Montana Senate hopeful and ex-Navy SEAL Tim Sheehy caught on camera claiming he still has bullet in his arm from Afghanistan tour - but told ranger in 2015 he'd accidentally shot himself

Tim Sheehy, a former Navy SEAL running for a Senate seat in Montana, said that he lied about illegally discharging a weapon in Glacier National Park to cover up a bullet wound he received in Afghanistan.

Sheehy initially told a ranger that he accidentally discharged a weapon and shot himself when he was hiking with his family in the park in 2015, reports obtained by the Washington Post shows. 

The 38-year-old candidate has now claimed that he fabricated the story because he feared the ranger would report the gunshot wound to the military, potentially leading to an investigation and harming the reputation of his teammates.

During a December campaign event, Sheehy was caught on camera saying, 'I got thick skin - though it's not thick enough. I have a bullet stuck in this arm still from Afghanistan.'

Sheehy has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump as the 'best-positioned' candidate to defeat incumbent Senate Democrat Jon Tester. 

He stated that he is uncertain whether the wound in his arm resulted from friendly fire between former platoon mates or an enemy and has never report it to his superiors.

He has provided various conflicting accounts about gunshot wounds he has during speeches, campaign events and in his 2023 memoir 'Mudslingers,' as reported by the Post. 

According to a ticket obtained by the outlet, Sheehy told the ranger he was arranging gear in the back of his vehicle when his Colt .45 long revolver slipped down the pile of gear. 

The gun hit the ground and shot him in the right forearm accidentally, according to Sheehy, but the bullet did not pass through. He paid a $525 fine for illegally discharging weapon in Glacier National Park. 

The ranger, who spoke with Sheehy at a hospital in Kalispell, Montana, recalled the Senate candidate saying he's relieved the bullet didn't hit his wife or young children. 

Doctors decided to leave the bullet in Sheehy's arm, before he paid the fine and got back his weapon, according to the ranger, who was interviewed by the Post on the condition of anonymity. 

Sheehy said he made up the story to cover up the gunshot wound that he had never reported to superiors when serving in Afghanistan. 

In his newest account about the incident, he slipped on ice when he was hiking in Glacier National Park and fell on some sharp rocks. 

His arm was hit, and he was concerned that he may have broken his arm and that the bullet from years earlier may have been dislodged. 

When he was checking in at the hospital, he said he had a previous injury in his arm, but 'didn't give them the whole backstory because I was just checking into an ER,' he said. 

He remembered telling the staff: 'You know, hurt my arm. You know, there is a gunshot wound in there. ... I just need to take a look at it and make sure everything's okay.' 

Hospital staff informed him they were obligated to report all gunshot wounds to law enforcement, Sheehy said. 

Sheehy feared that the ranger would report him to the Navy if he told him the truth, potentially leading to an investigation. As a result, he decided to fabricate a story about how he had received the bullet wound. 

But Sheehy may have already made up the story and told hospital staff about it before the ranger arrived, according to Sheehy's lawyer, Daniel Watkins. 

'Mr. Sheehy attempted to explain that the wound was not fresh but was told they had to report the injury regardless,' the layer wrote in a letter, adding that Sheehy told hospital staff that he had discharged his gun at the park. 

Neither Sheehy nor his lawyer clarified which account the medical professional who examined his wound was provided with. 

At the time, Sheehy was still in the Navy Reserve and many of his former teammates were still serving, he said. 

A military investigation could potentially lead to Sheehy being called back to active duty and even facing a court martial. The whole team could be 'dragged through the mud'. 

The ranger was surprised by Sheehy's claims that the story was made up. He recalled checking the firearm in Sheehy's vehicle and discovering it fully loaded but with one bullet missing. 

Sheehy's lawyer said the ranger's account is 'a fabrication', but Sheehy noted, 'Everything he says is true to the extent of his knowledge.' 

Watkins said Sheehy could not accidentally drop the gun because 'doing so is not possible based on the design of the weapon’s firing mechanism.' 

It still remains a mystery how many times, in what parts of his body, under what circumstances, and by whom Sheehy was shot. 

The Senate candidate said he was shot three times during a presentation at Billings Clinic hospital in 2022. 

'I was wounded on about seven different occasions, IEDs, and was shot three times on different occasions, in different spots in my body.' 

In one section of his 'Mudslingers: A True Story of Aerial Firefighting' published in December last year, he said he had multiple bullet wounds. 

But later in the book, he wrote that there's only one time that his body 'was actually hit by a bullet' when he was resupplying local Afghan troops.

He thought he had hit arm on a rock, but felt 'pretty sore' when he went back to the base, as he wrote: 'I learned later there was a bullet in my arm! It’s still there today by the way.' 

In another chapter, he said he was struck 'by a friendly ricochet bullet' but did not report the shooter, who's a 'total stud who went on to a successful career as a SEAL.' 

In this week's interview with the Post, Sheehy said the night patrol and the friendly fire referred to the same event. 

But in contrast to what he wrote in the book, Sheehy said he can't figure out who shot him as the night was 'chaotic', though he believes it's someone on his team. 

'To be very clear, I don't know where the bullet came from. Sometimes people find that hard to believe, but in Hollywood, they make it look like [in] a gunfight everyone knows exactly what's going on. … That's just not how it goes down,' he said. 

He said reporting the bullet wound would have led to a 'massive investigation' by NCIS - Naval Criminal Investigative Service. 

He added that in Afghanistan, he was shot twice in total, saying, 'I was not wounded, but I was … technically hit by another round in a separate incident,' he said. 

Katie Martin, his campaign spokeswoman, said Sheehy was shot three times, with the third bullet hitting his radio that was on his body. 

The X-ray of Sheehy's arm provided to the Post does indeed show a circular item lodged in his right forearm, as reported by the outlet.  

Joseph V. Sakran, a trauma surgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital, stated that it's impossible to determine what type of weapon caused the injury and how old the wound is. 

Thomas J. Esposito, a professor at the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Peoria, said it's 'doubtful' that the injury was from a ricochet bullet because of 'the smoothness of its edges.'