A Topeka man has been charged with poaching a 14-point whitetail buck that could have broken a more than 35-year-old state record.

The “Topeka Capital-Journal” reports the inaugural Mossy Oak Monster Buck Classic held a couple weeks ago in Topeka drew large crowds.

Many went to see some of Kansas’ finest deer racks entered in the biggest buck contest. 

The biggest typical whitetail entered in the event garnered lots of attention.

In the end none of it was positive.

David Kent faces eight counts in Osage County related to the November eleventh shooting of the deer.

Kent was taken into custody by Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism law enforcement officials, and the antlers were confiscated shortly after the event concluded.

Eight charges include criminal discharge of a firearm, criminal hunting, illegally hunting with an artificial light, hunting outside legal hours, illegal hunting during a closed season, using an illegal caliber for taking big game, illegal hunting from a vehicle and hunting without a valid deer permit.

The huge whitetail was scored at 1987/8 net typical inches according to the Boone and Crockett scoring system, which would have broken the old record that has stood for decades. Kansas’ current record for a typical whitetail taken with a firearm was set in 1974 by Dennis Finger in Nemaha County. His big buck, which still stands as the current record, netted 1982/8 inches of antler.

This isn’t the first time this particular record has been threatened with a deer that was illegal. In 1999, a non-resident used a relative’s resident permit to tag a monstrous whitetail killed in western Kansas that scored a whopping 1997/8 inches of antler. KDWPT officials confiscated that deer rack, too.