To save a bit of typing....copy and paste Muzzyman's comments. I tend to accept and agree with most of what chickory originally posted. Herd numbers are down...significantly since three years ago and the current population estimate cannot be correct unless all of those 1.6 million deer are on private...unhuntable land. I would be willing to wager that changing the rifle season back to the way it was would be enough to begin to again balance the deer herd to the point where a majority of the sportsman begin to see deer again on a fairly regular basis.