree pinched your bar as the barberchair was just starting, lucky for you, you went to get another saw while it happened.

I`m sure that if you think about the mechanics long enough you`ll understand why the back of the tree, the part which had already been released from the stump, slabbed on you. All of the weight of the tree was leaning toward earth supported only by the uncut portion of the tree.

[Ianab]

Leaning trees are allways a problem / hazard.

Like Jokers says, borecutting is the best way to deal with them.

One tree we cut a while back was a leaning 54" dia Cypress. Not so much scary, but not one you want to mess up. There is an adrenlin buzz when you are releasing the back strap on that size tree. A lot of tension and it starts falling with a BANG, not a creak.

My cutting buddy still has a tree that we have decided is just too scary to cut, well without a 20ton digger to help push it over anyway. Another big Cypress that splits into about 6 branches 4ft up. One of the branches blew out in a storm and it was over 40" dia. The whole mess is probably 6ft though, and an ugly mess of included bark and multiple trunks. Could take out the trunks seperatly, but would be cutting 40" stuff 8 foot off the ground.

We know our limits 

Ian

[RSteiner]

The most dangerous situation I found myself in was one that I never expected.  I had been cutting 6 to 8 cords of firewood a year for about 3 years, just enough time to get a little over confident.

The tree was a dying ash on the edge of the road leaning a bit in the direction I wanted it to fall.  I had never heard of bore cutting or barber chairing.  I made my face cut and proceded to back cut the tree.  When I got 2/3 of the way through the back cut the butt of the tree shot backwards as the tree split up the stem a good 12 feet.  I was only by the grace of God that the tree did not hit me.

I guess you have to figure every tree you approach to cut down is an opportunity to get hurt.  You can not let your guard down for one second.  After attending the GOL course I learned how to do things that could minimize the risk but you still have to always be looking for the unexpected.

Randy

[thecfarm]

I will tell on myself.Bought back a piece of the old farm.Had a lot of 6-8 inch white maple that had grown together,2-3 at a time.I've been getting them down for days.Cutting 2 at a time,with only one stump cut.They would still be together even when they hit the ground.They had built a storage building on the land.I was cuttting right next to it.This time they did not stay together.One hit the cornor of the roof and came back and hit me.I was some lucky.Only hit my arm and sent the chainsaw flying.I did my 45 degree walk away but that tree was bound to get me.The roof acted like a pivot point.The worst part is I know better.If this would of happened any other place there would not of been anything to send it in my direction.
Up in the woods I've seen trees go up in the air from landing on a rock or a knoll that is kinda scary.But this I knew was going to happen and I give myself more room to get away.Seems like a rock or knoll will be in just the wrong spot.I want to save the other standing trees and have no other place to fall it.

[lancek]

I had a walnut that was in a guys yard right in between the house and garage, it had a slite lean toward the house but the primary lead was toward the road with plenty of room to drop it in the frount yard! We climbed the tree and put a 5/8 tree rope in the top and tied the other end to the truck! I told the kid that I had working with me to give the truck the gas when I gave the signal, I started cutting the tree and just as it started going I motioned for the truck to move my driver hit the gas but dumped the cluch and the truck died, the tree fell side ways tward the house and landed in a tree on the other side! We then had to support the walnut with more ropes and slowly remove the top of the walnut from the other tree I then made a trolly system suspended from two ohter trees to pull the log leagths out from over the house and lower them down to the ground! We did all this and only damaged one shingle on the roof !
Moral of the story climb the tree even if dose look like an easy job you will save money and time even though you have to do exta work! [PS we got 550 feet of veener out of this tree]

[TexasTimbers]

One tree we cut a while back was a leaning 54" dia Cypress.

If you are referring to the video you posted a couple years or so ago, I want you to know everytime I cut a leaner I think of that video. I cut a drastic leaner once recently and said aloud after it went thud "Ianab would be proud of that one." And my wife said "Who is ....'ee-nub?" 

