I think the best thing to do would be to find a couple units that you like close to each other and hunt those, you don’t want to waste to much time bouncing around instead of hunting. Depending how big the buck in 36a is you might want to focus on him. If that buck is the caliber buck you would...
My favorites are chukar and California valley quail in the states. Wild Chukar are quite a challenge to hunt but are very rewarding and hold well for a pointing dog once you split up a covey.
I personally would go with the 6.5 PRC. The Ridgeline FFT comes in at 5.3 lbs so it’s a fairly light weight gun. The recoil of the 6.5 PRC will allow for the best shooting and it has plenty of energy for elk to 500 yards. I have killed my last two elk with my 6.5 PRC both were killed with one...
The die off will be region and unit dependent. I live in Idaho and where I’m at in Idaho it wasn’t too rough on one deer herd where they wintered. But it’ll just depend how the winter was in each unit. Some units in Idaho have had really bad die off. If where your going got had a really bad die...
I have a friend who bought a fierce and it seemed to be a good system until the stock cracked one day. He sent it to them to have it fixed and they said that it happens a lot ( the stock cracking on their rifles) they told him he would have to buy a new stock and they weren’t going to warranty...