My 460 is my oldest, and last year replaced the top end, but it is my dearest. Normally run a 28" and drag a few above and below along when I'm not sure what I'll be gettin' into (I get a lot of referrals to clean up storm drops and cut for myself and a couple of neighbors).
Last week my B-I-L (read that: moron related by marriage) tells me that the storms brought down "some branches" out of his maples and a few oaks, and would I be interested in them for firewood. If so he'll haul if I cut. He's got my old tandem dump trailer, a bigger truck and a bad ticker, so it sounded pretty good, and I could do wife number last a solid in the bargain (so maybe she wouldn't be so mean... yeah right!).
Anywho, we live about an hour and a half's drive apart, and I'm rushin' to beat the beach traffic, so I grab my 460 and my possibles box with spare chains, bars and what not. I come back to get the gas and bar oil and think, "yeah, better grab the little fart just in case he didn't finish limbin' like he said he would. Like a jackwad, I snatched up the little 170 'cuz my arms were already full and made tracks. Holy crap that is a POS! Do they make a 6" bar for that thing? My pole pruner has more azz.
Of course I arrive to find that the limbs were actually the better part of the biggest maple I've ever seen. Probably 120' of which split at a crotch 30' up. The oak "limbs" weren't much smaller. Everything was a solid 30" on the fat end, and the remaining half of the maple had to come down (about a 5'+ trunk).
The other "I should'a known" was that he hadn't touched a leaf, and I had a crap load of limbs to clear just to get close. A half hour in and I'm ready to run the truck over the 170... repeatedly. WTH was I thinkin'? Maybe for cuttin' corn stalks, but the big juicy maple was just laughin' at me, and I was only attackin' the tiny stuff.
I finally snapped, pulled out the 24" bar for the 460 and an immediate calm washed over me as my frustrated grimace was quickly replaced by an idiotic opiate grin.
It ain't sex, but it sure gets close.
The rest of the day was a chore, and I resorted to a 3' bar for the trunk work, but all in all, it could'a gone much worse. If I wasn't such a ##### about screwin' up my favorite saw, I'd be moddin' hell out'a the Magnum, but first I've got a new old 036 to recondition, so we'll see.
That's my long winded way of sayin' hell yeah to the 460. Fabulous saw that'll cut more wood than you'll wanna move.
Oh yeah, "some branches" is now split, stacked, and drying nicely thank you. All three cords of it.
