Gobbler32,
Deer populations are odd things. First, deer do not "spread themselves out" across the landscape. In fact, they do just the opposite. They tend to clump together, leaving large expanses in between nearly devoid of deer. That's why one property may be crawling with deer while a property just down the road being nearly devoid of deer. In addition, populations fluctuate. This can be caused by disease outbreaks (EHD) or sudden changes in predator (coyote) numbers, or most commonly, changes in local habitat. A sudden change in habitat can cause a local population to boom or bust. An of course, harvest practices can play a big role. Everybody in the area starting to shoot does (when they hadn't been doing so in the past) and you can expect to see a very sudden decline in local population. And that doesn't even touch the subject of farmers' depredation permits.