NACHES — A 28-year-old Olympia man is at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle after accidentally shooting himself in the elbow while hunting near Rimrock Lake Thursday.
But it took more than two hours to get him there after a helicopter had to turn around due to of inclement weather.
The man was hunting with a primitive, muzzle-loading rifle, said Yakima County sheriff’s Sgt. Judd Towell. Just after 10:30 a.m., he slipped and dropped his rifle, which fell behind his arm and discharged — shooting him in the back of the elbow, said Chief Criminal Deputy Ed Levesque. Deputies would not release the man’s name Thursday.
Towell said when the older, more primitive weapons hit the ground it sometimes causes them to release the lock and fire.
The man was able to apply his own tourniquet, tell dispatchers where he was and walk to the nearest road so deputies could find him, Towell said.
“He’s a pretty responsible guy,” he said. “He really saved his own life.”
An ambulance picked him up around 1 p.m., and took him to a local hospital, before he was flown to Harborview. Information on his condition was not available Friday. Towell said the gunshot wound was not life-threatening, however the man could lose his arm.
