I don't know what it takes to get to where you are seeing 40 deer/hunt but I know for a fact that at my house about 8-10 years ago I would hunt a lot and not see anything (200 acres). When I would see deer it would 1 or 2. Cameras were showing that I had zero groups of does only singles and pairs. As best I could tell I had maybe 7 does on the place (or at least that frequented the place).

So I quit shooting. I shot absolutely nothing for a few years, then adopted the mentality of a turkey hunter in that my few does were precious and if I wanted meat I shot a spike (that would likely get dispersed anyway).

I started to see a difference last year. I had multiple groups of 2-3 does and felt like I had at least double the does from before. And this year the difference is extremely noticeable I now have 4-6 (or more) does visiting every field regularly. If I have a good fawn survival this summer I "may" let my son shoot a doe at our house next year, if so it will be the first one killed in probably a decade.