Here is my hog hunting story. Feral hog for you purists. Two weekends ago, I was hunting with my Uncle and came upon a boar at sundown. I was hunting with my Remington 700 PSS .308 so I was desperately praying for a shot where I could use a tree, fencepost, or the ground to steady that heavy beast. It didn't quite end up that way. I ended up chasing after the thing for about 3-400 yds. and taking a shot offhand from about 50 ft. as he was facing away, but at a slight angle.
He dropped, squealing, but wasn't down for the count. I had shot 3 inches to the left and got him in the right buttcheek, shattering his hip. I put a fresh round in the rifle and approached with my 92fs drawn in one hand. He was hurting, but did see me and attempted a charge. Sheesh, talk about immediate danger alarms going off in my brain! I shot him once in the head from about 15 ft. with a Hydroshock above the right eye. This put hime down for the count. We loaded him up and went back to camp.
Here is the neat part that I had to recall on the way back to camp: When I first squeezed the trigger on the 9mm (my hand was shaking like a leaf from the run and the adreniline) there was...NOTHING! I racked the slide, pointed and shot (probably missed), then remembered FRONT SIGHT, FRONT SIGHT! I re-aimed and fired the fatal shot. All of the training came back to me and I didn't even have to think about it. I was able to deal with the fail to fire and first missed shot rather quickly. Good to know all the practice pays off. I can also guarantee that I will check the condition of my pistol next time.
Of course, this story may have ended differently if the boar HAD been able to charge. We had hot and mild breakfast sausage yesterday morning. Yum yum and I win!
-White Horse