357 mag. is what I carry on my mountain property for just that. Hope I never have to use it. Where I live the black bears are fairly easy to deal with/run away from humans. Normally I yell and shoo them away like I would a raccoon. But running into a mom with cubs would be a different situation entirely!
Yes. As a young boy deer hunting with my dad, walking up a trail in South Texas I met a Javelina Sow and some nearby baby pigs. I was carrying a K98 8mm Mauser rifle, my attempt to shoo her away was failing, she charged me and my father shouted to me to shoot her (more than once). She was about 15 feet from me when I decided I had to. Hit her square between the eyes, looked like I took a cleaver and opened her skull.
Needless to say, we just left her where she fell.
Both boar and sow hogs have tusks, they can really cut you up if they manage to get close and they are very quick.
For many years we trapped Feral hogs here on a pasture on one of our farms. They were fixed traps and designed to not catch one at a time. When we caught them we put them in a special trailer to move them. At times we killed and butchered them quickly. Other times we fed them waste grain from our seed cleaner and then killed and butchered them. ‘
They made really good whole hog sausage. We have a meat house at the farm. Don’t do it commercially, but lots of wild game has been processed there. Walk-in box and Hobart commercial equipment for processing them.