The other thing that's odd is that hunting boots usually have insulating thick rubber Vibram soles. Such shoe soles often provide some protection against electrocution.
Lightning struck a tall pine tree about 70 feet from our house a few years back. It was instantaneous FLASH BOOM with zero delay. The lighting traveled down the tree, blew a vertical strip of bark off on the way down, then went half way around the tree before continuing downward. The way it stripped the bark off down to the cambium was amazing. I lost some electronics in the house from that.
Back in the late ‘60s, I had a summer job working as a lifeguard at an apartment house pool in downtown Washington, D.C. It was a great job in that no one ever visited the pool during the weekdays until after 5 pm, so I had lots of time to myself to read long Russian novels & etc. One afternoon, I was watching a thunderstorm with lightning hitting around the Catholic Shrine on a hill miles away in N.E. section of the city. I remember just having the thought that lightning never seems to stirk nearby, when a tremendous bolt struck the roof of the building right in front of me across the street. The flash and boom were instantaneous, and the bolt was a wide a car with a pink core. The next thing I knew was that I was driving in my car several blocks away, still in my swimsuit. I had apparently run down the stairwell ten stories to the basement garage, got in my car, and drove away in a literal blind panic.
We used to have an a frame cabin in Utah. Once, when my wife was painting upstairs there was a lightning strike about 1/4 of a mile away. A spark jumped several inches from a large bolt in the roof joists to the paint brush her hand. The bolt was in the joists and not otherwise connected to any other metal. Lightning includes a massive electromatic force collapse that can induce currents at a fair distance. Very dangerous.
I remember once when I was a kid, sitting in the living room watching a thunderstorm. There was an instantaneous FLASH BOOM when lightning struck a tree about 500 to 700 feet away from me. The tree was a huge 5 or 6 trunk oak and it knocked down several main trunks, but what I remember most was the ozone smell and the taste in my mouth. Just like licking the terminals of a nine volt battery.
If they're dry.
Most likely the uppers of these guys boots were wet allowing electricity to be conducted along the outside. It's also likely their clothes were wet, too.
I knew two people who were killed by lightening.
One was roofing a house.
The other was bring the milk cow into the barn. The lightening struck the cow, travelled across the chain of the lady leading the cow, and exited from her.
Both events were exceptionally gory.
Something similar happened to me. Lost all electronic devices.
Insurance covered it. I made a newbie Circuit City sales guy very happy.
I was in the shower. Knocked me on my butt. Was out for a bit. The bolt hit a corner of the apartment building.
Happened again a few years later. No damage but I felt it.