Ax Men

[EZ TRBO]

I am sure some of you have seen the previews for the new series on the History Channel, Ax Men. Some of you in the Northwest(USA) might now more about it than any of us, but from what I have read it will be simalar to the Ice Road Truckers Series last year. My only hope is that TH doesn't try to portray it bigger than what it is. I enjoyed the IRT series last year but from talking on other forums to guys who live up there and are actual IRT's themselves say the HC made things seem way more exciting and wild then what they really were. I look forward to this new series which premires in March.

Trbo
http://www.history.com/minisites/axmen

 

[dirtwhore]

Let me assure you of this. Every minute you spend working under a yarder on a logging job is exiciting. From the time the rigging slinger hits the go-ahead on the Tooter till the time the chokers get back to you is a rush! You got crap flying and crap rolling back down the hill and noise and dust, a guy could go for ever! I spent a summer pulling rigging under a line machine right outta high school. WHAT A RUSH! It was exiciting! Never seen any one get hurt when I was doing it, but it does happen. You have to be on your toes all the time. Never take your eyes off the lines, or the ground your running like hell over to get in the clear. The boys I know that still do it today, I have to take my hat off to em. Some of the most tough and brave S.O.B's i know. Look at it this way. Logging is the second most deadly job in the world, right under crab fishing. I know with all the mechanical logging, and cut to length, and all the other ground based logging shows, that statistic has fell a little. But in high line and chopper loggoing, it is pure exicitment. As with any job, a safety concious crew is the most productive.

 

[EZ TRBO]

Sounds like it should be a good program, I'm looking forward to it thats for sure.
Trbo

 

[CascadeScaper]

I know a few diehard loggers, out here there isn't much mechanical harvesting, most of the falling is done by a guy with a saw in hand. The terrain is usually too steep for mechanical harvesting, so it's either chopper logging or high flyin' yarding. I've done some light logging, nothing serious, but I enjoy it. I've always been on the end of the saw, I've even taken down trees on a plot of land we had set aside for us in high school as part of an FFA project. We'd take down bug and disease infested trees and remove them from the plot. It is dangerous as hell though, even as a faller you can get killed way easy and having the tree land on you is the least of your worries. I know a guy that was a choker setter and had a good size tree dropped on him, he shouldn't be alive right now but he is. Dangerous work, but I'd totally go do it, I wouldn't think twice about the danger aspect.

We'll see how the series ends up, I keep seeing the ads on TV. I believe all the footage is shot on the Olympic Peninsula, but I could be wrong. The Peninsula is gnarly territory, steep as hell and wet all the time. That part of WA state is about a 2 hour drive from here.

 

[iron kid]

its only a hand!!!!!!!!!

 

[dirtwhore]

All the show was shot in the Northwestern Oregon area. I found it on another web site. An outfit named Stumpbranch Logging is a star in the show. They have a new web site: www.stumpbranchlogging.com I love logging and would still be doing it if it paid as much as what Im doing now. My bro has a little logging outfit and wants me to come and ramrod for him, but he cant make the figures work. Such is life!!
I really cant wait for the show myself. For one, mabey it will make the wacko enviromental nuts see just what it takes for them to have a house, toilet paper, all the paper they use to file junctions on a new logging job, etc, etc. Mabey it will let them see just what they are doing to small towns and the people that make them when they shut down the woods for the sake of saving a rotting, dieing, piece of crap tree that has no purpouse when left standing, then to be a fire hazard!!

 

[72V]

Sure is a small world... Melvin was my "little brother" in the AGR fraternity at Oregon State.

 

[Lashlander]

Sure is a small world... Melvin was my "little brother" in the AGR fraternity at Oregon State.

What? A logger with an education? From all I've read or heard out of the greenie camp it can't be. Are you sure it was him?

 

[nedly05]

This is a clip from Melvins bio on his website(www.stumpbranchlogging.com)

At 22, after attending college for Forest Engineering and working for other logging companies, Melvin started Stump-Branch Logging. The company has grown successfully at a steady pace ever since.

Sure sounds like he has an education to me.

 

[joedirt]

All the show was shot in the Northwestern Oregon area. I found it on another web site. An outfit named Stumpbranch Logging is a star in the show. They have a new web site: www.stumpbranchlogging.com I love logging and would still be doing it if it paid as much as what Im doing now. My bro has a little logging outfit and wants me to come and ramrod for him, but he cant make the figures work. Such is life!!
I really cant wait for the show myself. For one, mabey it will make the wacko enviromental nuts see just what it takes for them to have a house, toilet paper, all the paper they use to file junctions on a new logging job, etc, etc. Mabey it will let them see just what they are doing to small towns and the people that make them when they shut down the woods for the sake of saving a rotting, dieing, piece of crap tree that has no purpouse when left standing, then to be a fire hazard!!

AAAAAAA Men. :notworthy:iagree:scool:thumbsup

 

[Dirtman2007]

It's on tonight 10pm

 

[rino1494]

I watched it last night and it was so good, that I couldn't fall asleep. I was up to midnight watching it.

 

[EZ TRBO]

I watched it last night and it was so good, that I couldn't fall asleep. I was up to midnight watching it.

I thought they did a wonderful job with the first episode. I will be waiting, on another forum to see what the guys who run the Ice Roads thought of it, as alot up there were not very happy with the HC crew last year. It was on two times, watched it both times.
Trbo

 

[72V]

It was hyped up and overly dramatic as I expected it would be, but not as bad as it could have been. Hopefully it will show that most loggers are hard-working family guys who love the place they work and want their sons and grandsons to have a healthy, productive forest to harvest. I have a feeling that those on the show who are not exactly the "cream" of the logging workforce will make the show entertaining and potentially embarrassing for their employer.

 

[9420pullpan]

i love seeing how they get logs out of the woods, along with the various techniques. i love the equipment too

 

[637slayer]

not knowing how logging really goes i learned alot about it last night. those high wires makes their job alot easier, i was impressed.

 

[roadrunner]

I could not find Axmen on last night.History channel right?I have BellexpresVu and am in Canada, anyone up here see it.Was really looking forward to seeing it!:beatsme

 

[637slayer]

go to history channel.com im sure they will repl;ay it all week

 

[DPete]

I thought it was a good show, I'd like to know how the yellow winch that drags the logs gets a strong enough grip on the cable to drag logs up a steep slope like that

 

[dirtwhore]

D Pete,
The chokers will bite into the log due to the weight off the log. Then that stupid thing called gravity takes over and it just grabs hold. (Im horrible telling stories by typing!) Ive seen chokers get embeded into the wood so deep before that you cant even get the bells unhooked without picking the log up and dropping it a few times to knock the bell lose, then have to drag the cable tight with the winch to get it loose from the log. You would be surprized at how tight those chokers can get!
Hope that helps a little