Articles by Herschel Smith

This looks like fun.

This is a loathsome exchange.  The FBI isn’t ashamed of what they’re doing.  We’ve come to expect that sort of thing from them.  They have no shame.  But the worst thing about it is that the local Sheriff’s Department participated in the charade.

Reminder.  Never talk to law enforcement.

That’s the headline.  Here’s the story.

63-year-old man suffering traumatic injuries was rescued from the north rim of the Grand Canyon on Friday evening after the group he was hiking with left him behind.

According to a Facebook post by the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office, they received an emergency call from a man using an Apple device through satellite connection at around 6 p.m. on September 15. Search and rescue then deployed via helicopter to the man’s given location at Kanab Creek, but had to land about a quarter mile away due to the difficult terrain and dark conditions.

“It was fortunate that the helicopter was able to rescue this injured hiker, as it would have taken an extended period of time for ground crews to reach his location.”

The rescue crew then proceeded through the creek on foot and located the man, finding him alone having fallen and suffered a shoulder injury that required emergency medical attention. The team was able to stabilize the hiker and transport him via helicopter to a hospital in Flagstaff.

The Sheriff’s Office reports that they don’t know exactly what time the original call was made, but they learned that the injury had occurred four hours prior to the call, at 2 p.m. that day, when the man was hiking with four other friends. Once he contacted authorities, the group, who were reportedly several days into a week-long backpacking trip, left him alone and continued with their hike – something rescuers warn hikers never to do.

Here is the Facebook post from the Mohave County Sheriffs Office Search and Rescue.  The commenters are hard on the so-called friends, but not sufficiently hard.  I’m going to be harder.

They are no friends of his.  In fact, he had a better chance of being assisted by a stranger than friends like that.  Man is made in God’s image.  Whether your hike is ruined or not, you stay with injured people.  Period.

Oh, I realize that there may be extenuating circumstances like someone who believes he can help better by stabilizing the patient and then going for help if there is no communication.  But there should have been communication.  You don’t go into the Bush without comms (i.e., a satellite uplink).  And in fact the call for help was sent that way.  They just abandoned him to whatever would befall him.

Had he perished, it wouldn’t be a stretch for me to see them indicted for homicide.  Said another way, if this had happened with my party, I might have sent other men for help and stayed with the patient (with the absolutely necessary med kit I carry, including Quikclot, tourniquets, medicines, gauze, etc.) and water, and ensured that the man was lifted out to safety.  It would have been my ministry to that man.  And God would have been watching me the entire time.  I would hear about it in eternity.

That man needs to find other people to hang with.  Those are dangerous men to be around.  They are the sort of people who take you out into the bush and let you get injured, and then leave you behind to fend off animals, seek out your own water, medicate yourself, and try to effect triage if necessary.

Listen to this.  After the call for help, they didn’t even leave him with the Apple device they used to call for help.  They just left him there in the dark.  What a bunch of jerks.

Folks, no trip is worth leaving a man behind to perish.  Don’t leave men on the trail.  Don’t walk off from them, even if they’re slower, even if they fall behind, even if you don’t like them.  They could get injured and you wouldn’t know because you’re down trail frolicking along your stupid, merry way.

Don’t … leave … men … behind!  If you’re part of a party, stay with the party.  It’s the right and honorable thing to do.

Feeding a falcon from your window.  It’s amazing that he’s gained the trust of that bird.

He’s okay, but he was remined to carry a big bore handgun, wasn’t he?

Stevens hightailed it back the his truck to grab a hoodie that he hoped would protect him from the swarming pests, but as he hiked back, he noticed a Montana Fish Wildlife & Parks employee eyeing him from a distance. It was a biologist working in the area who’d been observing Stevens’ hunt from afar. From his vantage, he could see a large grizzly bear stalking in on the hunter and his kill.

“I walked out to where my car was parked and he drove down there and he said, ‘Do you know you have a grizzly stalking you?’,” Stevens says. “I was just shocked.” The biologist told Stevens that another group of hunters had been watching as well, and they’d alerted FWP because they were concerned for his safety.

“They said that as soon as I shot that deer, the grizzly picked up his head. He must have smelled it immediately,” he recalls. “It started coming straight on a line for me. I was really lucky that I got out of there when I did.”