[Ed_K]

 We're told to wait awhile after dropping a tree to let the loose branches drop also. I dropped a black birch sawlog that had a smaller tree growing next to it. I waited a few min's then put my tape on the end and started marking and limbing the saw log. At 30' half of the top of the cordwood tree came down on me. The tip ends were enough to knock me to the ground. If I had been closer to the butt the 9" branch would have hurt a lot more.
 If theres two together cut both. Alway look up! And if their actually growing together expect to get wet when you bore into them .

[rebocardo]

I recently cut a small 10" tree with a home owner and had her drive my truck to pull it down being it was on a property line. After getting a nice hinge and wedges in, I got what I thought was a safe distance away behind another tree before I gave the signal to pull. She got a little excited and pulled it well off the stump and far enough to whack me with the branches. Next time I am going to stand well beyond the drip line behind a tree fatter then me.   

[Sparty]

I recently cut a 32" walnut for a friend.  He was putting in power to his property and the walnut on the side of the road had to go.  It had a metal fence post enveloped in the first 4 feet from the ground.  From there, the tree went up straight for 25 feet then completely branched out at 90 degrees to every point of the globe...a good sized wolf tree.  Long story short, a niehbor came by steaming mad because he claimed ownership of the tree, although the survey stakes showed that the tree was not even close to his property, the road commission gave the O.K. and the power company said they were cutting it if I didn't.  So with the mad farmer watching I began my cut.  The cut had to be at about 5 foot high to avoid the fence post (very awkward).  Every time I began the cut, a school bus would come down the road.   The cut went perfectly, and safely, but there was a bit of pressure on me for that cut.

[DanG]

There's a couple of posts here that remind us that competent help is almost as important as a competent feller.

[JimMartin9999]

I dropped a 16" tree onto a bed of  knee hgh ferns. They hid a high stump which my tree hit.  the lower end swivelled up and at me hitting me in the front of my helmet.  The skin didnīt break but blood started coming through the skin a few minutes later. 
Two things were wrong.  I didnīt check out the bed of ferns but that doesnīt seem practical.  I didnīt  do my 45 degree walk away.

[Nate Surveyor]

I was 15 yrs old, had a stihl 031. We were cutting a pwr line through the neighbors property. There was this huge cottonwood, (maybe 20-24" dia) that went up some 70 feet, then had a few long branches, GOING INTO other trees.

I knotched it fine, and it started falling just as planned. Then stopped. I got in there, and nipped it again, and suddenly the whole tree ROTATED about 60°, and PINCHED the bar. I escaped. But the saw did not. I had to replace a bunch of that saw. I always look at the branches now, to see which way rotation is bound to occur, when trees are close enough to do this.

I don't like to see a good saw ground into the dirt, by the butt of a tree!

Nate

[Polly]

i got some white oak and walnut trees probly a couple grand worth that would be in danger of hitting power lines if they fell the wrong way who should be responsable to cut them the power line right of way was donated to power co by me

[Kevin]

Call them and ask them to take the trees down if they are within limits of falling into the lines.
They might want you to mark them but most likely they'll cut them.
If you cut them and they fall onto the lines then you and your insurance company will be responsible.

[PineNut]

I have had the power company take down a number of trees that were close enough to fall on their lines. Recently, they came around and cut all dead trees that were subject to fall on the lines. Much better that they take them down than I have to do it.

[beenthere]

I had the power line problem, and the way several large white oaks were leaning (and the fact they were not in the ROW), I talked to the power company foreman, and he had a crew come out and lay the lines down on the ground. I felled the trees, and they came back out and put the lines back up. It was a dead end run, and the farm on the end of the run was agreeable. Company policy was that no lines could lay on the ground...but they didn't follow that rule.

If not, the trees would have come down on the power lines eventually, on their own.

The crew seemed to enjoy the work without it being an emergency.