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

Gormley said he did not know whether the hunter, who has not been identified by authorities, had been sent home yet from St. Marys Hospital in Rochester.

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

Gormley said the hunter was with four other teenage boys who are around 17 years old at the time of the incident. The boys were all from communities in Faribault County. The boys were at the Rice Lake west of Delavan.

One of the teenage hunter’s guns reportedly fell into the water, plugging the barrel with mud when they were hunting near Rice Lake. A round was shot from the gun causing the end of the barrel to explode, and a piece of the barrel hit the young hunter, who was standing nearby, in the head.

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources plans to keep the barrel to use for educational purposes.

The DNR and the Blue Earth Police Department both assisted at the United Hospital emergency room after the incident.