A local friend originally from Pennsylvania spent his first decade in Montana shooting the first "rack" whitetail he saw, and thinking he was in heaven. Eventually he decided to start hunting mule deer, and recruited me to help. I had to threaten to take away his .270 ammo the first day we hunted the Missouri Breaks, because anything 120-point buck was in serious danger. We eventually found him a good buck for public land, with about a 24" spread and probably scoring 165-170. He was thrilled, and these days that's often about the top end for a lot of public plains country, just like a 150 whitetail is in the public mountains of western Montana.
He's taken bigger bucks since, including some very nice whitetails and a 180+ mule deer, though the muley was on a ranch, not on public land. But we still joke about the day I threatened to take away his ammo!
