i carry a 22mag revolver for snakes 3 rat shot 3 CCI TNT Green HP i have only used it once on a big cottonmouth that was coiled between my legs when i stepped over a log it hissed and i put a load of rat shot in its open mouth only time iv ever shot one usually just grab a limb of a myrtle bush
unless the gun is actualy in your hands ( be it rifle/shotgun/pistol ) and an animal pops up at very close range you won't have time to get a good shot off unless you are a decent point shooter ( and thats primarily with a shotgun ) I've been lucky enough to have gotten 2 pheasant and a rabbit from the hip with a shotgun, and one rabbit from the hip with my scoped deer rifle. but I used to shoot trap from the hip and still practice point shooting pistols with both hands and both eyes, and even try getting your shooting glasses real dirty, like with blistex or something and practice like that. at certain times and places I will sling the scoped gun behind my back and the pistol becomes the primary hunting instrument. never had the need to do it up north, but the stories of charging hogs, and the denseness and poor visability from the ground in the palmetos are new to me.
40 plus stitchs in the back of my left thigh from a pissed off very bad ass boar 30yrs ago means if i am out there so is a handgun. went tree rat hunting for dinner while in stienhatchee with four friends, had 3 rats and two birdshot left in my 12gauge was charged and gave it two rds point blank in the face and then broke the stock of the gun over its head,, did not phase it. headed to the nearest tree big enough to climb, but he cut me before i got up. as i hollered for my friends who were luckily close by i sat up in that tree hurt and bleeding my only thought was where the hell was my redhawk. the guy who showed up first put three 308 rds in the head before it dropped. he had it mounted with a piece of my jeans glued to the cutter. jet black 375lb with 4.5in cutters and 3in wetters.
there will always be a superhero in the crowd who says that will never happen to them but you will never know when that chunk of kryptonite will drop in your lap :turtle
One time I was run down by a PO'd boar hog,if I had a sidearm I wouldn' have had a chance to draw it,let alone aim and fire it.I barely had time to get my rifle on it. I imagine if I toted a handgun I'd prolly lose it or something. Capt. George,did the hog attack you after you shot it or did it just come out of the blue?The one the come at me had a bullet wound in it's front leg.
