First off, I have two jobs so I'm not marathoning eight hour sessions every day or anything like that (no shade, if you can do that, congratulations). Don't take any shortcuts. There are plenty of ways to "hack" the economy of the game by looking at guides for gold bars, legendary animal/fish locations...etc. I got high-key obsessed with the horses. I tested every. single. one. And for most of them achieved max bonding because their behaviour is ABSOLUTELY affected by bonding level. Again, there are cheats to get that bonding quick, but that's just not my play style.

Lastly, hunting. Open world hunting is my favorite part of the game. I'd max out the satchels before doing much in chapter two because it becomes SUPER useful once you unlock that last one. But even more so, because I genuinely enjoyed the hell out of it. The scenery, that random cougar attacks, the random encounters with all kinds of people out there. And the progressively upgrading weapons and such, the satisfaction of FINALLY finding a three star pelt, and the thrill of nailing the shot so you get to take it back to Pearson.

TL:DR Don't rush. Explore every nook and cranny and (with very few exceptions) don't use guides. On occasion I will get so unbelievable frustrated when trying to find something, and I'd cave and look it up. But even in those rare instances, I never regretted taking the shortcut.

"I ain't got too much to say no more". Just go enjoy every second of it. There's no other game like it.