The young duck hunter who was injured last Sunday on Rice Lake has undergone surgery and is on his way to recovery, according to Faribault County Sheriff Mike Gormley.

Gormley said he did not know if the hunter, who authorities have not identified, had been sent home from St. Marys Hospital in Rochester.

The teenager had been airlifted to the Rochester hospital from a hospital in Blue Earth.

Gormley said the hunter was with four other teenage boys around 17 years old at the time of the incident. The boys were at the Rice Lake west of Delavan.

One of the teenager’s guns reportedly fell into the water, plugging the barrel with mud. A round was shut from the gun causing the end of the barrel to explode, and a piece of the barrel hit the young hunter standing nearby in the head.

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the Blue Earth Police Department assisted at the United Hospital emergency room.