between the fact of the rut was pretty much a nocturnal rut and the fact that md is populating so much is your reasons im sure. think about it the deer love to be around houses and those expensive landscape designs. they get pushed out of their land with no where else to go then they have to adapt to their new environment. i gre up in montgomery county and my parents have a house their in germantown and i use to run all over comus,clarksburg,poolseville, and those areas and there were tons of deer and that wasnt too long ago since im only 31. where my parents live there are heards of deer and they live in a subdivision. these deer know its safe there. more and more deer in md are becoming domesticated to a degree. as far as wiping them out theres no way that will happen. if your not hearing the shots then deer arent being killed. md is a hard place to hunt anymore unfortanetly.