Another chain thread (too agressive?)

So we had a good rain yesterday and I awoke to a nice, cool morning with the fog rising out of the valley behind my house. It is hard to pass up cool weather to get some wood procesed, so I throw on a freshly sharpened loop of carlton chisel skip to do a little noodling and miscelaneous other wood related chores in the yard. I am happily noodling a big round when out of the corner of my eye I see a big ol copperhead making his escape out of the woodpile. Now I am not usually one to kill snakes for no reason, but this is my yard and I have three kids. I don't want to see anything bad happen to them, so I decide to solve my snake problem.

I rev up the saw and lay into the snake, but things do not happen how I imagined they would. Instead of cutting the snake, a tooth snagged him and he gets thrown right into my package, hard enough to hurt. :msp_ohmy: I did not get bit, I don't know who was more surprised, me or him. It was not enough to kill him, but it didn't do him any good either, so I need to finish him off. I go to the garage and get my machete and do the job.

So I think for snake cutting 3/8 pitch skip might be a little too agressive. I think for this application you might want to run low profile safety chain on about a six foot bar. You are going to need at least a 25 cc powerhead with a woods port (Snake port?), and a muffler mod. Also you want to look for good power to weight ratio since you might need to run.

Maybe I should have done a bore cut with about 35 wedges to give better directional controll, since I am still new at the whole snake falling thing.

You west coast guys might have a different take, since your snakes are bigger and live on much steeper ground, you might want to chime in with your own suggestions.

What do you guys think?

The story is true, as for the rest, I am just having a little fun.

Dan

Yeah there was someone else on here that did the same thing with another snake. Me I won't try to cut it with a saw. I'll probably use a round or split to club it. The top of the bar would probably work better if you could get it on one.

:msp_lol:

Ha HAA!!! I must be a chainsaw nerd, that was funny. In this case I am no help, I am a newbie. I am sure you will get more help soon though.

We usually just ground snakes under a boot heel, Panthers on the other hand required a hatchet.

No face cut?

I would require a 84" bar to begin with, just reading your story gives me the heebie jeebies!!!

Yes I am a chainsaw nerd too, hope this made you smile.

I actually laughed out loud at my desk when I read that...

I would have to agree with the chunk of wood or splitting maul to do the trick for me though...Something about a flying poisonous snake doesn't sound like a fun morning to me...:hmm3grin2orange:

Funny story!
(If the chain threw the snake right into your package, you're standing wrong BTW! Ideally, all snakes should fly past your right hip. Also helps with kickback.)

/Pontus

man you did it completely wrong,,, first of all turn the saw off,,, then pick the saw up by the end of the bar and beat the snake to death with the power head:hmm3grin2orange::hmm3grin2orange::hmm3grin2orange:

I'm glad to be in Minnesota at least once everytime I'm at the stack. I'll take a few cold months over sticking my hand in a nest of snakes or spiders any day.

Their is no reason to justify the killing of a snake.

Good story, made me laugh. And it had a very happy ending...the demise of the snake. I have never gone after one with a chainsaw and now know that I never will!

There are plenty of members here with empirical (youtube) evidence of their exploits. I am sure that a cursory review of the search function will actually reveal Celebrity Climbers wranglin' snakes with real life muffler modded ms-200t's.

Not to question your snake identification skills, but are you sure it was a copperhead? Unless your wood pile was close to a stream or a pond, I can't imagine a copperhead having any interest in a woodpile. They typically don't stray far from their water source. They are in the water snake family.

Once when I was cutting standing beetle killed pine I had my saw running in my right hand and I reached up with the left to pull off some hanging bark. A batch of bats flew out and headed for the nearest dark place, inside my Carhart jacket. Thank god I had saw chaps on that kept the creepers out of my packet. I never have seen a copper head, plenty of rattlers though.

mountainmandan said:

a tooth snagged him and he gets thrown right into my package, hard enough to hurt. :msp_ohmy: I did not get bit, I don't know who was more surprised, me or him. It was not enough to kill him, but it didn't do him any good either, so I need to finish him off. I go to the garage and get my machete and do the job.

So I think for snake cutting 3/8 pitch skip might be a little too agressive.

Click to expand...

Getting back to the original question. The answer is that as the material to be cut gets smaller, the depth gauges have reduced ability to determine the depth of cut. Individual teeth can try to rip out chunks rather than slice off chips.

That's why it's so dangerous to try to cut brush with a chainsaw. Totally different from larger-section wood. Ancient 2-man reduction-geared saws with huge slow-moving chain tended to snag likewise, with reduction-geared saws legally forbidden from limbing for years after. Speeding up smaller-pitch chain got around the problem.

.....Copperheads.....

MarylandGuy said:

Not to question your snake identification skills, but are you sure it was a copperhead? Unless your wood pile was close to a stream or a pond, I can't imagine a copperhead having any interest in a woodpile. They typically don't stray far from their water source. They are in the water snake family.

Click to expand...

Ayuh, they are closely related to water moccasins(cottonmouths)but not necessarily lovers of water. You will find them near water sources, streams, ponds, swamps. But, the most common places to find them are rocky areas, ledges, stone walls, and yes, woodpiles. I love snakes, my favorite animal. I learned everything I could about snakes when I was growing up, fascinating animals. :msp_thumbup: I probably would have caught it and moved it to "safer" location. Don't get me wrong, I ain't a member of PETA or anything like that, if there's a good reason to kill it I'm all for it. They can give you a VERY serious bite. Copperheads are usually not an aggressive snake, the most common reasons they bite are being stepped on or picked up. Enough said, I laughed out loud when I read the OP's "close encounter", probably wasn't too funny when it happened? :hmm3grin2orange:

That is the funniest damn thing I have read in a while!!!!

speaking from personal experience, u can not go WOT on a snake u gotta vary ur rpms and yeah skip is to aggressive for snakes lol.