Update: I was not clear on my emotions when I wrote this. Then I had to ask Hagar for the right words.

It is not that I feel remorse over harvesting that deer. It was done ethically. Nothing was wasted. It is that I feel the immensity of the life I took. I need to honor it.

I hope that helps clarify.

I’ve waited a bit before writing about this.

Earlier this season, I was able to harvest a deer. I’m not a great hunter, I just do my best.

The first deer I harvested was taken at about 500 yards with a 7.62×51 through a Remington 700. My hold point was about 8 inches over the deer’s spine. The round was a good shot. The deer stood there for a moment, then with the rest of its group bounded into the tree line.

I hiked out there, lugging that rifle. Three times I was about to give up when I finally spotted the blood trail. I followed it into the woods, found the deer. We used every bit of the meet of that deer.

This time was a little different. The shot was at about 50 yards. I was using a 30-30 out of a Winchester Model ’94. A 75-year-old rifle.

We talk about how a round performs into jugs of water. We talk about how rounds work in ballistic gelatin. We even use “meat targets” if we can afford them.

All of these are simulations. The only way to know is to see how it actually performs.

In this case, it performed amazingly well. The round entered between ribs a little higher than I wanted. It then traveled through the interior, tearing up everything except the meat.

The buck took one step forward and its left front leg gave out. It fell the rest of the way to the ground with a short scream. Its smarter brother had already taken off. Stopping at the 75-yard range.

By the time I got to the buck, it was dead. Almost no blood outside the body.

When I field dressed it, the main cavity was full of blood. That round did a number. One shot, one kill, about 30 seconds.

When I got to that left front shoulder, I found that the scapula(?) was cracked. I believe that is why it stumbled. No signs of bullet damage there.

The load was 160gr Hornady FTX over 33gr of LeveRevolution. DON’T USE OR TRUST MY LOAD DATA!

Bacon wrapped backstrap steak for dinner tomorrow.

I’m going to do a product review on the Weston #32 meat grinder soon. Having that tool was one of the reasons I went hunting this year.

Oh, why the wait? Because I am an ethical person. I can still close my eyes and see the sight picture, feel the recoil, hear the round going off. I can still see the ejected casing flying off to my right as a chambered the follow-up, in case it was needed. I can still hear the cry it made.

It took a while to be able to write about taking a life. We wasted nothing. The hide is going to a good home. The bones are being used by people that create things the “old ways”.

All in good fun:

The petition for writ of certiorari before judgement has been filed.

The state has until March 13, 2024, to respond. We should see a spat of the regular suspects chiming in over the next 3 weeks on why this case should not be heard by the Supreme Court.

This petition was submitted to Chief Justice Roberts.

We want to see when it is distributed to conference.

There is some interesting timing going on. Oral arguments are calendared for 2024/03/20, 7 days after the response is due.

I’m not quite sure how you can as an individual care about students, but as a group not do so. — Paul Koning

There is study of people as a group that is very successful. We know how people, in mass, will respond to different stimuli.

This is one of the reasons that mobs are so dangerous. They react as a “mob” and not as individuals.

Some of the worst mass casualty events in our recent history have come about because of mob mentality.

Look at the doors of your home, the screen door, if any, opens outward, the main door opens inward. Now look at the majority of business doors. They open outwards. This is so universal that people will insist on pulling on business doors that open inwards, even with signs.

This is because of that mob mentality. When an individual is trying to exit and needs to pull the door open, they will do so, not issues. The people behind him will give them room to do so.

In a mob event, the people in the rear will push forward, causing the people in the front to be pushed forward, making it impossible to pull the door open. This leads to crush deaths at the front. The people in the rear are then trapped.

Unions are controlled mobs. The people at the top manipulate the lower down, and they use mob manipulation to accomplish these things.

What this means, is that good teachers, and there are many of them, will sacrifice their time, their emotions, and their money to help their students. Many of those teachers purchase extra supplies for their students. Spend time out of contract hours to help students. Will invest their emotions in the success of their students.

This is the individual acting as an individual.

I listen to the complaints of teachers. One of the huge issues today is safety in the classroom. I’m not talking about “school shootings”. I am talking about out of control students.

Every year, one or more of the elementary school teachers is injured by a k-5 student seriously enough to require a trip to the hospital.

Every week, a classroom is taken over by a student and the classroom is evacuated for the safety of the other children.

Every day, there is a story of another student who is holding a class or school hostage. I’m not talking about nationwide, I’m talking about a single school.

So it was time for contract negotiations. The biggest issue I’ve heard from any teacher is classroom safety. Instead of talking about classroom safety, the union was thrilled they got another pay raise. As were the teachers.

As far as I can tell, not a single teacher has bothered to ask, much less demand, that their union work towards a safe working environment for their members.

They are afraid of “rocking the boat” or “the union can’t help”.

This is mob mentality. The union isn’t willing to do battle for the students and the safety of their members, they just want more dues, they want more money. The teachers hear they are getting another pay raise and are happy.

I despise what unions have become.