The year 2014 passed without any MS whitetail making it to back of my truck. I'd been trying hard to christen my new FA M654. Well....it had to wait till 2015.

This morning started off with nothing but the sound of running water in the over flowing ditches running through the big select cut hardwood bottom I was in. This was due to the last three days of constant raining and flash floods. The weather finally broke and I had the perfect wind to hunt this area I was waiting to hunt.

Shortly after legal shooting time, I heard a slight ruckus that sound a little different than a squirrel scampering. My hearings not the best and couldn't really pin down the direction of the sound. So, I'm slowly checking the 360.

In the distance (250-300 yards)I caught some movement and realized it was just a sapling top shaking. At first I just figured it was a squirrel, but after looking around some more and then back that direction; the sapling was still shaking! Now I thinking "Buck".

I reached into my vest pocket and pulled out "The Can" and broke the silence with a doe bleat.....the sapling quit shaking. I turned it over once more and I seen antlers coming my way....FAST! I reached up and pulled down my ear muffs and stint the smoke wagon. He was coming hard and I had to stop him with voice commands. In all the hast, I forgot to grab my range finder!!! So, I just had to take a SWAG at the distance. At about 10-12 yards, I got him stopped....but couldn't shoot! With his head upright, his antlers was in the way to shoot down through the shoulders and his nose was in the was for a good frontal shot.

Im holding the M654 free-handed with the leupold crosshair waiting for a shot. At this time I started saying...Hey...Hey....Hey....and finally got him to look up at me, which gave me a clear frontal shot. The deer was standing in the center of this photo....


At the drop of the hammer, I could see it was a well place shot; he was bleeding profusely! He jumped and stumbled about ten yards and went down at the base of my tree....


After climbing down, I noticed I didn't have an exit hole; which was great because I wanted to see what the 180 gr Barnes XPB looked like.

Look closely and you can see the entry hole in the next photo; there's a small piece of lung hanging out just above his brisket...


All-in-all, I've had a great season this season. This is the 3rd nine pointer I've killed this season and they've all been respectable....


Oh.....I forgot to mention; this is a public land deer.

The 180 grain XPB performed just as advertised. It entered with a frontal shot, just above and left of the brisket. It broke three ribs when entering the diaphragm, ruptured the heart and left lung, through the liver, stopping in the main stomach...



It broke off one petal while going through the ribs.