Eastern Tenn. and Ky deer numbers are low, North/central has great deer numbers, and western KY all have great deer numbers. I believe there is lots more public land to hunt here in KY. I live in Monticello, near Lake Cumberland, and all the Corp of Engineers property is open to the public. Since they have the lake lowered the last few years, much more habitat, and easy access from a boat. In my county, as in many others statewide, we had a blue tongue kill off 4 years ago, estimated at 40% of the herd. The herd is rebounding back better than ever, as only the hardies survived. A lot of P&Y and B&C dead deer were found in my county alone, near water sources. KY's deer progam is working, last year in my county, we had 719 deer harvested and checked, and probably another 150 ran over in the road. There is also a lot of private land, if you are willing to do the work, get with landowners and help them in some ways. I varmint hunt with a rifle on about 70 farms, keep groundhogs and coyotes thinned down, and after folks see you are a responsible and safe hunter, in a few months or a couple of years, nearly all have opened their property up for deer hunting and gave me cart blanche to do as I please. That said, you must continue to show respect for the landowner even more, and they seem to really appreciate you stopping and taling to them. I have some really good deer where I am hunitng on my and neighbors propertey, and some lousy genes also. The wife and I alternate taking some scrappy bucks out of the herd, and the last 15 years I have seen drastic improvements, seeing several P&Y class bucks and being lucky enough to take 2 of them.