Having a lot of fun wandering around theHunter:Call of the Wild , it has really superb and atmospheric environments (even on lower res settings) , at least the 2 gigantic reserves that are included the base game, they both have a very different vibe too so you really feel like you're not on the same continent and make using the game as a walking simulator rather refreshing.
Some observations regarding the actual hunting :
On average i observed that walking on Hirschfelden Hunting Reserve produce more noise than walking on (roughly as vegetation and soil aren't really the same) similar grounds in Layton Lake District.
Meaning that hunting in the german reserve is harder as you really need to move slower and find good spots to wait , while hunting in the american reserve allow for more mistakes.
I felt like in Layton Lake when i was taking cover in a bush or thanks to a tree, my visibility gauge was making me a lot more stealthy than in Hirschfelden , allowing me to sneak around the bush without my cover being blown, while in the german reserve my visibility gauge wasn't allowing for moving a lot around my cover without getting more exposed.
Basically, in term of hunting it's better to start on Layton Lake than on Hirschfelden , it will be less frustrating and you will learn the gameplay basics and the stealth faster.
Hirschfelden has a, actual shooting range, so you can train your aiming there , ammo being free there
https://thehuntercotw.fandom.com/wiki/Rathenfeldt_SchiessstandOn both reserves walking while standing is never a good idea unless you're crossing areas you are sure there's no game to target (or if you just aren't in the mood to shoot), it will produce 1 red bar in the noise gauge (and usually 2 on the german reserve), and on heavy vegetation it will produce 2 red bars and you don't want that if you're trying to get closer to an animal, in that situation it's better to crouch and move like that.
If you find a good spot, that keeps you very hidden (check your gauge) and have a good view on a feeding/drinking/resting zone you discovered, learn to be patient and you'll be rewarded if you came there at the correct time.
When i started playing there was an extra rifle in my inventory, a .270 gun, the ammo isn't free (unlike the "normal" starting .243 gun ) but the .270 ammo has better penetration (good for larger animals and piercing more organs) and "expansion" (that seems to be linked to how large a bleeding can be)
So basically unless for some reason you're very short on ingame money (you shouldn't really, just don't buy those hunting cabin to build yourself that you find regularly on the maps as they're not very low on price and not that usefull) there's no real reason to use the .243 gun that is outmatched in every ways by the .270 (hurting more means the prey will die faster so you will not have to follow it for as long as if you were making it bleed with the .243)
In the game there's the concept of "pressure zone" , basically when a prey dies, it generate a pressure zone what it means is that animal smell death and will start to avoid the area, the more overlapping pressure zones there are, the more chance an animal will not enter it.
Too many overlapping pressure zones will lead to the feeding/drinking/resting areas disappearing from that high pressure zone.
The only way to lower a pressure zone, is to killl a lot of preys in another area to make a stronger pressure zone there.
Another alternative is to delete all the "animal_population_X" (with X being a number) you can find in your
C:\Users\YourUserName\Documents\Avalanche Studios\Epic Games Store\COTW\
saved game folder (on steam it may of course be somewhere else) , there may be more of those files in subfolders there.
Doing this will reset the animal population like it was originally and will also remove all the pressure zones