Hello Tony, enjoyed your hog hunt story with your son, I truly miss hog hunting, almost as much fun as badgers!
I use several kinds of rests depending on what gun I'm using & most important, what kind of terrain I'm in. If its flat country & thats kind of rare here in Idaho I use several kinds of shooting sticks.
The pair I used in Africa works great here if I'm hunting antelope or ground squirrels, rock chucks or badgers. I made them from 3 wooden dowels, added a rubber "foot" on each leg, tied them together with a leather thong & its very steady for a handgun.
I've also started using one of the Primos Trigger Sticks, all you do is push a "trigger" to adjust the height, it works great, used mine last year in Montana when I shot my whitetail. They make 3-4 versions of it, short ones, long ones & even a tripod I think.
When hunting in the mountains the 3 legged kinds don't work at all because nothing is flat, you need a single leg or a back pack. Since I always have a backpack with me its came in handy many times, I've probably shot 30 head of big game from the back pack although its not ideal for revolvers, burns a hole in them!
Last is my ever present walking stick, in the mountains its perfect because you are always shooting on an angle, its too long for flat ground shooting. When I'm on a steep hillside I can put it on an angle across my thigh, run my hand through the leather thong at the top & grasp the gun with both hands, its very steady, when I shot the cow elk at 168 yds this is what I used, it was like shooting from the bench.
Then there's the Elmer Keith reclining position, I've used it all my life, long before I ever thought about shooting sticks.
Here's a photo of the 3' sticks I made up for Africa, these went in my gun box & they worked great, then also work great here in the state if its flat country.
I never hunt without my walking stick, it comes in handy when walking in rough country, the leather thong at the top is very useful for sticking one hand through, this gives a lot of support.
They also come in handy when you need to drag out 600 lbs of elk meat. This is a 4 man "mule team" using 2 walking sticks to drag out one of three elk for the day.
Comes in handy when hunting jackrabbits too, but the sticks I took to Africa would have been better, I had to kneel down to shoot because the walking stick was too long.
This is probably the most used position I've ever done while hunting, if you can find a good back rest this position is deadly.
Without the shooting sticks in the first photo I wouldn't have been able to make the shot on this Blue Wildebeest, he was too far & was in heavy cover. Also used them on my best warthog & an Imala.
This is a phto of the Primos Trigger Stick, this is a handy little item for a handgun hunter, you do have to be careful about putting your left hand on them for support, you can get burned from the gases coming from the cylinder gap.
Dick
If it will hold up to the Casull, I think it will work