The author was born in Roseburg, Oregon and except for a few years in Southeast Alaska, spent all of his life living and working in that area. For most of those years he has worked in some type of timber related occupation... all of it outside. He is a logger by profession and a timber cutter by trade, but his passion is hunting. If is has hair and horns, he hunts it, and elk hunting tops the list.

He does not claim to be an expert on elk hunting. He is not an expert on firearms. What he has to say is deducted from nearly 40 years of "doin' it" and his conclusions and theories on the results. He says, "They are meant to be taken only as my opinions. My book... my opinions... simple as that."

Is the book educational? Hopefully. Is is controversial? Probably. Politically correct? Doubtfully. Entertaining? Humorously.

"For all a bull elks reverent beauty and grandeur, literally thousands of individuals, myself included go out each year with one goal in mind. To kill it. The act itself is called many things. "Harvest", "Shoot", "Take", "Bag", "Succeed", "Get", "Fill the Tag" and countless other words and phrases that all mean the same thing. They are going elk hunting and their goal, bottom line, is to kill a bull. No matter how you choose to describe it, that's still the bottom line.

There are those who do not believe in this, and they likewise do not believe in eating meat. I respect that opinion, as I do their choice to live by those convictions. This book was not written with those people in mind. It is not for them.

There is another group that likes meat, some even love it, but could never actually "kill" something to get it. Well, drop this book from your grubby, two-faced hands, because it wasn't' written with you in mind either." - Excerpt from the book, "Bullets, Blood and Backstraps," by M.L. Simmons

To read a chapter from Bullets, Blood and Backstrap Click Here

If you're in the Burgdorf area stop by the Hot Springs for a copy.