Filed in the "I can't make this up" department

Australian fined after wounding motorist while trying to shoot cow

A man who twice missed while trying to shoot a friend's cow only to accidentally shoot a passer-by in the leg was fined Wednesday for what an Australian court described as a freak accident.

Rudolf Stadler, 61, agreed in April last year to shoot the troublesome cow which belonged to a friend who owns a hobby farm at Caboolture in tropical Queensland state.

Stadler lured the cow to a shed, and then took aim with his rifle. He missed. He took aim a second time, fired and missed again.

The second shot went through the back of the shed, a fence across a paddock and then through the door of a car being driven along a road behind the farm.

The bullet hit 46-year-old Carrie Tunning in the leg, the Brisbane District Court heard. Tunning, a passenger in the car, made a full recovery but Stadler was so distressed by the incident that he handed in his firearms license.

The court fined Stadler A$1,000 and banned him from obtaining another gun license for five years.

The cow was not so lucky, with Stadler eventually finding his mark.

Okay – I am not a very good shot, but how in blazes do you miss a cow, in the same room with you, twice, with a rifle? I especially like the part where he “lured the cow to a shed;” I wonder what sorts of promises he made.