A dog stepped on a 12-gauge shotgun last week and shot a hunter in the back with bird-shot pellets while pheasant hunting, according to a news release from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR).
CBS News (Twitter)
On Nov. 29, William Rancourt, 36, was hit in the back with bird-shot pellets from 22 yards away when a hunting dog stepped on the trigger guard of another hunter’s gauge shotgun, which caused it to discharge.
Rancourt was transported to Trinity Hospital with non-life threatening injuries, according to the release. He was able to walk and was alert after being shot, according to the Des Moines Register.
“Shotguns are extremely dangerous at close range,” DNR conservation officer Ken Lonneman told the Des Moines Register. “In this case, there was a good distance between the muzzle and the wound, but if the victim had been closer, his injuries would have been more severe.”
Rancourt was pheasant hunting on the Boone River Greenbelt Conservation Board Public Hunting Area with three other hunters and two dogs when one of the hunters left the shotgun on the ground.
