A man trying to loosen a stubborn lug nut blasted the wheel with a 12-gauge shotgun, injuring himself badly in both legs, sheriff's deputies said.
The 66-year-old man had been repairing a Lincoln Continental for two weeks at his home in Kitsap County northwest of Southworth, about 10 miles southwest of Seattle, and had gotten all but one of the lug nuts off the right rear wheel by Saturday afternoon, Kitsap County Deputy Scott Wilson said.
"He's bound and determined to get that lug nut off," Wilson said.
From about arm's length, the man fired the shotgun at the wheel and was "peppered" in both legs with buckshot and debris, with some injuries as high as his chin, according to a sheriff's office report.
"Nobody else was there, and he wasn't intoxicated," Wilson said.
The man was taken to Tacoma General Hospital with injuries Wilson described as severe but not life-threatening.
The deputies did not take a statement from the man beyond what they were able to gather while he was being treated by medics, The Kitsap Sun reported on its Web site.
"I don't think he was in any condition to say anything," Wilson said, according to The Sun. "The pain was so severe, and the shock."
It was not immediately clear whether the shotgun blast loosened the lug nut.