Patience Pays Off

This Husky 359 was in the local Tractor Supply Company store last year, and it is bit better than the typical homeowner and landowner saws you see in that type of setting. It fits in the Husky lineup at the top end of their landowner saws, and this model gets good reviews from those who buy it. TSC wasn't having any luck selling it to their customers and they put a clearance tag on it for $50 less than they originally marked it. Farm Bureau members get a 10% discount in this store on the last weekend each month, so I thought I could go in and buy it for $450, which would have been a pretty good deal. I tried that at the end of January, but the store mangager wouldn't let me use the additional discount against a clearance tag, so I waited.
The saw did not sell, and they finally marked it down another $50, so I grabbed it on my last visit. It came equipped with a 20" sprocket nose bar and 3/8" chain. One of the features that makes this model appealing is that it has a compression release. It is easier to crank than my well broken in 346XP, and the larger cylinder produces plenty of torque for bore cutting oaks and hickories.

We bought the old 272XP in back in 1995, and it is still going strong since we had some repair work done on it. The 346XP was going to be my go to saw for dealing with small to medium trees, but it gave us fits getting the oil pump to work. The shopkeeper I bought it from didn't know how to repair it, so I bought a new rim, sprocket, and oil pump driver from Bailey's and fixed it myself. It's a good saw now that it oils right, and with a 20" bar it will handle big trees. It is a fast running saw, but it doesn't produce the torque of the bigger saws, so you can't push it hard on heavy cuts. The 385XP has so much power that it is always a thrill to run. It easily handles the biggest trees that I will ever need to take down.