At 11:57AM CST on December 29, 2007 I was hiking north on the Appalachian
Trail.  I was about one mile south of Mooney Gap, North Carolina.  I heard hound
dogs chasing something.  I looked up and saw two dogs chasing a full-sized boar
armed with sharp tusks.  The boar was charging directly at me.  I stepped off the
trail, drew my Glock 22, and dropped the boar with a single shot to the side. 

If surprised or cornered, a boar can and will defend itself vigorously.  The male
lowers its head, charges, and then slashes upward with its tusks.  Such attacks are
rarely fatal to humans, but severe trauma and blood loss can easily result.  Currently,
wild boars are hunted both for their meat and to mitigate the damage they cause to
crops and forests.  A charging boar is considered exceptionally dangerous quarry, due
to its thick hide and dense bones, thus making anything less than a "kill shot" a
potentially deadly mistake.