East Carolina University student wins November Bag-a-Buck Contest

Andrews wins monthly prize pack, still eligible for grand prize.

NorthCarolinaSportsman.com user and North Carolina Sportsman magazine subscriber Austin Andres won the November installment of the Bag-a-Buck Contest after submitting this photo of a buck during the Thanksgiving break from college.

Austin Andrews of Graham had a few days off from his studies at East Carolina University over the Thanksgiving break, and he put them to good use.

The day after polishing off all that turkey and dressing, Andrews polished off a 17-inch 10-point Alamance County buck. A week later, his entry was drawn as the third monthly winner in North Carolina Sportsman’s Bag-A-Buck contest.

“My dad is a captain in the Elon police force, and he got me together with a wildlife officer, Todd Kennedy,” Andrews said. “He invited me – we went one time last year – and when I came home for Thanksgiving, I had another chance to go with him and I took it.”

Accepting the invitation not only got Andrews a nice rack and venison for the freezer, it got him a great prize package. He will receive a North Carolina Sportsman T-shirt, a camouflage Sportsman window decal, a copy of Cooking on the Wild Side, a Tink’s scent kit, Realtree hats and Monster Buck DVDs, a Plano storage box, a truck bed liner from LINE-X, a $25 gift certificate from Springhill Outfitters in Kenly, sporting apparel from Rivers West and Ammo Grips from God’A Grip.

Andrews will also remain eligible, along with everyone else who enters the Bag-A-Buck Contest, for a grand-prize package consisting of a CVA blackpowder rifle, a Leupold rangefinder, a Nikon Prostaff scope, a truck bed liner from Rivers West and a two-day deer hunt from Fourth Generation Outfitters in Northeast North Carolina.

Andrews, a 20-year-old ECU sophomore, got into a ladder stand the afternoon of Nov. 25.

“It was on a tree in a tree line that was separating two fields,” he said. “The buck came across one of the fields running; I thought he might be chasing a doe. I put my rifle on him real quick and took a shot – I shot twice.

“I think I missed him the first time, and when I shot again he dropped down real quick, then got up and went back into the hardwoods.”

He might have missed the first shot, but Andrews, toting a Weatherby .308 rifle with a 4-power Leupold scope, didn’t miss the second one. He got down, found blood and tracked the buck only 50 or 60 yards before finding it, piled up in some hardwoods.

See other bucks killed this season – and add photos of your own – in the North Carolina Sportsman Bag-a-Buck Contest, which offers monthly and grand prizes!