A Texas man who found an armadillo in his yard early Thursday morning opened fire on the animal only to have the bullet ricochet back and hit him in the face.

Reuters reports the man went outside around 3 a.m. local time and fired his .38.

"His wife was in the house," Cass County Sheriff Larry Rowe said. "He went outside and took his .38 revolver and shot three times at the armadillo."

The shell deflected the bullets and the man had to be airlifted to a nearby hospital where his jaw was wired shut.

The sheriff said they couldn't recover the animal, so its status is unknown.