Old article but gives the issue scale. My wife grew up eating deer. She won’t touch it again. Signs in the state reminding people it’s illegal to bring an entire animal into the state.
https://www.deerassociation.com/this-cwd-map-spells-trouble-future-deer-hunting/
In my part of Alabama (Eastern Elmore county) I’ve noticed a few less deer on my property this year.
I have people who hunt my land and they give me a quarter of all harvested. I told them not to bother this year; they’re just not in big numbers like before. Just a few small does.
The past several years they were always getting some, and I had plenty of meat.
I hope it is because they were hunted out—not that they’re dying (the deer, not the hunters!).