I believe we are on the same page, oldHat. The deerskin trade of the 18th century decimated the whitetail populations in the south. Creek hunters from the village of Pecana at the junction oc the Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers in modern Alabama were traveling as far west as the Sabine river basin to find deer by the 1750’s.
Agreed. Same problem happened in the Ohio river basin in the late 1700s. Stories are told of hunters having to travel very long distances to find any deer.
Kentucky was flush with game when Boone arrived and within a couple decades was decimated.