Why are deer hunted with a rifle in the UK?

A shotgun slug will drop one quite effectively and has far less range than a rifle bullet (say 250 yards as opposed to more than a mile just for a .22). Of course, you DO have to get closer to the deer, and that takes more skill....

Likewise muzzleloading firearms have less range than a modern rifle but can and do take animals up bears. Again, they take stalking skills to get close enough for an effective shot.

And bows, too. Bow hunting is quite effective and deer can be taken quite humanely by a trained bowhunter.

In all of these cases the range of the projectile is considerably less than that of a rifle. Indeed, in Midwestern states such as Illlinois, shotgun, muzzleloader, and bow are the primary LEGAL weapons weapons allowed for hunting (pistol too, but these are highly restricted as weapons for hunting deer -- only certain calibers, barrel lengths, etc.). This is because these states are flat and a bullet from high-powered rifle travels a very long way and could easily hit someone or something. The UK is highly populated (average number of people per acre), so why are rifles used for hunting there?

(I shan't say anything about the waterfowl hunting practices except that it's my own opinion that the weapons and practices used remove such hunting from sport.)