While growing up on my father’s horse ranch, I was in charge of eliminating all the dogs that came on to the ranch and chased the horses, trying to bite into their fetlocks and cripple them. Unfortunately, those dogs were driven out on the old Bannock Highway and abandoned along the road. By the time we saw them, they had grown into larger dogs and had formed a pack that sometimes came on to our ranch. They were vicious if approached, and my 12-gauge shotgun was generally the last thing they saw or heard. It was a job I didn’t enjoy because, like most boys, I liked dogs. However, my dad raised show horses and had a breeding program that he needed to protect.

My father also volunteered my .22 rifle and I to help the farmers in Blackfoot and Wapello, where he was born, shoot the jackrabbits that tried to feed on their crops. I actually liked the jackrabbit hunts because it was a challenge to find them in the sagebrush and then hit them while they ran through the brush.

In both cases, shooting dogs that no one owned that were chasing the horses and shooting rabbits that were eating the farmer’s crops, my father and I were eliminating vermin that were eating crops and endangering domestic animals. I imagine it might seem cruel to some people, but I doubt if those people have ever watched while their crops were being destroyed or a horse was crippled and rendered useless after the muscles and tendons in their fetlocks had been torn out.

We also had a problem from time to time with mountain lions coming down off the mountain as they followed deer that came down into the valley. In the case of mountain lions, they normally didn’t go after the horses because of the human presence on the farms and the farmer’s dogs, which sounded the alarm that the large cats were near by. If we called Fish and Game, they would come out and trap the mountain lions and try to relocate them.

I have a distant relative who owns a pretty large cattle ranch at the foot of the Ruby Mountains in the area around Elko and Spring Creek, Nevada. He invited my son and I to visit the ranch and shoot as many coyotes as we could. We haven’t done it yet, but evidently the coyotes are attacking his cattle and causing quite a bit of damage and costing him a substantial amount of money. No license is required to shoot them as they are considered vermin by the state of Nevada.

As a hunter, I had always been taught not to harm any animal that I didn’t intend to eat unless that animal presented an unacceptable danger to our animals or to people and their property. Killing an animal simply to kill it, or for target practice, or because it was there and I had my rifle with me was against the code, if you want to call it a code, that my father had taught me to follow. I simply do not understand why some have no hesitation to kill any animal that is not causing a problem.

In Idaho, Wyoming and Nevada, there is no limit to the number of coyotes one can kill, or any restrictions on the time of year one can kill coyotes. In Nevada and Wyoming, no license is required to kill coyotes, while in Idaho one must still have a hunting license and permission from the landowner and state is required to hunt coyotes at night.

Wyoming allows killing coyotes by any means including poisoning, shooting, incinerating or chasing them until they are exhausted and then running over them with all terrain vehicles or snowmobiles until they are dead.

When management of wolves was turned over to the state of Wyoming, legislators in Cheyenne immediately classified wolves as predators, which puts them in the same class as coyotes and the same unrestricted killing of coyotes now also applies to wolves in Wyoming.

The only places in Wyoming where killing wolves and coyotes is prohibited is Yellowstone and Grand Teton National parks.

Another thing that bothers me is a recent report that someone killed two elk in Southeast Idaho, quartered them and then dumped the meat rather than keep it or donate it to friends or Idaho Hunters Feeding the Hungry. Two elk were killed and the meat was just left to waste.

I believe such wanton disregard for animals that are not threatening livestock or people and their property or killing of elk or deer and then leaving the carcass and meat to spoil will ultimately bring a backlash on the hunting community by the general public and hunters themselves, who have been taught to respect the animals we hunt.

As responsible hunters, I believe we need to stand up and oppose the indiscriminate killing of any wildlife, or we are going to see more species added to the list of animals that can be killed any time, any place, with no limits or license required

I personally want my grandchildren to have the same experience I have had of camping out in the back country and going to sleep to the sound of coyotes hunting as a group during the night. The gray wolf was extinct in Idaho as I was growing up, so I never heard one in Idaho during hunting trips or camping trips into the back country. They reintroduced to Idaho about the time I returned after I retired. So far, I still haven’t seen or heard one in the wild in Idaho, but it is on my bucket list.

Smokey Merkley was raised in Idaho and has been hunting since he was 10 years old. He can be contacted at mokeydo41245@gmail.com.

In 1982, there were 17 million hunters in the United States, according to records of hunting license purchases. Between 2000 and 2011, we lost 2.2 million hunters. In 2016, only 11.5 million people hunted. Obviously the steady decline of hunters over the years has fish and game departments, as well as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service concerned because the bulk of their revenue comes from taxes hunters pay for licences, buying firearms, bows, arrows and ammunition.

