EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part of a series of stories on women in the Teche Area who hunt and love being in the great outdoors, a series starting with Anna Baquet, then turning today to Lauren Gonsoulin, followed by Katy Templeton and Kate Ditch, and Ondina Louviere.

The 19-year-old deer hunter’s afternoon hunt began with what could have been a calamitous bang but ended with a loud, rewarding bang of a rifle report.

Lauren Gonsoulin and her younger sister, Amanda Gonsoulin, rode to deer stands at the front of their family property in southwest Mississippi near Lorman, then went their separate ways into a deer stand for the afternoon. They were staying at the camp with family the weekend of Jan. 13-14.

Gonsoulin climbed the ladder of the tree stand she chose, one overlooking a food plot. When she closed the door it fell off the hinges and banged loudly into the ladder.

Naturally, as she put the door back on its hinges, she believed that loud, unnatural noise would spook every doe and buck within earshot across Jefferson County. She was bummed out but determined to get the hunt in on the last afternoon of their weekend stay.

“It was an interesting afternoon,” Gonsoulin said with a chuckle.

After scanning the woods for a while, her eyes lit up at the sight of a thick-bodied buck with wide horns.

“I was watching a few turkeys and does. I look up and see him come out of the woods. I was happy. I knew it was big right when it walked out of the woods,” she said.

She usually bides her time, patiently waiting for just the right clean shot. However, with the wind howling wildly, she believed she couldn’t wait.

“The wind was blowing straight through the window. I sat in the perfect spot where there was a little bit of window and a little bit of wind,” she said. “I didn’t even want him to get into the food plot, just in case he were to smell me with how windy it was.”

Gonsoulin, the daughter of Keven and Dawn Gonsoulin, was confident. She fully expected to knock down the buck with a shot from the .308-caliber Winchester Tikka Bolt-Action rifle at a distance of approximately 150 yards. And did with a well-placed shot, a testament to sighting in sessions and hours of practice.

The bullet smacked into the deer just behind a front shoulder just before 5 p.m.

What she wasn’t expecting was a knock on the forehead that almost went unnoticed the moment the trigger was pulled. The recoil got her.

“I felt something. The gun kicked back. I guess I didn’t hold on (tight enough). The ’scope hit me in the head. I wiped my forehead and blood was dripping. I was numb it was so cold. I wasn’t too excited about it (the cut). It was so cold,” she said.

The former defensive standout soccer player for the CHS Lady Panthers (Class of ’22) watched the buck run a few yards, then into a bottom. She waited for her dad to arrive before leaving the tree stand.

Together they walked the woods looking for the deer with the help of their black Labrador retriever, “Diesel,” who was fitted with a tracker and bell.

“We let him start working. We already had found blood because I had a good shot at him,” she said. “Diesel was tracking and we heard the bell stop. We walked down a bottom. Dad and me see my deer,” she said about that blissful moment.

“My dad gave me a big hug and congratulated me.”

And Taylor Gonsoulin, one of two older brothers, told her he was oh-so proud. He helped her and their father drag the buck up the hill while Amanda and their mother each held a flashlight illuminating the way.

“We were exhausted. That was a steep hill we had to climb,” she said.

The 9-point, 200-pound buck with a 20 ½-inch spread was her biggest deer ever. She said a shoulder mount of the beautiful deer and its horns will be done.

It should look perfect alongside the skull mount of an 8-point buck, her first deer kill ever while hunting on a family vacation at a ranch in Texas. She has killed several does and bucks since then.

The LSUE student, classified as a junior in the X-ray program, is like so many hunters young and old. She still relishes the quickening of the pulse as twigs break and leaves crackle, the knee-knocking mix of chaos and calm before squeezing the trigger, the way the outdoors opens her eyes to the color, texture, sound and smell of the woods.

“I do enjoy it. I was always raised in the country. I was raised to deer hunt. I’ve been doing it since I was little. I probably started when I was 7. My dad’s been hunting his whole life,” she said.

Like their older brothers, Blake Gonsoulin and Taylor Gonsoulin, and her sister both love to hunt and fish for redfish, targeting the latter mostly in their boat around Cypremort Point. They are competitive in the woods and on the water, she said, noting each sends photos of bucks with nice racks as soon as they see them from their respective deer stand.

Nothing beats the stays at the Mississippi camp, she said. Her father is part of a sugar cane farming family and tries to go every other weekend.

The shed they hauled her recent buck to is special. It houses their Hondas “bikes,” rope and diesel, etc., and doubles as a cleaning shed,

There’s a sign outside with big letters spelling out BTLA, the first initial in each of the brothers and sisters name – Blake, Taylor, Lauren and Amanda.

The sign served as a backdrop for the 9-pointer dropped by a proud deer hunter.

“I was just super happy, super excited. Like I said, that was my first big rack. I was excited,” she said.

Gonsoulin planned on returning for another hunt before this season ends.

“We’ll be back,” she said, optimistically.