In an update to our earlier story, officials with the Iowa DNR today (Thursday) identified an elderly man who was accidentally shot by his own rifle.  The DNR says 88-year old Clark Melby, of Dunlap, is expected to survive a gunshot wound to his upper torso.

Melby was getting out of his vehicle in a harvested corn field west of Dunlap when he fell and the high-powered rifle he was carrying discharged into his upper torso shortly before 5 p.m. on Wednesday. The bullet passed through him and did not hit any vital organs.

Melby was alone at the time of the incident, but was able to contact a neighbor who then alerted emergency personnel. He was airlifted to University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. The incident remains under investigation by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.