IMO... The amount of rifle tags is unsustainable. Every time I read about a rifle coues hunt it's I shot my deer at 550, 605, 680. Ray Charles could sneak within that type of range. Too many deer are being shot, many of them shooting any buck with horns, and the large bucks take a beating as they are fewer in number anyways. Technology has improved to the point that even so-so marksmen are slinging lead at that range. This is not meant to be a bashing of rifle hunters... it's just numbers of deer hitting the ground, Especially with a few units issuing tags in the thousands, and most in the 600-800 range.
People bitched about the OTC bow hunt are killing all the deer. It's been limited now, and rarely do many units get near reaching the quota for coues. Most Southern coues units there are only a handful of bucks killed... Mule deer are another story...
I definitely see less mature bucks during the rut, it's been steadily decreasing for years. Sure, someone kills a slug every now and then... but proportionally the number of large bucks seem to be getting less...