Apparently one should think twice before opening fire on an armadillo – that’s a lesson one man in the state of Georgia learned the hard way, after his bullet ricocheted off the animal’s armor and hit his 74-year-old mother-in-law in the back.

Armadillos are treated as pests in the American South, and so upon finding one of the animals Larry McElroy decided to shoot it with a handgun on Sunday night.

McElroy was around 100 yards (90 meters) from his mother-in-law’s mobile home when he shot and killed the armadillo, reports BBC.

But according to police the 9mm bullet bounced off the creature’s plated shell, hit a fence, entered a backdoor of the mobile home, and struck McElroy’s mother-in-law in the back as she was sitting in a reclining chair.

Fortunately the elderly woman is expected to recover from the wound, after having been taken to a local hospital where she continues to receive treatment.

Investigator Bill Smith of the sherrif’s office gave some sound advice while speaking to the local WALB-TV to try and prevent future recurrences of the mishap – according to Smith, the answer is to get more firepower.

“I really think if they’re going to shoot at ‘varmints’ and whatnot, maybe use a shotgun,” said the investigator.