He never believed that his careless handling of firearms would some day get him in trouble. He was taking a lunch break, and failed to unload his shotgun when he got back to the truck (a hunting violation as the truck was parked in a "safety zone"). He leaned the gun up against the passenger side front fender and began to eat his lunch. The dog spotted a mongoose and jumped up. The dog's leash caught the stock of the shotgun and the gun fell. All my friend remembers was a loud "bang" and a burning pain in his right thigh. The two guys hunting with him came over from the other side of the truck and helped patch him up while they waited for the ambulance.
Limpy is lucky; he could be dead like a lot of other careless people. Back when I was in high school, there was a guy in his mid-30s from Georgia who just started going to a martial arts school that I was a part of. Like 80% of everyone else, he was into hunting. One night at class, our instructor told us that he had had a (highly preventable, and extremely negligent) accident. As far as anyone could tell, he was climbing a tree stand and put his loaded shotgun, stock first - ie, muzzle pointed towards his face - onto the platform. Apparently he got it caught on something and it discharged. He was missing for several days until someone found him lying on the ground with his head blown off and the shotgun was still on the stand.
That's true for sure.
