December Trail Cam Contest Winner

Click on image for a larger view to see Smith in his treestand just before shooting

Image of hunter in treestand truly unique

Jim Smith of Havelock, N.C. has won the NorthCarolinaSportsman.com Trail Cam contest with his photo titled – Lucky. “Thirty minutes before dark this buck showed up between me and my trail cam, and fifteen minutes later he showed up in the back of my truck,” said Smith.

With near record voting, Smith’s Trail Cam image of a Craven County buck on December 9 was voted the most outstanding by NorthCarolinaSportsman.com viewers. “I thought it was pretty amazing to get me in the picture right before I shot this buck,” said Smith. That’s right, look behind the buck and 16-feet up a ladder stand is Smith wearing his blaze orange vest.

The photo was taken by a Tasco Trail Cam, and the image won a Sportsman prize pack for Smith which includes a one year subscription to North Carolina Sportsman. Only one month remains in the Trail Cam contest where anyone can enter a trail cam photo, but only registered users are eligible to win.

One shot from his 12-gauge shotgun at 40-yards stopped this big buck from eating any more acorns at his secret spot in the woods. “I was hunting over some rubs and I had killed a spike buck in here earlier in the season,” said Smith. “I had seen this buck the night before and did not have a shot. His brow tines were intact then, but somehow he broke them off the night before I got him.”

Finishing in second place was Scottie Wolfe or ‘Fireman310’ with his Trail Cam titled – LOOK. “This is why I put my camera in the woods, and you can’t get one like this from your living room,” said Wolfe, referring to the 9-pointer from Surry County. The image catches the buck at twilight under an overhanging branch with a fog bank in the background and nature’s dazzling color scheme was also captured in his image.

The cuddeback Trail Cam image drew many comments on the deer hunting forum on NorthCarolinaSportsman.com. “I have thousands of pics from the past five years and this one is by far the best,” said Wolfe. “The color is amazing and it was all by chance because I was running late and did not have time to move the camera from that location.”

An albino 10-point buck image rounded out the top three entries for December. Marty Scott captured the image titled Old Ghost using a Cuddeback Trail Cam on October 29 in Wake County. “You just never know what is living in your backyard,” said Scott. “When I checked my camera and saw this albino buck I about fell out of my chair.” The nice rack on this buck shows that nature has room for an animal like this in the deer herd, no matter what his color.