The outcome of Montana’s U.S. Senate race might very well determine which party controls the chamber for the next two years, which makes the controversies surrounding Republican Tim Sheehy a story far outside Big Sky Country.

The GOP nominee, for example, has used racist rhetoric when talking about Native Americans — which is indefensible under any circumstances, and which is especially foolish in a state with a sizable Native population. He has also accused women who support abortion rights of having been “indoctrinated.” Sheehy has also been accused of plagiarism, doctoring footage in a campaign commercial, disparaging firefighters, flubbing the basics of the impeachment process and exaggerating his successes in the private sector.

But by any fair measure, Sheehy’s most important mess involves an unusual question: How and when did he get shot?

As regular readers might recall, the Republican candidate, a retired Navy SEAL, has told Montana voters that he has a bullet stuck in his right forearm “from Afghanistan.” It’s the sort of claim that signals to the public that Sheehy wants to be seen as tough, while simultaneously reminding people about his military service.

And while it certainly appears that there’s a bullet lodged in Sheehy’s right forearm, there’s reason to be skeptical about how it got there.

The Washington Post reported back in April that Sheehy visited Montana’s Glacier National Park in 2015, at which point he told a National Park Service ranger that he accidentally shot himself when his Colt .45 revolver fell and discharged while he was loading his vehicle in the park. Soon after, the Post’s article added, a ranger cited Sheehy for allegedly discharging his weapon in a national park illegally, relying on the Republican’s version of events, and the relevant reports were filed.

Sheehy told the Post, however, that he lied to the National Park Service ranger and that he was actually shot while serving in Afghanistan.

Six months later, the park ranger went on the record. The Washington Post reported:

Over 35 seasons working as a ranger in Glacier National Park, Kim Peach, 67, recalls only two incidents in which he responded to a report of a gun being fired — and both became his most memorable days on the job. So last year, when he spotted an advertisement featuring a smiling Tim Sheehy running for Senate, Peach, now retired, immediately recognized the ex-Navy SEAL’s face, he said. It was the same man who had told him years earlier that he had accidentally shot himself in the right arm after his gun dropped to the ground while he said he was loading up gear after a hike.

Peach went on to say that he considers it “disgusting” for Sheehy to claim “a wound from a negligent, accidental firearm discharge is a wound received in combat.”

Meanwhile, The New York Times spoke with one of Sheehy’s former SEAL colleagues, Dave Madden, who recalled swapping war stories with Sheehy about their experiences, and Sheehy never said anything about having been shot.

“Mr. Madden said he was surprised when Mr. Sheehy began talking more recently about having been shot that spring in Afghanistan, and that he became convinced that Mr. Sheehy had invented the story,” the article added.

In case that weren’t quite enough, the Times’ report also noted relevant details about the park ranger who investigated the 2015 incident.

Because it is illegal to discharge a firearm in a national park, Mr. Peach said, he and Mr. Sheehy went out to Mr. Sheehy’s vehicle, where Mr. Peach temporarily confiscated the gun and unloaded it, finding five live rounds and the casing of one that had been fired. Mr. Peach, who described himself as someone who generally votes for Democrats, said Mr. Sheehy was embarrassed at what had transpired. He was charged and agreed to pay a $525 fine.

The question isn’t whether Sheehy lied. The question is when and to whom he lied.

To be sure, the GOP candidate — who, incidentally, appears well positioned to defeat Sen. Jon Tester, despite the Democratic incumbent’s record — remains adamant that he was shot in Afghanistan and lied about the park incident to protect his former platoonmates from facing a potential investigation.

As Sheehy has explained it, he believed that if he’d told the truth in 2015, it might’ve been reported to the Navy, prompting questions about whether the wound was the result of friendly fire or from enemy ammunition. But the Post reported that it would’ve been “highly unlikely that a civilian hospital would report a years-old bullet wound to the Navy.”

As for the significance of this, Sheehy doesn’t have much of a record to fall back on, so if he lied about getting shot in Afghanistan, it does dramatic harm to one of the key pillars of his entire candidacy. Watch this space.