Tonganoxie ? A 23-year-old rural Tonganoxie man suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound while shooting off his handgun Wednesday night in his backyard.

He was taken to an area hospital with a potentially life-threatening injury, Leavenworth County Sheriff’s reports said.

The man had drunk several beers with his girlfriend at his home about 3 1/2 miles east of Tonganoxie. As she took a shower, he went outside, reports said.

Two other residents of the home heard three gunshots, but they weren’t alarmed, reports said, because the man regularly fires his .45-caliber handgun in the backyard at night.

But the man came into the house, suffering from a gunshot wound below his chin that exited at the top of his forehead, reports said. He told the responding deputy that he had shot the gun, and officers are investigating the incident as an accidental shooting.

The man was in serious condition Thursday afternoon at Kansas University Hospital, a hospital official said.

The shooting occurred about 10:15 p.m.