There are many factors that influence the decline of hunting in the United States. The baby boomers who make up 30 percent of current hunters are aging out of hunting. Within 10 years, the majority of baby boomers will have stopped hunting altogether. So the generation that was born between approximately 1945 and 1960 are now dying, have lost interest in hunting, don’t see as well as they used to, are unable to meet the physical requirements of hunting, or just feel too old to climb mountains that seem to get steeper each year. I’m a baby boomer having been born at the end of World War II, and I have seen a few of my former hunting friends stop hunting.

It is harder for those of us who are now in our 70s to stay in shape for hunting each year, but several of us are still hunting pretty much the same as we always have, albeit we may have slowed down a little. But in 10 years, who knows how many of us will still be hunting since we will be crowding 80 years or more?

Private land where hunting or crossing to get to public lands is prohibited is another concern that has frustrated hunters the past few years. In some cases, the only viable access to public land is through private land where access is prohibited. Fish and game departments are doing what they can to open up private land with the Access Yes! program, but not all private land owners are willing to participate.

I often hear frustration that the best areas for hunting are available only through the draw, where a hunter has to choose a particular area, draw to hunt the area and wait a couple of months to hear if his or her name was drawn to hunt in that area. Some have complained that they draw for a particular area year after year and never have their name drawn. Personally, while I would like the opportunity to hunt in a draw area, I believe there is good hunting in other areas of public land if you take the time to scout the area and learn where to find game once hunting season opens.

As hunters, we also have a recruitment problem. We aren’t recruiting new hunters and introducing them to hunting in such a way as to teach them to hunt and process their meat, or we are recruiting the wrong crowd who are approximately the same generation we are and will age out of hunting at about the same time as we do. We should be recruiting our children and their generation by taking them hunting and teaching them what our parents taught us about hunting

A 2016 USFWS census concluded that only Texas, Alabama, Georgia and Kentucky, had increased their hunting population by 200,000 hunters or more, based on hunting licenses sold. Some states such as Idaho were able to maintain about the same number of hunters, but the majority of states reported significant losses of hunting license sales. The overall decrease in licenses sold directly impacts management of game animals and means that funds for increasing wildlife habitat and purchasing additional public lands may not be available if the trend continues.

Although we are experiencing a decline in hunting licenses sold, firearm sales and archery sales are up nation wide. Not all people who buy firearms and archery equipment are hunters, and firearm and archery sales are also taxed, and those taxes are dispersed to fish and game departments around the country.

I think that hunting will always be an important part of game management, but I also think we will be seeing some changes in hunting and hunters in the next few years. I believe that the 23- to 45-year-old crowd will save our hunting heritage. However, they will be hunting primarily for meat instead of trophies. I also think that in the future, crossbows will be used more as additional states begin to allow crossbows for big game hunting. I also see ballistic compensating rifles such as the Remington 2020,which practically aims the rifle for you, being used by more hunters. Smartphone apps that tell you where to hunt are now being researched and developed and will be used by more hunters and the art of scouting for big game will only be done by a few purists. I believe suppressors will be used on more rifles as regulations by both the state and federal government are relaxed. More women will be getting into hunting, which is a good thing. Clothing for female hunters has been a priority of the clothing industry for several years and companies such as Weatherby are already building rifles like the Camilla to suit female hunters’ frames more comfortably. Lighter, warmer hunting clothes such as Silver Shield will be developed for hunters. I also see Chronic Wasting Disease in big game getting worse, so make sure to stop at the fish and game checking stations on your way home from hunting to check for the disease before processing and eating the meat.

Smokey Merkley was raised in Idaho and has been hunting since he was 10 years old. He can be contacted at mokeydo41245@gmail.com.

I have always felt fortunate to have grown up in the Rocky Mountain North West. I was taught to hunt at an early age by my father, whom I would describe as a reluctant hunter, and two of his brothers, who were enthusiastic hunters and could hardly wait for hunting season each year.

Grandpa Merkley raised his sons to be skilled and ethical hunters, and they in turn handed down his example and lessons to his sons who in turn handed down the same example and lessons to my generation on many hunting trips and camp fire chats all over the state of Idaho.

My generation has now, for the most part, handed down the same example and lessons to their own children who now seem to think that plenty of cookies, soda pop and an iPod, are all they need in their day packs.

