Well, I finally got to bloody the .270x.225 (aka .270 JDJ) Van Horn barrel this evening. I had no intentions of checking outside tonight as I had a bad flare-up with the chronic colitis and was feeling pretty weak. But when our little furbaby decided he needed to potty once more before calling it a night, I opened the door and got the unmistakable whiff of a boar.

I haven’t seen a hog here since around the first of the year, so I knew I needed to check things out and try and capitalize on the rare opportunity. I grabbed the Van Horn .270x.225 since it had a shooting light on it, but it turns out it was not needed as there was ample moonlight for the Zeiss V6 2-12x50.

The hog was only about 130 yards from my shooting rest and ever-so-slightly quartering to me. I wasted no time putting the tiny red dot of the #60 reticle towards the front of the shoulder and touched off a round.

The 95 grain Barnes TTSX, which was designed for the 6.8 SPC and leaves the muzzle of my barrel at 2920 fps, flew true and dropped the boar in his tracks. The bullet hit where I hoped, penetrating the thick shield, breaking the shoulder bone, wrecking the lungs, passing through the edge of the opposite shoulder, breaking a rib and then lodging in the hide and very nearly exiting.

Impact speed should have been about 2550 fps. It lost a couple petals but still weighed 78.4 grains. The widest point measured .536”. Had it retained the petals, the width would have approached 0.7”. One kill means nothing, but so far, I am quite pleased with the performance.