Seriously, stalking prey is not that hard - skill up on spear, bow and stealth. If you don't start with a bow, craft 4 or 5 javelins. if they are crappy quality, it does not really matter as they will only end up broken or in a pond. As posted above, when you zoom in to an animal encounter, start sneaking to less than 8 tiles using trees as cover, before lobbing a Javelin/shooting an arrow at your prey. Throw at the body - it is more important that you hit it in any way rather than anywhere in particular, and spoiling the hide is not as important as getting the meat. If you hit it, chase it by running, occasionally switching to walk when you get a bit tired. If you hit the animal, you should be able to keep up and lob more javelins/shoot more arrows. It may even corner itself for you to finish off via melee or pass out for an installant. If you miss it, get back into stealth mode and slowly follow the tracks - it will bolt away but eventually slow and down due to tiredness when you can repeat the process. This works against moose/elk and reindeer well. Bears are a little different... as they will attack you and probably kill you unless you get a strong hit or two in first.
Of course, you could always just kill and eat a Njerpez, or other wandering human. Using the unfortunate hunting trip start is also a good idea, as you get some useful extra starting gear from your dead father, a nearby bear/lynx/glutton, and even the meat from your dead father to eat if you wish.