Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is facing mockery on social media over video of him grasping to figure out how to load his shotgun on a pheasant hunt in Minnesota.

Mr. Walz, wearing a hi-viz hunting vest and cap, was shown hunched over his shotgun and appeared to be opening and closing the loading port of the firearm.

The Democratic vice presidential nominee told a reporter that the gun was a Beretta A400, a semi-automatic firearm.

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“I bought it when I was shooting a lot of trap because it has a patented thing to kick off,” he said, pointing to the butt of the gun. “So when you get old, it doesn’t hurt your shoulder as much.”

Beretta offers kick-offs to their shotguns to reduce recoil and muzzle rise.

However, Mr. Walz’s explanation about his firearm was the last thing many were talking about.

Following the three-hour hunt, CBS News reported Mr. Walz did not shoot a single pheasant.

Author and columnist Larry Alex Taunton, who often goes on Pheasant hunts and makes extra money assisting guides, said, “The A400 is a semi-auto shotgun. Many guides don’t allow semi-autos on a hunt because they can’t see at a distance that you’re ‘safe.’”

He said on X, “A break-action double-barrel is therefore preferred since they can tell when your gun cannot be fired (be it loaded or not). This is because the barrel is on a hinge that ‘breaks’ open to permit manual loading.”

Side-by-side images of the Looney Toons gun struggling character Elmer Fudd and the Minnesota governor looking at their shotguns appeared on social media, along with an animated gif of Mr. Walz inside the 1980s arcade game “Duck Hunt.”

“I’d like to congratulate Elmer Fudd, born in 1937, for the best day on social media in his entire career,” said Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh on X.

“He has Tim Walz to thank for his resurgence, but in all the laughter about the Walz ‘pheasant hunting’ outing, I wanted to make sure we didn’t forget Mr. Fudd,” he wrote.

The Washington Times reached out to the Harris campaign for comment.

Conservative commentator Buck Sexton said, “Tim Walz looks as comfortable loading a shotgun as Kamala does answering basic questions.”

The Harris campaign looked to Mr. Walz’s Midwestern and firearm-owning background to appeal to gun owners, while also maintaining left-wing gun control credentials.

Mr. Walz was previously criticized about his handling of firearms when he was questioned about “weapons of war that I carried in war” in 2018, a remark he made alluding to his National Guard service, which was found to be untrue as he never served in combat.