A man is in hospital after shooting himself in the leg while goose hunting on a property near the Northern Territory town of Nhulunbuy.

The accident happened on Birani Birani Outstation about 350 kilometres east of Darwin yesterday morning.

Police say the 44-year-old man was shot in the thigh when he leant the gun against a tree.

Watch Commander Craig Ryan says it is a very uncommon accident.

"When he leant his shotgun against a tree to go and retrieve a goose that had been shot ... he walked away from the shotgun, it fell over discharging a single shot and sprayed the man in the thigh with shotgun pellets," Commander Ryan said.

The man was taken to Gove Hospital where he remains in a stable condition.