IN OUR previous edition, I wrote of the danger element in hunting bushpigs, a species with a long-established reputation for aggressiveness. When I discussed this with other hunters, many asked, “What about warthogs?” That’s a good question. Warthogs have no such reputation, yet I think as many attacks by warthogs have come to my attention as those by bushpigs.
Something over forty years ago, in what was then South West Africa, two friends of mine, Derek Barnes and Anton ‘Broekies’ Bredell, were out plinking on a cattle farm. Broekies carried a .44 Magnum carbine and Derek his 9mm Para pistol. Seeing a large warthog boar some 20 metres beyond a fence, Broekies fired a shot at its head which felled the animal but failed to find the brain. The struggling boar managed to regain its feet but seemed unable to lift its head. Offering to deliver a , Derek approached, climbed through the fence and then drew his pistol. Seeing him, the boar promptly recovered and charged from about 15 metres. Derek (a competitor
