Man shot in hunting accident

A 60-year-old Colorado man was in critical, but stable, condition Tuesday afternoon after he was shot in the leg during a hunting accident Saturday in Lincoln County.

According to a news release from the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office, a Libby man called 911 shortly after 11 a.m.  Saturday, saying he was a hunter and that he had accidentally shot another hunter in the leg while hunting in the Libby Creek area.

The man helped tie a tourniquet above the wound — a substantial wound on the victim’s right thigh — and ran to get his son, who was hunting with him. He then drove the victim out of the Libby Creek drainage and stopped at the first house with telephone service to call for help.

He then drove the wounded hunter toward town until they met Libby Volunteer Ambulance responders and sheriff’s deputies in the area of Whiskey Hill south of Libby. The victim was then transported to St. John’s Hospital via ambulance.

He was stabilized at St. John’s. Weather prevented use of a medical helicopter, so the man later was taken by ambulance to Kalispell Regional Medical Center,

The 48-year-old hunter who accidentally shot the man then took representatives from the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks and the U.S. Forest Service back to the scene of the shooting.

The Libby hunter did not know the Colorado hunter.

The agencies have withheld the names of those involved pending completion of their investigation.