BOISE — A Boise man hiking in the Sawtooth Mountains southeast of Grandjean survived last week after he was struck by two boulders.

Dick Ross, 71, suffered breaks to both of his legs Thursday when a refrigerator-sized boulder rolled over them southeast of Grandjean Peak. A second boulder, the size of an ottoman, then struck Ross in the torso and pinned him to the ground.

Ross spent the night trapped under the boulder, until he was rescued Friday morning.

Ross had been hiking with a friend for several days but decided to return early to his car so he could drive home to care for a new puppy, said his wife, Brenda Ross.

“He’s just lucky that he’s alive and that he had the whereabouts to survive for the 15 hours on the mountainside,” she told the Idaho Statesman on Monday.

A hiker heard Ross’s screams for help a couple of hours after he was struck by the boulders. The hiker was some distance away, and the two men yelled back and forth. Brenda Ross said she believes the man hiked out to a place where he could get cell service and called 911.

She believes the man may have also come across another group of hikers who arrived four hours later to the site where Ross was trapped. One of the men was an emergency medical technician who examined Ross’s legs.

“They got Dick settled in for the night and helped him get his warm clothes on,” Brenda Ross said.

A dispatcher at the Boise County Sheriff’s Office said they received a call at 3 a.m. Friday and notified Idaho Emergency Medical Services, which arranged for an emergency medical helicopter crew to get the boulder off Ross and bring him to Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise.

Ross underwent surgery on Friday and again on Monday. He’ll likely need additional surgery on his left leg.

Brenda Ross said her husband had never broken a bone in his body before and took the accident remarkably well. He’s spoken to friends on the phone and in his hospital room and has retained his sense of humor, she said.

“Boy, did he enjoy his helicopter flight,” she said.

Brenda Ross says she expects a long recovery.

“I know there are going to be some hard times to come, because he’s not a person to be sitting around in a wheelchair for very long,” she said.

Steven Hawk, who said he’s known Ross for about three years, said he is amazed at how busy his friend remains.

“Dick Ross isn’t your normal 71-year-old,” Hawk wrote in an email to the Statesman. “He’s more active than most 20-somethings. He skis Bogus almost every year in the winter, hikes the Sawtooths in the summer and flies his remote-controlled planes every morning at 6 a.m.”

An angler fishing in Lake Cascade recently caught a 19-inch walleye that was illegally stocked in the reservoir, according to a news release from the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.

Fish and Game regional fisheries manager Dale Allen positively identified the fish on Aug. 22.

The fish is the first-ever confirmed report of a walleye in Lake Cascade, according to the release.

Because of the illegal stocking and the threat walleye pose to Cascade’s and other downstream fisheries, Citizens Against Poaching is offering a cash reward for information regarding this criminal case. Call the CAP hotline at 1-800-632-5999.

Idaho has just a few walleye fisheries, all established by Fish and Game, and all in isolated reservoirs. No outlets from the reservoir exist that might allow walleye to escape to other waters, according to Fish and Game. It is because of their potential threat to existing fisheries that walleye have not been more widely stocked in other Idaho waters.

Fish and Game said it receives angler requests every year to establish new walleye populations, and those requests are denied.

“This illegal introduction was carefully thought-out,” Allen said in the release. “The closest walleye fishery is more than 200 miles from Cascade. To survive the extended transport time, this fish — and possibly others — would have required clean, cold, aerated water for a number of hours.”

Because of potential severe damage from the stocking, Fish and Game resources will be diverted from other projects to expand fish sampling in Lake Cascade this year to see if more adult walleye are present and to determine whether reproduction has occurred.

“This incident is particularly disheartening for Cascade,” Allen said. “Fish and Game spent years rebuilding a world-class perch fishery, and the reservoir is also full of big trout and trophy smallmouth bass. Adding another top predator like walleye will almost certainly impact these other sport fish.”

Fish and Game officials said that walleye also could move through the Payette River system into Brownlee Reservoir and the Hells Canyon section of the Snake River.

About 20 years ago American companies that produce high-powered rifle ammunition started using polymer tips on some of their bullets to achieve better flight characteristics during long-range shooting.

