A Musselshell County man has been charged with shooting his neighbor with a high-powered rifle following an argument between the two men.

Robert Cooksey, 67, was charged Wednesday with a single count of deliberate homicide and his bail was set at $500,000.  He appeared in a Musselshell County court late Wednesday afternoon.

He had been detained Tuesday after calling the sheriff's office to say he'd shot a man at his house 12 miles southeast of Roundup and needed an ambulance, according to Sheriff Woodrow Weitzeil.

Court records say the victim, Tracy Lee Beardslee, was found by Sheriff Weitzeil lying in the grass along a fence line with a gunshot wound to his shoulder. He had apparently been trimming weeds at the time of the shooting and the trimmer was still running. 

His body was taken to Billings for an autopsy, said John Strandell with the Montana Department of Criminal Investigation.