An Iowa man enjoyed a trip to hospital with 100 birdshot pellets in his calf after hunting dogs let him have it from less than a metre with some pheasant-busting ordnance, AFP reports.

According to the Iowa Department of Natural Resource, James Harris, 37, was out with some chums in Poweshiek county when they "shot a bird which landed on the other side of a fence".

The statement continues: "Harris reportedly went to retrieve the bird, placed his gun on the ground and crossed the fence near the muzzle end. When he crossed the fence, hunting dogs stepped on the gun, which discharged and struck Harris in the left calf at a distance of roughly three feet."

Harris was treated at a regional medical centre and subsequently whisked by helicopter to an Iowa City hospital.

Department spokesman Alan Foster told AFP that Iowa mutts have a habit of blasting their owners. He said: "I hear about it a couple of times a year. They'll step on the trigger assembly and, if the gun for whatever reason wasn't on safety, it doesn't take a whole lot to trip a trigger." ®

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