OKLAHOMA CITY - Michael Crossland didn't have much time to celebrate when he shot what is expected to be the largest whitetail deer ever killed in Oklahoma ¡ª a monster buck with a 31-point set of antlers worth thousands of dollars.
 
Instead, the antlers were seized by the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation and a charge of hunting without permission was filed against him. If convicted, he could be fined, face jail time, or both.

"It's been a heck of a mess," said Crossland, a 25-year-old farmer and rancher.

On Nov. 23, Crossland said he was with a landowner's hired hand, who went to retrieve a four-wheeler and gave Crossland his rifle in case he spotted any big deer.

After walking around a bend on the west side of a creek, he spotted a doe, then saw the buck. After quickly loading the rifle, Crossland lined up the buck in his scope from about 70 yards away and dropped it with one shot.

"I didn't know he was that big until he fell," Crossland said. "He fell and he rolled his head, and that's when I said, 'Oh my gosh.'"

But as word quickly spread about the huge deer, problems started to mount for Crossland.

Landowner Ryan Hunt, 26, requested the hunting charge, and if convicted Crossland faces a fine of up to $200 and 30 days in the county jail. It would then be up to the court to decide who gets to keep the antlers.

Crossland said he considered Hunt a friend, but they haven't spoken since the deer was shot. Crossland also said he's previously worked for the Hunt family and was told he could hunt on their property as long as he was with a family member or Greg Platner, the farmhand who was with Crossland on the day he shot the deer.

Hunt wouldn't specifically say whether he and Crossland were friends or whether he gave Crossland permission to hunt on his property.

"I'll say that our family has a lot of land, and it's always been known that no one hunts on our property without permission," Hunt said. "It doesn't matter if it's fishing, turkey or a little bitty doe."

Although the antlers have not officially been scored under a standardized system, Yukon taxidermist Gerald Hillman measured the horns and said he's confident it will be a new state record for non-typical antlers, which refers to a lack of symmetry on each side of the rack.

Hillman estimated the antlers will score about 246 or 247 points. The current non-typical state record in Oklahoma is 240 3/8 from a whitetail in 2003.

Carl Eddy, the owner of Eddy's Northern Whitetails in Independence, Iowa, said the mounted head and horns would likely be worth between $20,000 and $30,000.

But Crossland said doesn't plan on selling and just wants them back.

"I want to keep it," he said. "That's a once-in-a-lifetime deal there."