On my last tour, I had a tire fail (Panaracer Col de la Vie) right at the bead. The sidewall tore away from the bead. No booting that. Fortunately I had a spare tire with me.
Last summer, out on a solo century, I hit some glass that badly gashed my tire. I was about 55 miles from home (
) so I booted the tire with a Clif bar wrapper, which worked really well, and headed for home. Fortunately I found an open bike shop about 30 miles later (quite a surprise on Sunday afternoon, but I wasn't going to complain), so I bought a new tire.
My randonneuring bike has a few minor gashes in the tires, all booted with hockey tape, probably not necessary, but good for peace of mind.