It's ok Hoss,
I think the guy is doing the best he can do.
Say you can only "afford" one saw. That would be a good pick. for a all around saw.
Putting the differences aside.
Being the caretaker, I'm sure that saw does plenty of clean up.
I said running saw because that is what he needs.
Maybe he spent too much for it, You did say he was happy with it.
"Maybe he spent too much for it", say what, no maybe about it. He fell victim to what many complain about Manual, the huge variances in Husky prices. At one place it goes for 499.99 and where he bought his it was 702.25, a 200.00 differance. No way to justify that other than to say someone's pricing policies are out of line bigtime. Did his dealer take him for a ride, no one knows. Maybe his dealer paid 550.00 for the saw , who knows. I know your not a Stihl fan by any means but I can assure you there are no 200.00 differances between dealers and dealer costs with Stihl. This 357xp we're talking about may be exactly why Husky is finally cracking down on pricing policies. I doult the man would buy another one after seeing the variances in prices all over the place and I can't blame him. When prices vary that much one has to wonder what the hell is going on.
As for the saw itself his only major complaint with it is what he paid for it and then finding out later he could have got it alot cheaper. Other than that he likes that saw. He uses it for milling now and then and he says its slow in the mill but he wasn't complaining much about it. I will say this, the man is a master craftsman with wood. He makes some beautifull pieces. He takes much more pride in his wood work and than he does his saw. The saw is a tool to him and nothing more. His wood work seems to be his real pride and joy and he's very good at it. Rest assured Manual he would laff at us arguing about chainsaws, he could care less. He's sorta like me, all the hype and hoop la about saws is really pointless. Fun to argu about but when it gets right down to it as long and it runs good and cuts good thats the main thing. Rest is just BS and fun and play. He and me have already had our laffs about saws and he knows I'm cool with whatever he likes. He likes that 7900 of mine better than that Husky of his and he has said so right out. Even so he still likes his Husky and I say cool beans to him.