WOW he is lucky. I had that happen to me when I was about 16 years old hunting with my grandpa. It was a shotgun, not a high powered rifle. I crossed under a fence and got a little bit of dirt in the end of the barrel, went to shoot at a deer and BOOM! I swear the shotgun slug only made it about 25 yards. The barrel split about 6 inches from the tip of it! I was pretty shaken up about the whole thing but wasn't hurt.
I wonder what happened?