there has to be pressure.
I disagree. My hunting area suffers from lack of pressure. When I started hunting, gun season was a war zone. I am within ear shot of Fort Knox, and the deer rifle fire masked the tank and artillery. Deer were running for cover opening weekend.
Over the last 10 years, a couple of mini-farm developments have come in, and those neighborhoods have resorted to strictly bow hunting on those tracts. Come gun season, 10 shots all day is typical. With nobody else hunting, you find deer bedding down in fence rows or woodlots along those minifarm tracts, especially so with the mild weather we have had, 3 of the last four years.