On a day of inclement weather that took a devastating toll on property and human life across Louisiana, Ryan Lamonte’s boss texted employees at Baton Rouge’s ExxonMobil refinery they were dismissed for the day Dec. 14.

The 38-year-old Clinton man, a projects and maintenance foreman for Performance contractors at the refinery, saw a photo a few minutes earlier on his cell phone at 6:30 a.m. of a big buck on an 82-acre tract he hunts in East Baton Rouge Parish. The Wise Eye Smarty Cam Mini Cellular Game Camera image he saw that stormy Wednesday morning was proof the buck was standing there with a doe.

That buck made an appearance toward the tail end of the bowhunting season in 2021-22. Lamonte said that buck, which earned the nickname “Split” because of a split brow tine, and other deer left the premises but showed up again in photos early this season on nearby property and even dodged a bullet fired by a young girl during a youth hunt.

Lamonte wasted little time Dec. 14 getting into an old deer stand on his buddy’s one-year-old lease that he’s allowed to hunt. He settled into position at 8:30 a.m., then endured high winds and rain before the worst of the storm system pummeled the area.

His nervousness about the aging deer stand’s stability in the high winds nearly prompted him to climb down. He stayed a little while longer and was rewarded by the sight of couple spike bucks that were skittish.

“I watched the spikes acting nervous and then a doe, one I hoped the big buck had been following, came out at 150 yards and started eating the corn I had scattered. A few minutes later, I saw the nose of another deer come out, then I saw antlers and knew it was the one I was after,” Lamonte said in a story written by Glynn Harris and posted Christmas Day on the Louisiana Sportsman website.

He left the rest up to a rifle that was given to him as a Christmas present 24 years ago.

“I put my rifle, a Savage .270 bolt action, out the window. The buck was standing broadside and when I hit the trigger, he dropped on the spot,” Lamonte said.

And what a buck it was. Three different people scored the 10-pointer and each came up with 154. The rack measured 18 1/8 inches of inside spread with a 5-inch base and long main beams.

Apparently, Split was meant to become his trophy deer, although it didn’t seem like it might last season. The buck showed on camera, mostly during the day, with two weeks left, but that deer and others inexplicably vacated the property. Lamonte found out later that his friend let rabbit dogs run on his property, thus chasing away the deer.

Lamonte was luckier this season because he got off work and got into the deer stand before the really severe weather hit the area.

Lamonte’s second trophy deer in a hunting career that began at age 4 weighed an estimated 210 pounds and was 5 ½ years old.

While bowhunting three years ago he shot and killed his first trophy buck, a 12-point, 200-pound deer nicknamed “Nightmare” approximately one mile from the East Baton Rouge Parish Line. He was using a Mathews Helim Archery Compound Bow to take the 5 ½-year-old deer that scored 150.25.