The polymer tips were easier to form than lead tips, and when combined with high ballistic efficient bullets with boat tails, flatter trajectories were obtained and more foot pounds (ft./lbs.) of energy were retained at distance. The primary problem with polymer tips was that they tended to warp due to extreme heat produced by velocities over 2,000 feet per second (FPS), affecting accuracy at several hundred yards.

Hornady ELD ammo and Scirocco II are the two polymer ballistic tip bullets I am familiar with. The ELD is guaranteed to retain it’s shape far beyond 400 yards with it’s Heat Shield Technology and the Scirocco II bullet seems to resist warping when fired at 3,000 FPS or a little more from my .300 WBY Mag. Both bullets have worked well for me out to a little more than 400 yards. Accuracy has been very satisfactory when I manage to do my part. I have also heard some high praise for a Nosler ballistic tip bullet, but have not had any personal experience with it.

A couple of years ago I was at the Oregon Trail Gun Club watching a cowboy shooting event. One of the venders that was also there, was giving out samples of polymer-coated bullets.

Polymer-coated bullets have been used for about two decades outside the United States. Advantages of polymer coated bullets are less friction between the bullet and the bore, less smoke, less debris such as lead left in the barrel, no toxic off-gassing, contains no Moly-Disulfide to gum up your dies, works great in bullet feeders, great for indoor shooting where lead bullets are restricted, non abrasive to the barrel, coating does not rub off on your hands, and poly-coating does not build up in the barrel.

The most common source for polymer-coated bullets is Hi-Tek, made by J&M Specialty Products from Australia. The representative that was handing out polymer-coated bullet samples was from Leatherhead Bullets which purchased them from J&K Specialties, and is now in the process of merging with Gallant Bullets in Utah.

Some companies use their own proprietary polymer, moly, or Teflon based mixtures. However, Teflon may be illegal since it is commonly used in Armor Piercing bullets.

Polymer-coating is generally good at velocities blow 2,000 FPS with1,200 to 1,500 FPS being the norm. this makes polymer coated bullets primarily good for pistol velocities with some rifle ammunition such as .300 Blackout, .45-70, and .30-30 Winchester included. Velocities above 2,000 FPS create enough heat to warp the polymer coating, so it is recommended that polymer coated bullets not be used with ammunition that generates more than 2000 FPS muzzle velocities.

Recently a company, Polycase, has come out with bullets that are a mixture of powdered copper and polymer and are produced by injection molding. The bullets come in two types, solid or fluted. The solid bullets are called, Round Nose Precision, and the fluted bullets are called Truncated Nose Precision. The ARX (Advanced Rotational Extreme) bullet has three flutes in the nose that redirect hydraulic forces laterally.

At this time, Polycase bullets come in, .380 Auto, 9mm Luger, .38 Special, .357 Magnum, .40 S&W, .45 Auto and .45 Colt for handguns. Polycase loads both the round nose and ARX bullets for it’s handgun calibers, and the ARX is used in low velocity rifle rounds. Ruger loads only the ARX bullets.

The ARX bullets do not expand. They rely on the flutes , combined with the bullet’s rotation, to create hydrostatic shock to create a large temporary wound channel during penetration.

Polycase claims that ARX bullets create temporary wound channels that match or exceed any bullet in the same caliber. The ARX bullets have significant penetration in gelatin but generally stop by 16 inches, thereby reducing the risk of over penetration.

The Polycase composite bullets are new enough that I haven’t seen them in stores yet. They tend to be about 25 percent lighter than lead bullets of the same caliber.

It is evident that polymer-coating of bullets and the technology of producing polymer composite bullets is moving forward. We can only wait and see if they become popular once they are more readily available.

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

Dove hunting is right upon us. If you’ve never dove hunted, you are missing out on a great bird hunt plus some great eating. I’ve dove hunted since I was 6 years old. We had great hunts as a kid; speaking of, it’s a great hunt to take your kids on to introduce them to hunting.

What’s not to like about it? The weather is warm, you don’t have to be stealthy and quiet like when big game hunting, and there is a lot of shooting going on. Sounds like the ingredients for a great day to me.

So how do you dove hunt? Scouting is important. Doves do well with agriculture so the first obvious spots to check are milo fields or sunflower patches. If you see a lot flying around or setting in dead trees and on telephone lines stop and ask for permission to hunt.

