What should I have done

[motorbiking]

Highly likely that the moped gang mottie fought off, were armed, with something sharper than a pole.

 

[Brigadier]

That's why that living alone farmer ended up inside, for using a shot gun against those two unharmed perps, several years ago.

He ended up inside because of his honesty, and pride, and belligerence more like.

How was he, in a run-down and unlit shoitetip miles from help, to know what the thieves were carrying, or what their intentions were?

Purely my own conjecture, but I'd have taken a bet that, if he'd said he was an old man alone, terrified for his life, he'd have never seen the inside of a cell.

How so - you are allowed to use a balanced amount of force to defend yourself, plus a bit.

Again, you have little idea what they're carrying, are capable of, and what their intentions are: all of that only comes out after the fact.
Or, are you saying the correct approach is like a game of escalating Top Trumps, taking it in turns to up the ante?

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Highly likely that the moped gang mottie fought off, were armed, with something sharper than a pole.

Well if he had good reason to believe that, no reason not to make use of any weapon close to hand..

 

[Mottie]

I was levering a suspension arm down on a car using a scaffold pole and realised it was still in my hand when I ran out there.