Occasionally, I love technology

Today was a banner day for me and the US mail. I received the latest edition of Alexander Warrack's "Concise Scots Dialect Dictionary," which means I can start on my resolution to read the complete poems of brother Robert Burns. I also received the latest National Geographic map of the United Kingdom and Ireland, which allows me to trace Drs. Johnson and Boswell on their "Journey through the Western Isles" of 1792 or so. Since I was ordering things on Amazon, I also received Morwood's "Dictionary of Latin Words and Phrases," which I have meant to buy for years, but just never got around to it. But the most wonderful thing that came in today's mail was a reloading die and package of sabots for the .30 caliber rifle from SabotReloadingPro.com in Provo, Utah.

Tristan and I have long lamented that the country around here is too flat to shoot our rifles of choice in cals. 30-06 and 30-30. There is just too much chance for richochet. This has effectively kept us from hunting the coyote, which is perhaps the greatest threat to game in our part of the world (that is with the exception of modern farming and development practices- which we can't do anything about, feral house cats- which we don't shoot because they might be someone's pets, and red-tail and cooper's hawks- which are protected.) That is about to change, thanks to today's technological innovation. The sabots will allow us to shoot .224 caliber bullets at a whopping 4200 feet per second (almost twice the regular .30 caliber speed) and to use smaller specialty bullets which are designed to explode rather than richochet when they meet with any resistance. While we will still pay close attention to field of fire and backdrop to our targets (because no shooting sport is entirely without risk of mis-use by thoughtless idiots.), we now have the opportunity to provide a valuable service of coyote removal and spend time together afield- all thanks to the marvels of technology.

Those of you who know me well have a general idea about how much it pains me to say anything good about things modern, but credit must be given where credit is due. Bravo to the boys in Provo for adapting a technology that has been around the military for some time to civilian use. Hopefully it will mean more birds and rabbits in our future here in Fairfield County Ohio!