The other day I was reviewing my killboard. A killboard that is currently bursting with the smoldering wrecks of miner hulls. Anyone who knows me, or has read a few of my blogs, will know that I’m not one to turn down even the easiest of kills. I get just as big a rush out of stalking and killing a miner as any other ship. The catch is, miners don’t really make me any money. They’re full of ore that I can’t fit in my cargo hold. They don’t use any modules that I would find particularly useful. And they don’t kill anything that would have given them loot that is worth a damn!
So the other day I decided to try something different. I found a Mackinaw in lo-sec mining and not watching his local. I stalked right up on top of him and engaged. But after I had blasted through his shields I called my drones off, and offered him a deal.
“50 mill and I’ll let you go.”
It makes sense for both of us really. I don’t want to waste my time killing him and not getting any money for it. He doesn’t want to lose his ship, and I make a little cash. It’s win, win! Sorta. Either way he paid up and I let him go. A success! I guess this means I’m officially a pirate now…
A little later on in the evening I came across two Ventures. I’m telling you if you want to kill miners give me a call. I can’t seem to go on a roam without finding them these days. Anyway I know the Ventures have +2 to their warp strength, making it impossible to scramble them with a single module. But I figured these two were being dual boxed by someone so I decided to give it a go, hoping I could bump one of them out of their align and getting a Venture kill. It seems like the kind of trophy I should have on my wall right? I crept up on them and only decloaked when I was about 5,000 meters away. I just missed my bump and the first Venture warped off, so I immediately locked the second one. This one ended up being afk. My drones only took two shots at him before he exploded. I stole his loot just for good measure.
Ah another fine day of killing defenseless miners. Maybe someday I’ll find another foe worthy of fighting me!
Capsule in the Void 
The way many roams go I’d be glad to see any explosion, though with a Recon it would be rather pricey for it to be my own. So I can applaud your miner-killing and transition to full ransoming pirate. I promise that I’ll honor ransoms (particularly while in your corp) to help keep that credible. Not that I’ve ever asked for one – that should be something else on my checklist, perhaps.
I think I’m going to do it all the time now. No reason not to really!