Stevens had left his bear spray at home that evening. He had a handgun, but it was just a 9mm. “I’ve become so comfortable with that area and have been hunting it so often,” he says. “I didn’t wanna carry my big .45 around with me because I didn’t think I’d really need it. In hindsight, I should have thought that through a little better.”

I don’t mind carrying around my .45.

Bird shot just isn’t sufficient for bears.  I have no explanation for how you would avoid a situation like this.  Bird shot is certainly a second or third or fourth choice.  Reaching a large bore handgun would be my first choice, but this attack was from close range.  Actually, my first choice would have been 00 buck, but you don’t hunt upland birds with 00 buck shot.

Earlier this week, a man was hunting upland birds along Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front when a grizzly bear charged him from roughly 15 feet away. According to a press release issued by Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks (FWP), the bird hunter escaped the harrowing encounter without injury after firing his shotgun multiple times, injuring the bear and causing it to flee the immediate area.

I just don’t think I’d get into a pet skunk.  WiscoDave is pretty oddball with his pet pigs, but I don’t even think he would like this.

Oh, oh, it’s my human.  I love you so much!

@rachelhmarie

♬ original sound – rachel

Watch me.  This is how you do it.

@northernreachnetwork Little Tiny Tim being taught to walk with e legs like his foster bro Nemo. His amputation was today. He is doing well. #puppytiktok #northernreachrescuenetwork #rescue #dogsoftiktok #puppies #tripod #love #cute #puppies ♬ Funny – Gold-Tiger

I guess best buddies come in all shapes and sizes.

@brehillboyette Milkshake was in such a rush to get in the pond but STILL WAITED FOR HER COW ❤️ #fypシ #farmlife #bestfriend #furandfeathersfarm #fluffycows #minicow #3bestfriends #ducksoftiktok ♬ original sound – Bre Boyette

This bald eagle has a fish large enough that he can only swim it to shore.

Reddit/Firearms.

Here is an another video.

I see that some folks recommend the LM choke for quail.  I’ve used the IC choke with some success.  Any experience out there with choked for quail?

Eddie Hall had the world dead lift record when in 2016 he became the first man to lift more than 1100 pounds (1102 pounds).  He was bested in 2020 by Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson who lifted 501 kg (1,104.5 lb). This is entertaining to watch.

They’re lucky that sow didn’t claw their eyes out and then rip their hearts out and eat it in front of the cubs as an object lesson.

I await comment by “The Alaskan.”

Three guys springing towards a bear and two cubs; one with some papers and one carrying a child. What exactly was the plan here? pic.twitter.com/VgDmR68CrS

— . (@Lead_Flinger) September 14, 2023

Via WiscoDave.

The supreme court reversed the vacatur order by Reed O’Connor.  Some lawyer is doing some clever thinking.  This time they went for an injunction against enforcement of the unconstitutional and immoral ATF frame and receiver rule.  They got it.  This will eventually be heard by the supreme court.  I stand by my original prediction.  The women on the court, including Roberts, will side with the FedGov.

Because Stephen Stamboulieh is a stud, he got the restraining order on behalf of the GOA against the governor and state police of NM in her gun ban edict.

Here it is (121113193136).

The only thing I’d say is that the case seems simple enough to me that the judge should have vacated the edict altogether and rendered it null and void, and enjoined them from enforcing it – ever.

He did indicate that the plaintiffs were likely to win the case on the merits, but there are unfortunate phrases in the ruling, like this.

Although the State of New Mexico raises important safety concerns, at this stage it fails to demonstrate that the public safety concerns overcome the public’s interest in preventing constitutional violations.  At a fuller hearing on Plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction, the State of New Mexico may present more detailed information about how public safety strongly weighs against issuing a preliminary injunction because of the dangers and safety concerns associated with firearms. However, given Bruen’s clarity that “the Second and Fourteenth Amendments protect an individual’s right to carry a handgun for self-defense outside the home,” Bruen, 142 S. Ct. at 2122, the Court concludes that issuing a TRO to prevent the violation of a constitutional right would be in the public interest.

The judge is still, even now after Bruen told him not to do it, trying to play a public interest balancing act.  As Stephen told him in his brief, that balancing judgment was made when the second amendment was ratified.  It’s unconstitutional to try to do it again.

However, this is a win, and I’ll take a win.  We’ll have to leave the rest to Stephen.  And God.  Because Stephen is doing God’s work.