...so I can copypasta it every time Indiana's weird deer regs get brought up in conversation:
Here's an interesting .pdf of a PowerPoint presentation on deer overpopulation and its impact, on page five of which is a map showing the estimated deer range in the US in 1947.
Note that in the crosshatched "scarce or extinct" area,
you can see the borders in Michigan and Minnesota that are currently the
demarcation lines of where rifle hunting is legal and where in those
states it's shotgun-only to this day. Ask any Bubba in MN or MI why the
south half of his state is shotgun-only, and $5 says he'll give you
something about how its "flat and densely populated".
.