Trail camera sent photos of buck before hunter was in stand
Few hunters are lucky enough to get a wakeup call from a buck on their hit list, but while hunting in Colleton County, South Carolina, Jack Lloyd came pretty close.
While gathering his gear for the morning hunt on Aug. 19, he received a real-time picture from his trail camera of a full velvet 10-point on his corn pile. The only problem was climbing into his ladder stand without spooking the deer.
Lloyd lives in Florida, but he’s been hunting South Carolina for 25 years, and this particular 1000 acres in Colleton County for eight years with the Benton Farms Hunting Club. After watching this buck mature from last year’s small 9-point into this season’s 10-point, he was ready to pull the trigger, despite not seeing him on his trail camera since the morning before opening day. But, that all changed Saturday morning.
“We have the Covert Scouting Cameras that send the picture to your phone when they take them,” said Lloyd. “At 5 o’clock in the morning he was in front of the camera. I drove my golf cart in as far as I thought I could and then snuck the rest of the way in.”
According to Lloyd, this was not a leisurely stroll. The 100 yards of cut-down he had to traverse were relatively clear and the only way to minimize his presence was to get as low as he could go.
“I was squatted down as far as I could without killing myself trying to get in there,” said Lloyd. “When I got up in the stand, it was still dark and my camera was steadily sending me pictures. There’s two bucks there, one smaller buck and him. Every picture that was sent, he was in the back. It started getting more light, shooting light time, and I could make them out then. As I watched, he picked his head up and started to turn like he was going to walk off like they do at daylight sometimes.”
Lloyd took aim with his Remington 700 .30-06 as the big buck turned broadside, and delivered a 150-grain Winchester Power-Point bullet to his right shoulder at 150 yards.
“I shot and he fell dead, right in the corn pile,” said Lloyd. “I couldn’t ask for anything better.
“If it wasn’t for my trail camera, I would have never known he was in there. I would have probably spooked him before I got in the stand.”
Lloyd’s buck weighed in at 175 pounds. Its rack featured a split brow tine and a kicker point off the left G2.
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