Whitetail deer are more plentiful. Restrictions of choices of firearms. Smaller hunting parcels. Less access to hunting land. More educated and serious hunters. Camo clothing. Treestand hunting. Box blind hunting. More focus on "clean kills". DRT focus because deer don't understand property boundries. Cartridges and optics to take advantage of long range oportunities. My father didn't have fancy camo, used an old open sighted Argentine mauser, always tried to "track down" a buck, and was the least successful hunter I have known! He and his buddies only deer hunted the first week of season and it was an exception if anyone in the group killed a deer. I use all the latest technology and bring home the venison. I hunt deer from October 1 until January 1 with bow, shotgun, and muzzleloader. Call me crazy but give me that camo, scope sighted magnum, treestand, box blind, deer scents, etc and the results will speak for themselves. Using a fast and flat shooting rifle does not diminish your hunting skills or make you a poor shooter. There are guys with no hunting skills that are unsuccessful with 30-30's, just like guys that are unsuccessful with 300UM's. It's not the tool, it's the guy behind the trigger!
