While goose hunting in South Dakota with his son, a California man suffered serious injuries after resting his hands on the top of the barrel of his gun.
Larry Maxwell and his son were hunting on a preserve known as Nest Lake, when Maxwell stood his gun on its end, rested his two hands on top of the barrel and leaned on the gun. Miner County Sheriff Lanny Klinkhammer stated that the gun went off as Maxwell leaned on it and fired a shot through both of the man’s hands.
“You take a shotgun and it fires that close, and you’re going to do a lot of damage,” Klinkhammer told the Mitchell Republic, adding that the gun “obviously” did not have its safety on.
Maxwell was promptly airlifted to Sanford Hospital in Sioux Falls, SD where he was immediately admitted to surgery in an attempt to repair his hands.