Jim Posewitz’s book “Beyond Fair Chase” defines an ethical hunter as “a person who knows and respects the animals hunted, follows the law and behaves in a way that will satisfy what society expects of him or her as a hunter.”

I believe that a responsible hunter will always use a weapon that is powerful enough to cleanly kill the animal being hunted without being so powerful that the hunter can’t shoot accurately because of anticipation of a stout recoil. I often hunt deer or elk with a .300 Weatherby Magnum because I am not sure at what range I will have to shoot and the .300 Weatherby is capable of reaching out with sufficient energy to cleanly kill deer or elk at several hundred yards. I do, however, normally limit myself to 600 yards based on my eyesight, skill with my rifle and the caliber’s ability to strike the target at that distance with enough energy to make a clean kill. I have been using a .300 Weatherby for a lot of years and am completely comfortable shooting it without worrying about the recoil and can do so without flinching at the shot. Many of the people I have hunted with over the years prefer .30-06s, 7mm Magnums and .300 Winchester Magnums for most of the same reasons. I even opt for a .30-06 if the area isn’t going to be very open in most places.

Along with using a rifle with sufficient power, I believe an ethical hunter will try to get within a reasonable range of the animal being hunted to make sure the shot is well paced. Taking shots at ranges outside of a hunter’s ability to consistently hit the vital zone usually means a missed or, even worse, badly placed shot that doesn’t kill the animal but cripples it. When you pull the trigger or release an arrow, you should be almost certain that you will hit and kill the animal. None of us are perfect and we all make poor shots at times, but getting as close as possible decreases the chance of a badly placed shot.

Respect for property owners and their wishes is one of the most important traits of an ethical hunter. Don’t trespass on private property, Get permission to hunt on or cross private property. If the property owner says no, don’t argue; find somewhere else to hunt. Another aspect of respecting others is remembering that not everyone wants to see a dead deer, so don’t put it on display for everyone to see as you drive home or to the processor’s place of business.

Practice principles of fair chase where the deer or elk has an advantage, but you just might get the opportunity if you are quiet and smart to get your shot. I also don’t believe canned hunts on fenced properties are ethical. If a particular elk farm guarantees you will get your deer or elk, that isn’t fair chase. If you think differently, then we disagree.

An ethical hunter uses all or as much of the animal as possible. If you hunt just for the experience to get out and try to outsmart a buck that has survived for several years, but you don’t want the meat, donate it to Idaho Hunter’s Feeding the Hungry. They have a website that will tell you how to donate the meat.

I believe that most hunters have developed their own ideas about ethical hunting and have a sense of right and wrong, but sometimes the temptation to do something that is not in keeping with ethical practices is pretty strong. We just have to be stronger because the future of hunting depends on the ethical behavior and good examples we as hunters set and exercise.

Smokey Merkley was raised in Idaho and has been hunting since he was 10 years old. He can be contacted at mokeydo41245@hotmail.com.

Deer meat, commonly referred to as venison, is a delicacy loved by people all over the world with my wife as possibly the only exception. There are so many different ways one can prepare venison for consumption, making it one of the most in-demand categories in the food industry. Experienced hunters can process deer meat where they dropped it or take it to a butcher for processing.

How much meat you can get from a deer depends on several factors from the technique and skill of the butcher, to the area of bullet impact. In case you did not take a clear shot and the bullet hit the fleshy area of the body, the quantity of venison you can get from the carcass may differ. To take the perfect shot, you need to avoid creating any noise that can tip off the deer to your presence. For better spotting and aiming, you can use binoculars and a quality telescopic sight.

The question of how much meat you can expect to get from your deer is a major concern of most hunters. Studies show that on the average you can probably expect 40 to 50 percent of the total weight of the carcass from an experienced butcher.

Some basic terminology you should understand are:

• Live weight: This is the total weight of the deer prior to any processing.
• Field-dressed weight: Total weight of the deer without any innards, which is 78 percent of live weight.
• Hanging weight: Field-dressed deer stripped of its skin, head and the hooves, amounting to 75 percent of field-dressed weight.

You can use the size and weight of the deer to guess the quantity of meat you will get. The age of the deer is a mild factor that can affect the total amount of meat that can be processed.

The experience of the hunter is a major factor that determines quantity of venison. A bullet missing the sweet spots of head, neck or heart can result in a 10-pound loss of deer meat. You could also lose about 5 pounds in the butcher shop.

A poor shot can ruin fleshy regions that normally would have yielded more meat. A shot into the hind leg could result in the loss of 6 pounds of meat.

