I've been hunting hard and hunting A LOT since I was 13. We own land in several different spots in Lamar co and I've been fortunate enough to kill some good deer and a good # of deer on the same property for 30 years. ive gone through a lot of phases in my hunting career and the deer are no worse for wear. We use to kill a few deer when I was little (5-6 as a family), but around the late 80's early 90's we really started killing some deer (more like 5-6 per person). When dog hunting was outlawed, My brother and I killed 10-15 each for several years until we got out of that phase. We've let good deer go, video taped good deer instead of shooting them and let some areas sit out for a year. We were expecting to start seeing monsters over the next couple of years! Didn't happen. Now, I take my kids and want them to shoot whatever they want (within reason) and I love it. I said all that to say that deer numbers have risen and fallen over my 30 years hunting the exact same property. We've killed good bucks and we've had some lean years. My/our trigger fingers have had the least affect on the deer numbers on our place. Habitat change like, clear cuts, hardwood clearing, burning, not burning, spraying, not spraying, closed canopy with NO browse have had the most impact on deer numbers on my place and I suspect always will. My parents have had two pear trees in their yard for 20 years. 5 years ago the pears layed there and rotted. Now there's a 4 year old clear cut behind their house and I get 6-7 buck pics under that tree. Every pear gets picked up and eaten.

So there it is, good or bad, you can do everything in your power to help the deer as far as harvesting goes and still not be as productive as your neighbor who you hear shoot every evening. Habitat, if you can control it, is the absolute equalizer.