Joshua Bowman was attempting to multi-task.
The 28-year-old from the Upper Hunter was driving a stolen car, talking on the phone and trying to reload a shortened .22 calibre rifle on his lap when the firearm suddenly went off.
"I just shot something," Bowman told the man he was speaking to. "Now my ears are ringing and everything."
Bowman, a drug dealer who took a machete to a home invasion, tossed Molotov cocktails at a rival's house and stole $37,000 worth of diesel fuel from a mine site, was driving through Denman about 6.25pm on January 13 this year when he claims he noticed a rival was following him.
He says he tried to get away, eventually pulling out the rifle before the gun discharged.
Fortunately for Bowman he survived the shooting unscathed.
Unfortunately, the police were recording his calls and heard the conversation about the shooting and three other calls Bowman made where he explained what happened.
"Guess what?" Bowman asked a woman during an intercepted phone call. "I had clips on my lap... I was trying to reload the gun, trying to do it all while driving then next minute I've got a bullet in it and bang it goes off. My ears were ringing so f---ing loud."
Police had been intercepting Mr Bowman's calls in the wake of an ongoing dispute with a rival over a debt that included Bowman breaking into the man's home while armed with a machete and throwing three Molotov cocktails at his house.
And in these calls about the shooting, Bowman repeatedly indicated a desire to gun down the man he claims was following him, telling associates "I've had dramas with him for ages".
"I'm about to shoot this c---," Bowman said in one call. "I'm only getting away so I can lure them in to shoot them."
When asked what he was doing that night, Bowman replied: "Yeah I'm going back to shoot this c--- with a pump action".
Bowman, who in July was granted Supreme Court bail to attend a 12-month residential rehabilitation program, appeared in Newcastle Local Court on Wednesday where he pleaded guilty to a number of charges, including aggravated break and enter, arson, supplying drugs, possession of firearms, driving stolen cars and stealing a fuel trailer containing 1200 litres of diesel from a Upper Hunter mine site.
Despite the seriousness of the charges, prosecutors did not make an application to have Bowman detained on Wednesday ahead of sentencing in Newcastle District Court next year.
He will appear in court next month to get a sentence date.
