Deer existed in isolated pockets across TN, but by and large, deer had been eradicated from TN. However, it was not settlers/subsistence hunters who did that. It was market hunters, and most importantly, the invention of the refrigerated boxcar. At the time, almost all meat sold in stores was wild game. It was perfectly legal to sell wild deer, fish, bird meat in stores, and market hunters made their living killing/catching wild game and selling it to the resellers. This greatly harmed the wild game populations, but what really wiped them out was the invention of the refrigerated boxcar. Once these were available, deer from the Midwest and Southeast could be shipped to the big cities of the East Coast. THAT is what destroyed the wildlife populations of the Eastern U.S.
I have seen copies of the rail shipping manifests where MILLIONS of deer carcasses are being shipped from the Midwest to New York, Boston, Philadelphia, etc. via refrigerated boxcar.
Now where deer populations are compared to the past is a tricky situation. Before Europeans first arrived in North America, the native people did a lot of habitat enhancement through fire that would have allowed a very high deer density. However, after De Soto's visit to the Southeast, smallpox swept the entire Americas, possibly killing 95% of the native populations. The societal breakdown and lack of population allowed the Southeastern U.S. to revert back to climax hardwood forests instead of the oak/pine savannahs they had been before De Soto, and climax hardwood forests support very, very few deer.
Been worse rut in a long time. Seen lots prior to, not much since. I keep thinking it's me, but ive heard very very few shots. 
