Taking down barbed wired fence- how?
 

Is there a trick to taking down old barbed wire fence? I've needed to do this for 5 years, but seemed too daunting for some reason.
10 acres, 4 strands, nailed to rotten old fence posts. Grass/scrub wrapped right high into it...
I'm assuming it doesn't coil up like a hose?
Thanks!

Many get a dozer in & pile it all up....

It's possible to wind up barbed wire by hand, make a loop about 1.5 feet across, and keep rolling it, with a slight weaving motion to the wire. It will cling to itself. This is a lot of work of course, and the issue of getting the wire out of the trees is still there... I assume the wire is shot & you can clip it off in shorter pieces, nothing worth saving? And you want leather gloves...

I have a tractor powered wire winder, so I'd try using that; but the trees, brittle old wire, and tall grass would make it a miserable job that way as well....

--->Paul

Is there a heavy equipment rental shop nearby? We used a little trackhoe to pull posts and pull out the wire. I think it was under $200 for the entire weekend as long as we didn't run it over 8 hours.

I've took down barb wire by hand before and it's a very time consuming job. First thing I did was burn out the fence row to get rid of the vines/briars/etc. If the wire is still tight, be sure to stand on one side of the post and cut near the other side so the wire will whip away from you. You'll have to do that with each strand at each post if the staples are still tight. My posts were bodark so it was impossible to remove the staples. I started at the top and pulled all the top wire first, then back to the beginning and pulled the next strand down, etc. until I got all 6 strands off. I lightly rolled it and hung on the posts to be tossed in the bed of a pickup as the posts were pulled. My posts were so rotten that some of them were held up by the fence and dropped when the first couple of strands came off. They others were reasonably easy to remove. The ones that were still tight got a chain wrapped around them and jerked out with the pickup.

Yep, this is a girlie way of taking out a fence, but I'm a girl so I guess that's to be expected... :)

There is defiantly a trick to it. If yo\u do it right you have nice rolls of wire to use again. If you do it wrong you have a mess. Do it one wire at a time. I make the roll about 2 and a half feet around. You have to wind the wire from one side of the roll to the other to keep a tight roll. Hold the roll in front of you, upright, and roll from the bottom of the coil. You want to hold the roll fairly tightly to get a good roll.

This is one of those things that is a lot easier to show in person than to explain on the net!

Or you could do as I did - hit an old hidden fence with a bush-hog! :censored:
Yep, took out 4 strands of wire, bout 20 poles, and snapped a shear pin! :badmood:
It only took about 4-5 seconds to remove the fence from the old fence line - but about 3-4 hours to get it all removed from the "hog"! :Bawling:

Note: This is NOT a recommended procedure!!!!!!!!!!!

Most generally take off the lowest wire and work their way up so that the wire doesn't snag on the others.

I like to make my loops of wire about 3 feet in diameter so that I don't have as much stooping while rolling. I do as others and weave the roll a little from side to side so that the barbs snag other strands and hold the roll together. Takes only a short distance to get the hang of it.

We, too, have old barbed wire all around the property, and thru the edge of the 2acre field..IN the trees. :( The fence posts are nasty rotten, but the wire itself looks to be pretty good in most places. It's just so overgrown it's hard to get to, and we've been putting it off.

Slight thread drift, my apologies, but is it difficult or inadvisable to put in new posts along the existing wire?

I like that idea about burning the fenceline. It's been so wet here, that I could probably do that...but it's just easier here to wait until Fall when everything dies back.

Be careful.My friend lost an eye when he pulled a piece of barbed wire out of the ground and it struck his eye.

Another good reason for fogged up pain in the neck safety glasses.

I second this. I came darn close to loosing my eye also. As it was it luckily caught me just above the eye. Nasty job!

................The best solution is too simply hire someone with a medium size track loader and have them clean the whole fence line , have them build small piles that you can burn at your convenience . This way you end up with a clean fence line for a new fence . Once burned you'll have the old wire left and then dig a hole and bury it as it's non toxic . , fordy

We just hook a chain into the fencing, around all the strands and pull with a tractor. The rotted posts snap off and you'll get 30-50 feet at a time. Pull it, pile it, throw on anything else you need burned and touch it off with plenty of diesel to get it going. In a couple days you pick all the metal out and take it to the metal dumpster. Or, toss it in a ravine where someone is building a dam. The scrap metal guys won't kowingly touch wire around here.

I watched a man take down a chain link fence and several strands of barb wire. He hooked his pickup to it and took off. Pulled everything out. He kept going until he came to a road and pulled it on the road. It was a lot easier to work with there.

First suggestion is wait until it's cooler out. Barbed wire and bare arms makes you look like you were taming wildcats in a phone booth. If it has a lot of stuff growing into the fence it might not be worth trying to clean or save any of it. Dozer might be the best idea.

Don't assume it will not coil up. Had an old fence, as you state. Rotting posts and barb wire. Had a horse, lean into that rotting post and some how released the barb wire that coil around the her. Thanks goodness, she was a very calm horse and just let me unwrap the wire. We did have to call out the Vet. But it could have been so much worse. Never assume when dealing with fencing, that the worst can't happen.

You could do what has always worked for me. Just put some livestock in the pasture. Won't be long before they have the fence tore down.

old barb wire makes a good new fence since it is already streched and weathered, plus new wire is pricey. If it is full of wood and brush, burying it is the best solution I would say.

You take down a barbed wire fence exactly the opposite way you put it up. (The first step of taking it down is the last thing you did putting it up... take out the staples on one wire, off of every post... if it's very tightly strung, do it in halves or quarters, making sure to secure those places with a wrap of wire around the wire & post). Goggle and glove up, remove the wire off a corner post and start running it in circles (bigger loops are easier to work with than tiny ones)... 'walk it' back to the other end, and loop the end of your loop around and through the loop several times, to stabilize it.

This is how I've done it on other folks places... try and never have to take down a fence on my own place. Wire is too danged expensive to bury in a hole... and dozers, backhoes, and the like "usually" cost money, unless you got a friend or neighbor you can borrow one off of.

I'm not sure of this fella lives near you or not.


http://ruembarrassed.com/Blog/2008/July/Jaws1.jpg

Sorry Dexter. Looks like I killed another thread.

:shrug:

might i suggest a pocket full of those electrical ties that pull and lock when you go out to do it and some really good wire cutters..

if you don't need to save it in long bunches..cut it off and use the ties to hold it into manageable lengths..even if you do want a long bunch..use the ties to hold sections so they don't spring out on you..they can be clipped when you want to use it later..buy the longest ones you can get..

old wire can also be fashioned into wreaths and sold at craft sales to country type people