I wonder if there would have been any charges pressed if he hadn't shot a record buck? I think it's always a good idea to get written permission to hunt on someone elses land.
Deer hunter's big kill in Oklahoma could bring him big trouble
By SEAN MURPHY
The Associated Press
06/03/2005
He could get jail time
if convicted of hunting
without permission
OKLAHOMA CITY - Michael Crossland didn't have much time to celebrate when he shot what may have been the largest whitetail deer ever killed in Oklahoma - 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, 25, a 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, he 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. If convicted, Crossland could be fined up to $200 and get 30 days in the county jail. The court would then 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 previously had 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 him 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.
"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 nontypical antlers, which refers to a lack of symmetry on each side of the rack.
Hillman estimated that the antlers will score 246 or 247 points. The current nontypical 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 are likely to be worth $20,000 to $30,000.
But Crossland said he doesn't plan to sell and just wants them back.