Dressing a deer involves removing inedible parts before butchering. Inedible parts are the innards, the head and part of the legs, which you have to remove in the process. Skinning is an intricate process, and you will need skill to avoid cutting into meat.

Using a sharp knife, make a cut completely encircling the anus and cut much like coring an apple. Pull the rectum outside the body and tie off with a small cord to prevent feces from contaminating the meat during the rest of the field dressing.

Another factor that can lead to meat loss is a ruptured gall bladder and bile spillage into the meat. The last thing you want to experience is bile-infused meat. It tastes awful, and I suspect that is why my wife doesn’t like, nor will she eat, venison.

Deer hunting methods and the different steps of butchering determine the net quantity of venison. A hunter should have the proper gear and weapons that help quietly get close to deer and shoot at the desired spot accurately.

Butchering requires experience and skill to avoid mistakes that result in the loss of edible meat. Attention to detail and patience will ensure quality and quantity of venison.

Smokey Merkley was raised in Idaho and has been hunting since he was 10 years old. He can be contacted at mokeydo41245@hotmail.com.

When I am hunting, and all I have to keep me warm, dry and happy are the items I carry in my day pack, I want the essentials I will or might need during the day. Since I will be carrying a 7-pound rifle and scope, I want my day pack to be pretty light weight. Ten pounds seems about right to me because carrying 16 pounds around the back country all day at elevations from 6,000 feet to possibly 10,000 feet requires good conditioning and some common sense.

I have determined what I carry in my day pack by trial and error over several years. Sometimes the best way to learn what you need in a day pack is to go hunting and experience the disappointment of not having something that you really would liked have liked to have.

Most of the friends I hunt with have their own list of items they carry in a day pack, but we all agree on some basic essentials. Here is a list of what you will find in most of our day packs.

Water: I carry two 16-ounce bottles, while some get a day pack with a bladder they can fill with water and sip from during the day.

First-aid kit: I carry a Boy Scout soft and foldable first-aid kit, but one can simply put three small, medium and large bandages, some Neosporin and anti-itch cream in a small sealable plastic bag.

Topographic map and compass: My map has various markings from prior scouting trips into the area.

Rain gear: Rain gear should be of a material that wicks water away. Sometimes a tarp can be set up to protect one until the rain or snow stops falling.

Headlamp and flashlight: The headlamp makes cleaning and gutting game in the dark a lot easier. A small, 300-lumen flashlight makes traveling back to camp as it is getting dark easier.

Food/snacks: When I am hunting, I like a pretty light breakfast, an Isagenix food bar for lunch and regular dinner after the day’s hunt.

Knife: In addition to a Swiss Army knife I carry in a pocket, I only have two knives in my day pack: a Browning skinner that is not quite 5 inches long and an extremely small Fremont Knives knife called The Five O’ Clock, for initial cleaning and gutting of game. I have several other Fremont Knives at camp for processing game.

Surgical gloves: Because my father was a physician, I have always used and favored surgical gloves to wear while cleaning, gutting an processing game, but rubber gloves will do the job also.

Game bags: I prefer game bags to garbage bag for packing out game because they don’t tear as easy and are reusable.

Survival blanket: One should always have a survival blanket in the day pack in case it is necessary to spend the night away from camp or while waiting for help if there is an accident.

Baby wipes: Baby wipes will get the mud off your hands before dinner, wipe any blood off of you after field dressing game, get the sweat of your face after a day of hunting, clean your knife off and can be used when you have to go to the bathroom.

Paracord: Paracord can be used to tie off the scent glands of game, lash poles together, set up a tarp for protection from the elements, tie off food bags and hang them 20 feet or so off the ground out of the reach of animals.

Fire starter and lighter: You did want to be able to start a fire if necessary didn’t you? Smart outdoorsman always have a lighter with them.

Hunting license: Put your hunting license and tags in a small plastic bag and seal it, so moisture can’t ruin it. You will be glad you did if a game warden stops by to check you out.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of day pack items, but it all comes in just under 10 pounds in my day pack. Hopefully it will get you thinking about what you think is essential for your own day pack.

Smokey Merkley was raised in Idaho and has been hunting since he was 10 years old. He can be contacted at mokeydo41245@hotmail.com.

During the last full month of September, My wife and I decided to get out of town and spend a couple of days in Yellowstone National Park. Annie had ordered a cabin for us online at Mammoth Hot Springs.

