Thanks Bob, glad you enjoyed the stories.
One of the advantages of being relatively old is that you have a lot of experiences and stories to fall back on. In my life, have hunted, and been hunted, on 3 continents during my wild and wooly days when much younger. Part of that was courtesy of Uncle Sam, but some of it wasn't. (4 Continents, if you include that girl's Patron (Sugar Daddy) in Chile, but no shooting was involved then)
Came back from SE Asia hooked on Adrenaline which caused whole bunches of trouble when I was in my mid to late 20's, and regular hunting just never quite filled the gap. I have a hypothesis that some of the things that happened that got us labeled "Crazy Vietnam Vets" were initiated by guys just looking to recapture that rush. Have gotten my Deer, Elk, Bear, Antelope, etc, but after the stalking, crawling, sweating, climbing, waiting, etc , it boils down to a high powered rifle, at various ranges, doing most of the work. Have tried Archery, but a bum right shoulder keeps the draw weight down to the point that I would probably have trouble damaging a rabbit at 5 feet. Am presently looking at a Hickory Creek Vertical crossbow adapter for my bow to see how that works.
Love long range shooting over Iron sights, but, for most casual shooters, technology is becoming the major player in most of the shots. (I'll probably get a whole bunch of nasty responses to that remark being posted on a LRH site)
Hunting Feral Hogs, sometimes on foot, in brush country seems to fill the void admirably but even then, the advantage, unless I do something seriously stupid, is with the me and my equipment. Most of the tracking we do for wounded hogs, and it's really not that often, end up at various distances with finding the Hog lying dead on the ground or in the brush, but the few that don't, comprise some of the most memorable, and sometimes funniest memories, like the piglet story above. Am I going to continue to wear hog proof chaps? Yup! It doesn't mean that I'm going to get rid of them just to give the hog a even chance when we are in his natural environment. The other thing about it is, that to us, hogs are a pest that are destroying crops and creating economic chaos with the land leases from the tenants. Hell, when hunting from short distances, which most of my shots are, I don't even give them the benefit of being shot by good ammo and use M-80, 149 Grain, Ball Military ammo from Lake City, which I buy in bulk (500 Rds). I only get the good stuff out if I have to go into the brush after them when wounded. (The M-80 is great for meat hunting small pigs, doesn't hardly damage the meat and usually goes right thru at short range ,< 75 yds)
BUT, not to drift too far, the main point is that both wounded and unwounded feral hogs can be and are dangerous. Just ask my brother's neighbor, James, who one night, walked out into his back yard, on the way to the tack room, without turning on the rear flood lights, and walked into a whole herd of them eating spilled feed. Most ran, one didn't, and 80 some stitches on both legs later he learned the hard way to always expect the unexpected at the least expected time. He kept telling me over and over, as we took him to the Hospital, in the back of a pickup, (No ambulance service out there back then) that he had almost sent Chelsea, his (9 or 10 year old) daughter out to get the broken rein for her horse. If he had fallen, it could have been a lot worse.
Anyway, as is my style, seemed to have written a book. Hope I haven't bored you. Hell, I could tell stories for hours and quite a few that weren't what you want to repeat in politically correct company, but maybe another time.
Packrat
ALWAYS keep your powder and Martini's dry!