BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A hitchhiker's chilling tale of being shot in a random drive-by along a rural Montana highway quickly unraveled when no gun could be found in the supposed perpetrator's pickup, authorities said Monday.

Ray Dolin told police earlier this month that he had been shot while traveling across the country to put together a photo memoir on the kindness of people he met along the way.

But as doubts about his story grew, deputies returned to the shooting scene along U.S. Highway 2 west of the farming community of Glasgow, where they found a Derringer pistol in a nearby field, Valley County Sheriff Glen Meier said.

Police traced the weapon and discovered the 39-year-old Dolin had purchased it in his home state of West Virginia just days before the June 9 shooting.