Early Sunday morning, we loaded up our grandson and Annie’s small lapdog and headed for Yellowstone. We stopped in Ashton to top off our fuel tank and purchase three small bottles of milk to drink with some blueberry muffins we took for breakfast.

The drive into the mountains and the trip through Island Park was beautiful as always. We drove through the area of Henry’s Fork and were able to see a little of Hebgen Lake from the highway.

As we pulled in to West Yellowstone, we decided we had more than enough fuel to drive on through the park to Mammoth. The drive to Madison Junction was really pretty, and we saw bison on the road and an elk herd in the meadows that the Madison River runs through. At Madison, we stopped for about 15 minutes to stretch our legs, take advantage of the restrooms and give the dog some water, as well as let him walk around a little bit.

From Madison, we turned left toward Gibbon Falls, the lower and upper Gibbon Meadows and Norris Geyser Basin. Norris was packed, and the line of cars trying to get into a parking spot was so long, it took us about 15 minutes to even reach the parking lot. It took another 10 minutes to find a parking spot. Norris Geyser Basin is really interesting, especially if you take the time to read the various descriptions on the information boards on the trails around the area. The spray from the geysers in the basin can damage the finish on the cars in the parking lot, so be sure to wash your car when you return home.

There was a lot of roadwork going on in the park, and we were delayed for about 45 minutes between Beaver Lake and the Sheep Eater Cliff on the road to Mammoth.

As we descended into Mammoth, we were surprised by the number of people and cars. Mammoth is also pretty well known for the elk herd that is always wandering around or lying on the lawns in Mammoth. There were park employees standing by the various concentrations of elk. It was the rut at the time we were there, and several of the bulls acted irritated with all the people walking around.

After checking into our room and having lunch at the Mammoth Grill, we headed on down to the Roosevelt Junction and drove through Lamar Valley where we have seen grizzlies on previous trips. This time, we saw pronghorn and bison, but no bears. The mountains that border the east end of the Lamar Valley were impressive and had already received snow at the 10,000-foot level.

We then turned around, drove back to Roosevelt, turned south and drove to Tower Falls before returning to Mammoth and our cabin for the night.

As soon as we entered the cabin, Annie saw a small animal sitting on top of our suitcase. She screamed that there was a mouse in the room with us, and our little dog, realizing that Annie was frightened of something, also became frightened. After my grandson and I got Annie and the dog calmed down, we realized it was a chipmunk and called the hotel to report there was a chipmunk in the room. While Annie was talking to the people at the front desk, the chipmunk ran across both beds again, and Annie screamed into the phone and the pandemonium started all over again. We were given another cabin and packed up to move, while Annie made sure the hotel staff wouldn’t hurt the chipmunk when they removed it from the cabin.

Early Monday morning, we left Mammoth and drove over the Dunraven Pass and down to Canyon, which is about centrally located in the park. From Canyon, we drove to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone to see the Upper and Lower Falls and Artists Point. As we drove back from the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, we saw a herd of deer. We then drove by Fishing Bridge, Lake and West Thumb, before turning northwest over the Continental Divide and into Old Faithful to see the geyser go off and have lunch. We weren’t impressed when Old Faithful erupted since we have seen it look more spectacular in previous trips, but lunch was really good.

We then stopped to see Fire Hole lake for a few minutes before driving on to the Madison Junction, and and on to West Yellowstone and out of the park.

It was a beautiful time to see Yellowstone. Winter will be coming, and much of the park will soon be inaccessible until June of next year. Snow has already been falling at many locations above 8,000 feet elevation.

Smokey Merkley was raised in Idaho and has been hunting since he was 10 years old. He can be contacted at mokeydo41245@hotmail.com.

There have been many more well-known or famous American hunters than can be discussed in the space allotted to a single column, so I’ll pick a few that have had an important impact on hunting. Some were bow hunters; others primarily used rifles; one hunted Jaguars with a spear, or zagaya; another gave up hunting dangerous game with a spear after one really close call and never let his .470 Nitro Express rifle leave his side for the rest of his hunting career.

President Teddy Roosevelt was one of America’s most famous hunters. He hunted all kinds of big game in the American West, Africa and South America. Roosevelt was also a leading advocate for the establishment of the national parks system in the United States and promoting wildlife conservation in the early 20th century. In 1909, he and his son Kermit went to Africa to hunt for big game species for the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C.

Roosevelt once wrote, “The free, self-reliant, adventurous life, with its rugged and stalwart democracy, the wild surroundings, the grand beauty of the scenery the chance to study the ways and habits of the woodland creatures — all these unite to give to the career of the wilderness hunter its peculiar charm.”

