Medford hunter Glen Bogart was conscious, breathing on his own and even ate a dinner of chicken and mashed potatoes Sunday, two weeks after he was wounded by a hunter's errant bullet east of Ashland.

Family members reveled Monday in Bogart's remarkable improvement since Friday, when he was unconscious and on a ventilator because his left lung was too damaged for him to breathe on his own.

"You want to talk turnaround? No one remotely expected any of this to happen," Nancy Marshall, Bogart's mother, said Monday.

Bogart's condition was upgraded to serious from critical condition at the Rogue Valley Medical Center, a hospital nursing supervisor said Monday.

Bogart was standing next to a Forest Service road northeast of Howard Prairie looking for black-tailed deer when he was struck in the back by a bullet fired by 36-year-old Cole Reeves, of Klamath Falls, Jackson County sheriff's deputies said.

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The 7 mm bullet tore through Bogart's torso and exited through his left arm, severely damaging the arm and his right lung, family members said.

Reeves told investigators he fired a single downhill shot at a blacktail buck, sheriff's Sgt. Colin Fagan said. The bullet traveled a total of 319 feet through brush before hitting Bogart, Fagan said.

Neither party was wearing bright-orange clothing. Reeves told investigators he never saw Bogart before he fired. Sheriff's investigators using laser surveying equipment at the scene have confirmed Reeves' account.

The case has been classified as a hunting accident and deputies have continued their investigation.

Reached Monday by telephone, Cole Reeves said he declined to comment until he speaks to investigators. Reeves said he has been out of town and out of touch with investigators since last week.

Steve Reeves, Cole Reeves' father and hunting partner, called his son "a responsible hunter" whose shot was one he and other hunters would have taken had it been presented to them.

"I just know my son," Steve Reeves said. "If he said he shot at a buck, he shot at a buck."

Members of both hunting parties recall hearing a second rifle shot fired less than a minute after Reeves' shot. Police have yet to determine who fired that shot.

Fagan said investigators never found the bullet that hit Bogart, but investigators believe the second shot was fired from an area down the road from where Bogart was shot.

"We don't think it has anything to do with the case," Fagan said.

Steve Reeves expressed sympathy over Bogart's ordeal during a Monday telephone interview.

"I felt bad about this whole situation," Steve Reeves said. "I'm really sorry for the man hit by the bullet, and his family."

Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail mfreeman@mailtribune.com.