MS 250 Stihl as good as ever?

Nutball

TreeHouser
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Apr 4, 2015
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Mt. Juliet, TN
I thought they discontinued them long ago, replacing with the 251, then 271, but just saw one at the store. I think it's a 2017 model. The dealer said they are not discontinuing them.

How do you all like it? When I used one a few years ago, I thought it cut fast. Have they changed anything for the worse on it?
 
Just make sure it is a Va Beach made one with foreign and domestic parts and not one from the China factory they use too. JMO. Prob no difference buttttt.
 
Dealer sold ms250 for about $300 at Christmas time and New Years, down from $350. An MS 261 is closer to double that. I bought the 250 for the groundies. I use it periodically. Its decent. Its good for the price, I think. Though mine just started acting up for no apparent reason, with not a lot of hours.

Haven't had time to check the obvious things.
 
Smells Chinese, Sean.

No disrespect to the people of China, but I do take a dim view of some of the really poor production of quality reverse engineered power equipment that the Chinese peddle around the world.
 
It is an absolute piece of shit, made mostly from plastic, to be used by homeowners too cheap to pay for a real saw.

This , just to clarify, is the kind of answer you can expect when you ask a logger about homeowner saws.

Smells Chinese, Sean.

No disrespect to the people of China, but I do take a dim view of some of the really poor production of quality reverse engineered power equipment that the Chinese peddle around the world.

China can build good stuff, if the European country buying from them bother to send some European ingeneers out to surpervise production.

If not, the end product stinks to high heaven.

Not a new thing, that.

When the FN factory in Belgium that was producing Browning guns decided that they could be produced cheaper in Poland, they quickly realized that they were wrong.
Untill they sent some engeneers down to keep an eye on things.
Then, all of a sudden, the Radom factory produced one of the best 9 mm pistols ever made.
Those things are a joy to shoot.
 
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The 250 I had before selling it to my neighbour needed the oil tank breather blown out with some compressed air after it stopped oiling.
Not bad for a little basher saw, good price and all, but not quite good enough for a pro.
 
As I mentioned, I hadn't had a chance to check the basics. I just tossed it on the shelf, and had a little breathing room in the truck's saw compartment.

My problem is that the carb doesn't like filling up with sawdust when the filter is improperly replaced. The dealer said they are cheap enough that Stihl stopped making rebuild kits, and just put in a new carb, as its more cost effective than labor. I wasn't going to find time to fix it.

The trick is NOT to gently pry the snap-in-place tabs on the side of the air filter. You should gently hold the side of the filter and rotate it toward the pistol grip. It is made to release this way.

I like lightweight. My shoulder likes lightweight.

Its cheap, as I said. My 261 was almost twice as much. I got a lot more out of my 261 (same weight, 33% more hp, and built way better to last way longer). No free lunch.


Having a 250 for the groundie keeps my 261 sharp for me.


If the groundie somehow damages the saw, its pretty easily a parts saw at that price, I figure. Make it a teach-able moment about what went wrong, right, and could be different, and be happy it happened with a cheap saw.

By the time they go from groundie to groundman, they pretty much get to use any of my saws.
 
This series saw I always thought was a bit overpriced.
I am stuck in the way we thought of saw models in the past. Not so much focus on brand, more focus on each model regardless of brand.

You get a limited amount of runtime in the different classes. Sorted in to;
Consumer grade, Homeowner, Farmer/semipro and pro.
These were homeowner grade saws by runtime, design and performance but priced as a semipro.
Lots of trouble and issues for the money they cost.
There was others in this class that easily out performed them for same money.
 
I'll never buy another non pro Stihl again. I still have an MS 391, I think biggest non pro saw they make, 64cc. Need a tool to access the air filter. Even the switch feels soft and mushy, it doesn't really set in place right. Like I'm suggesting it should choke or shut off.
 
Non-pro saws are exactly that.
Anybody who runs saws daily should stay the hell away from them.
 
391 was a cheap used saw that needed parts when I bought it. I'm pretty sure the price new is not far off from a 362.
 
The thing I don't get is people who buy homeowner saws, use them professionally and then bitch and moan when they don't hold up to that.
 
I bought a new MS 250 last week. I learned a long time ago that using a smaller/lighter saw for limbing while cleaning up makes for less wear on the back/shoulders at the end of the day.
 
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  • #22
Chinese 365 any day over a 391... once you thoroughly inspect it and fix any flaws.

The 180's ok. Narrow bar helps it cut quick, but the spring start really gets me. Still just a light around the house saw, though I knew a climber who liked using 170's as climbing saws. They wear out in a year and sometimes have tuning/running issues sooner.
 
Not the same niche.

They are pro saws and cost accordingly.

I totally agree, BTW.
 
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