You’ll want to set along tree lines or fence rows. They have what I’ll called preferred flyways. If you’re not getting any shooting, move. If they’re out feeding, go do some jump shooting. If you have other people with you, this will get them moving around and help them out, too.

Especially on dry years, but any year really, hunt near water sources. They like to water at ponds, sloughs and slow-moving creeks and rivers. We hunt these at daylight and dark. I’ve had some great hunts on water sources.

I’ve dove hunted in multiple states but probably my most unique spot to ever hunt doves was in Nebraska. The marijuana fields were great. They love the seeds. It grew wild there and there’d be 20-foot-wide by 100-yard patches in draws. There’s be hundreds of doves feeding in them. It seemed to make them stupid and sometimes they’d fly right up and land in front of you waiting to be shot. Let that be a lesson for you. Do marijuana, and you’ll do stupid stuff.

So you’re convinced. You’re ready to jump in. So what gear do you need? It’s really pretty simple. Because of the high-speed shooting, you’ll want a shell vest with a game pouch in back. On 90 percent of your dove hunts, you’ll be sitting in one spot, so really the game pouch is used to carry boxes of shells. You’ll want a vest with plenty of shell-holding capabilities on front and two lower pockets to fill with shells.

Using decoys will definitely help you out. There are a few options for decoys. Mojo makes a decoy with rotating wings and a Dove A Flicker decoy. There are also plastic decoys that you can clip onto fence lines or tree branches. Decoys will help.

For a shotgun, any style will work but you’ll be happier with a semi-automatic. For decades as a kid, I used a double-barrel but if you have a semi-automatic you’ll have plenty of opportunities to get off three shots, especially if you shoot like I do. Remember: You have to have a plug because you’re limited to three shots.

For ammo, Aquila low-base 8s are the ticket but many hunters use 7 ½s. Luckily, they’re not hard to kill so low-base shells work great. If not, because of all of the shooting, your shoulder would be black and blue. As kids, my brother and I once shot more than a case of shells in two afternoons and that’s when there were 20 boxes in a case.

A chair is almost a necessity and especially if you’re older. There are a lot of options on the market. They offer actual fold-up chairs but another popular option are the padded swivel top 5-gallon buckets. Many have a canvas pouch around them to hold shells as well as inside. That about sums up the gear.

We don’t have room to go into good dove recipes, so I’m going to refer you to a cooking recipe my brother did since he’s a better cook than me anyway: ronspomeroutdoors.com/blog/dove-dinner.

Tom Claycomb lives in Idaho and has outdoors columns in newspapers in Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Louisiana. He also writes for various outdoors magazines and teaches outdoors seminars at stores like Cabela’s, Sportsman’s Warehouse and Bass Pro Shop.

Yellowstone National Park staff were killing fish to make room for natives.

The park is continuing a project to eliminate nonnative fish from the upper Gibbon River drainage and eventually reintroduce native fish to streams in that area. The project is part of an overall strategy against nonnative trout species that were introduced into the region decades ago.

Park biologists used rotenone — a fish toxin — to kill nonnative rainbow and brook trout in the streams. Below the treatment area, biologists added potassium permanganate to the water to remove the effects of rotenone so it doesn’t impact downstream waters, according a park news release.

“Rotenone is a naturally occurring chemical compound derived from the roots of tropical plants,” the news release said.

The upper Gibbon River drainage includes streams that flow out of Grebe, Wolf and Ice lakes in the central part of the park. The Wolf Lake Trail and Virginia Cascades Drive that access this area were closed to the public during the project.

“Sometimes falls are used as natural barriers that assist with the project, other times the park will have to create an artificial barrier to help protect the headwaters above the project (from nonnative fish),” Bethany Gassman, public information officers for the park, said in an email Friday.

“To ensure the removal of nonnative fish, these treatments will be repeated in 2019 and if needed, 2020,” the release said. “Reintroduction of native fish will begin in 2021.”

This season’s portion of the project is set to end today.

The park hopes to create “refuges” to support populations of native westslope cutthroat trout and fluvial arctic grayling. The grayling are specific to Yellowstone.

“The historic stocking of nonnative fish nearly eliminated these species from Yellowstone,” the news release said.

In recent years, park projects have restored cutthroat and grayling to the East Fork of Specimen Creek, Goose Lake and Grayling Creek.