Ernest Hemingway was one of Americas most storied writers. He was also a skilled big game hunter in the American West and Africa who was inspired by Teddy Roosevelt’s accounts of hunting in Africa.

Hemingway wrote about his African hunting experiences in,”The Green Hills of Africa,” “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” and “True at First Light.” Unfortunately, he either accidentally shot and killed himself or committed suicide at his home in Sun Valley about the time I was a teenager wondering where I would get the money for a .300 Weatherby Magnum.

I remember thinking at the time I would miss him and his writing.

Saxon Pope is generally regarded as the father of modern bow hunting and is one of the namesakes of the Pope and Young Club, North America’s foremost bow hunting organization.

Pope developed his skills under the tutelage of Ishi, the last of the Yahi tribesmen. He often demonstrated those skills by killing grizzly bears in Yellowstone National Park in the early part of the 20th century when it was legal to hunt in the area included in the park. He made his own bows and steel-tipped arrows.

Jim Bridger was one of the most legendary hunters and mountain men who explored the American West during the mid-1800s. He is believed to be the first white man to see the Great Salt Lake in Utah and then explored what eventually would become Yellowstone National Park

He was known for his great strength, endurance and excellent hunting and trapping skills. He built Fort Bridger in Western Wyoming close to the Utah/Wyoming border and was a fountain of information to the wagon trains traveling from Missouri to Oregon and other destinations in Idaho, Nevada and California.

He was also known for his tall tales, so nobody believed him when he said there were geysers in the Yellowstone country to the north of Fort Bridger.

He spoke the languages of the Sioux, the Blackfeet and the Crow and could make himself understood by the Shoshone and the Arapaho.

Fred Bear was the archer that I knew the most about as I was growing up. Although he didn’t start bow hunting until he was 29 years old, he eventually developed his own bow designs and manufactured several creative broad head designs for hunting.

He traveled the world hunting with the bows and broad heads he designed. For many years, he was the only archer who had killed every member of Africa’s big five — lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant and Cape buffalo — with a bow and arrow. He also used a bow to hunt and take a Kodiak bear, Alaskan brown bear and polar bear.

Fred Bear struggled with chronic emphysema later in life and died on April 27, 1988.

Sasha Siemel didn’t start life as an American. He was originally from Riga, Latvia, moved to the Mato Grasso of Brazil and found work where he could. While in Brazil, he heard of the tigreros, Guato Indians who hunted and killed jaguars with a 6- to 7-foot spear called a zagaya, on the ground, with feints and jabs and finally embedding the spear up to its hilt in the jaguar’s chest and with the shaft tucked under their arm at the arm pit hanging on and working the spear blade into the wound until either they were knocked off their feet and the jaguar rushed in and killed them, or the jaguar bled to death and expired. This type of hunting excited Siemel, and he became an under study to a Guato Indian named Joaquim, a master tigrero who killed jaguars that fed on the livestock of the Mata Grasso’s farmers. Sasha did well and learned to fight jaguars with the zagaya until he ran into the remains of his Guato teacher, who finally lost his final fight with a jaguar.

Siemel spent many years in the Mato Grasso of Brazil fighting and killing the jaguars that fed on the farmers livestock. He finally decided he was too old to live that life much longer and moved to the United States where he made movies in Hollywood depicting his exploits in the Mata Grasso.

He finally died in Green Lane, Pennsylvania, in February 1970 at nearly 88 of age.

During the 1980s, I started reading books like, “Death in the Long Grass,” “Death in the Silent Places,” “Return to the Long Grass,” etc. The author was a most highly skilled African hunting guide and cropping officer, speaker at Safari Club meetings and one of the most passionate wildlife conservation advocates in the world. His name was Peter Hathaway Capstick, and I wanted to go on safari with him. Unfortunately he died at the age of 57 years and I didn’t retire for another couple of years. Another major problem was I didn’t have the money to go on safari.

Capstick quit a promising career as a stock broker to become a hunting guide in South America, specializing in guiding jaguar hunts, before ending up in Africa as a professional hunter, guiding those who did have the money to go on hunts for Africa’s big five as well as plains game. He also served as a cropping officer and hunted elephants, leopards and Cape buffalo that were causing problems or that had actually attacked and killed natives in his area.

