Yuchi WMA has a rifle range. Last time I was there, I was walking downrange to check a target. Looked at the ground at one of the biggest deer tracks I've ever seen in Georgia.
10 miles away where I hunted for years I shot hundreds if not thousands of rounds. Shotgun, rifle, handgun, submachine gun. I'd get finished and walk a quarter mile and kill squirrels, rabbits, deer, and dove.
One year at the same place, I killed ten deer in one thirty acre opening. Volunteer pines, broomsage, and no food plots. I was urinating out of my stand and smoking, too.
Animals get used to what going on in their habitat. They don't leave unless the food supply dries up, the bedding cover goes away, or they decide there is a clear and present danger. If it's good habitat, it will take a lot to drive them away.
If you think there is a marked decrease...I'd check to see if the habitat is being degraded in some way. Changes in the way a field is plowed can decrease food supply, and cover. This, in turn, decreases the wildlife population. Timber been cut locally? Ditto.
Shooting, no.