He once decided to hunt a Cape buffalo with a spear. He had a tribal spear maker make for him after reading the exploits of Sash Siemel. Capstick’s spear was a throwing spear, forcing him to sneak up on the Cape buffalo, throw the spear and run the 100-yard dash faster that it had ever been run, while the pursuing buffalo bled to death. He threw the spear very well and he made a gallant attempt to break the existing record for the 100-yard dash — but why don’t you pick up a copy of his book “Death in the Silent Places,” find the chapter titled “And Furthermore” and read it yourself. Since he lived it, he tells the story much better than I can. The moral of the story however, seems to be something like, “If you are ever in Cape buffalo country, be sure your .470 Nitro Express is loaded and with in easy reach.”

Smokey Merkley was raised in Idaho and has been hunting since he was 10 years old. He can be contacted at mokeydo41245@hotmail.com.

During the time I was growing up, I don’t remember 6.5 mm cartridges being very popular with riflemen. The 6.5 Italian and 6.5 Arisaka were certainly soft-recoiling rifles that kids could shoot without sore shoulders and jaws afterward, but there wasn’t much interest in hunting big game with them.

The 6.5×55 Swedish Mauser was popular among a few hunters, but no one I knew hunted with one. Today, the 6.5×55 Swedish Mauser is getting a little more attention because of recoil sensitive shooters and the increased interest in 6.5-caliber cartridges.

Although 6.5 calibers have long been popular in Europe, American hunters showed little interest in them until the last few years.

In 2002, Alexander Arms invented the 6.5 Grendel for its AR-15 rifles. The 6.5 Grendel case looks pretty much like a 7.62×39 Soviet case. The Alexander Arms website admits that, “The origins of the 6.5 Grendel may be traced back to the Soviet 7.62×39.” The 6.5 Grendel is a flat-shooting cartridge that seems to handle varmints as well as deer-sized big game. Recoil is listed as 8.9 foot-pounds with a 120-grain bullet, out of a 7.5 pound rifle, recoiling back at the shooter at 8.8 feet per second.

The introduction of the 6.5 Grendel with its high-ballistic coefficient, 120-grain bullet traveling at 2,600 feet per second and flat trajectory got the attention of a lot of American shooters after a few gun magazines started singing its praises as a varmint and deer rifle.

Most of the successful 6.5-caliber cartridges that have been develop in the last few year have two distinguishing features they generally use long bullets and work best with a one in eight inch twist barrel.

In the last 10 years, more 6.5 cartridges have been developed and are being used for game as big as elk as well as deer. Hornady developed the 6.5 Creedmoor as a target rifle, and it quickly became an overnight sensation because of its 3,020-feet-per second muzzle velocity and its long bullet’s ballistic coefficient of almost .600, which retains enough energy to take deer, elk, and moose at long range if necessary.

The 6.5 Creedmoor with a 140-grain bullet recoils at about 12 foot-pounds of energy, recoiling at the shooter at 10 feet per second, making it ideal for young hunters and others that are recoil sensitive.

Two trends I see in some of the newer 6.5-caliber offerings — and I’m not sure I like — are the tendency to develop cartridges that have pretty much the same ballistic characteristics, and cases that have more powder and pressures than the smaller bore can efficiently handle, which can damage the under-bored 6.5-caliber chambers and barrels over time.

Recently, Weatherby introduced the 6.5 Weatherby RPM (Rebated Precision Magnum). It is very new and we don’t know as much as we would like to know about the RPM, but preliminary information states that it fills the gap between the .30-06 Springfield and the .300 Winchester Magnum. If you know your cartridges and are wondering, “Doesn’t the .264 Winchester do that?” The answer is yes, but the .264 uses a 140-grain bullet at 3,200 feet per second, while the Weatherby 6.5 RPM shoots two bullet weights at three different velocities: 127 grain at 3,225 feet per second muzzle velocity, 140-grain Norma bullet at 2,975 feet per second muzzle velocity and a 140-grain Nosler bullet at 3,075 feet per second muzzle velocity. Still, the ballistics of the .264 and the new Weatherby 6.5 RPM would seem to be almost identical, and a rifleman that loads his own ammunition could reload any weight 6.5 bullet the Weatherby RPM currently uses.

Weatherby also offers a 6.5-300 Weatherby Magnum in their lineup of Weatherby calibers for big game. The .300 Weatherby magnum case is simply necked down to accept a 6.5mm bullet. Initial loads include a 127 LRX bullet at 3,531 feet per second muzzle velocity, a Swift 130-grain Scirocco at 3,476 feet per second muzzle velocity and a 140-grain A-Frame bullet at 3,395 feet per second muzzle velocity.

The Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturer’s Institute recommends a maximum of 65,000 pounds per square inch barrel pressure for 6.5 calibers. The Weatherby 6.5-300 Weatherby Magnum achieves all of that.

My concern is that the pressure generated by the 6.5 Weatherby Magnum will cause a lot of wear and tear on the barrel with repeated use, which should eventually affect accuracy.

I have always wondered why manufacturers don’t put the barrels of firearms that will be subjected to abnormally high pressures through the ferritic nitocarburization process or what is simply referred to as nitriding, This process makes the inside of the chamber and barrel, as well as the outer surface of the barrel, much harder and more resistant to eroding with out changing the caliber because nitriding isn’t a lining. It is a process that makes the metal harder by becoming part of the barrel s metal composition leaving the lands and grooves sharp while improving accuracy.

Several manufacturers of AR-16 rifles are including nitrided barrels with their rifles, rather than chrome lined barrels because they seem to be more durable and accurate.

Right now the most popular 6.5mm calibers seem to be in no particular order, the 6.5×55 mm Swedish Mauser, the 6.5 mm Grendel, the 6.5 mm Creedmoor and the .264 Winchester Magnum.

Smokey Merkley was raised in Idaho and has been hunting since he was 10 years old. He can be contacted at mokeydo41245@hotmail.com.

Bow hunting season has already started, and many of us are in the process of getting ready for the any-weapon season to start in October. With the number of hunters that are now and will be taking to the field in the next few weeks, I always expect tha…

Several years ago, I asked a friend why he didn’t hunt anymore. He said he stopped hunting because the mountains kept getting steeper and harder to climb. I made a decision that day to never get to the point that the mountains would seem any steeper each year.

I am now about the same age my friend was when I asked him that question several years ago. So far, the mountains seem to be about the same angle they have always been — namely, straight up and down.

I guess my exercise program is working pretty well, but I have noticed that a bunch of teenagers that ride their mountain bikes on the same trails that I do have been passing me up and seem to be a little irritated with me on single track trails. They also call me dirty names, like “grandpa.” However, that isn’t because the mountains are getting any steeper. I’m just not in as big a hurry as those kids. I like riding a little slower and enjoying my surroundings more than they do.

I also like to stop at various points and take large gulps of fresh mountain air while looking over the ridges and valleys I can see. Sometimes after I stop for a minute, some kid rides by and wants to know if I’m all right.

Scouting for game before the hunting season starts is better. I’m usually by myself or maybe with one other person who is closer to my age than those mountain biking kids. I can walk and spend as much time as I want looking for game or signs of game with out anyone calling me grandpa or yelling at me to get out of the way.

I have also started using trekking poles while I am scouting for game or hunting, but that’s is because many outdoorsmen are advocating the use of walking or trekking poles while traveling through the backcountry. Besides, they give your hands, arms and shoulders good exercise while wearing a day pack and carrying a rifle over one shoulder.

If I am carrying food, a camp stove, extra clothes, a first-aid kit, energy bars, a tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad and other necessities such as water, binoculars, topographic map and compass into a base camp, I use a larger backpack to get what I need into camp and then I switch to a day pack for hunting once my camp is set up. Those trekking poles really help me stay stable while I climb up the mountain, getting the larger pack into the base camp. Still, the mountains are the same as they have always been. Straight up and down.

I do like to sleep in a little more than I did when I was younger, but that is because I camp pretty close to the area I plan to hunt, and the walk to where I want to be when game starts moving isn’t as far as it was when I was younger, so I don’t have to start as early as I did a few years ago in order to be ready once it gets light enough to hunt. Besides, getting out of the sleeping bag at 4 a.m. on those cold October or November mornings and waiting somewhere until it is light enough to hunt is pure lunacy.

If it is raining, I don’t bother to get up before 6 or 6:30 a.m. I don’t mind hunting when it is raining because I have good rain gear. I usually have a pretty good idea where to find game when it is raining and wet, but I’m not going to try and navigate around the area when it is dark, rainy and wet, even with trekking poles.

I’m convinced that my plan to stay active all year long where I do a workout and exercise regimen three days each week, hike, scout for game and ride a mountain bike from June to October, hunt during October and sometimes November also, start winter activities like skiing, snow shoeing, from January to March or April, and keep up my weekly workouts during May is working to keep me in good enough condition. After all, the mountains are always pretty much the same no matter what season it is or what age I am. They remain straight up and down.

Smokey Merkley was raised in Idaho and has been hunting since he was 10 years old. He can be contacted at mokeydo41245@hotmail.com.