Biggest thing is getting out there a whole bunch in the beginning. Minimum 2 trips per month. And... mentally preparing yourself for the idea of hiking-in in the dark before the sun comes up and and staying until it's dark out and hiking-out in the dark.
To boost your confidence in that regard, what you may end up doing is schedule one outing where you don't hike-in in the dark, to get visually familiar with the layout of the trail/pathway into the area, stay until dark, then hike back out in the dark. Along the way if there are areas that look interesting for exploring the next time you come back there... plot a waypoint in your GPS and take it home and look at it in overhead sattelite view in Google maps just so your brain can kinda get an idea for where it is in relation to all the stuff you HAVE now seen in the daylight already.
Safety man... screenshot an overhead view of where you plan to go... edit the screenshot to show the direction you will plan to travel thru there and approx endpoints you're going to try to reach within there. Then email that stuff to somebody else whom you'll check-in with using a TXT of like "Home n safe" or something like that. With the instruction that if they don't here from you, they call the rangers for that area and forward them the email you made describing where you'd planned to go thru. Don't stray off the planned route by very much. Save that for the next outing! Think of each outing as like 1 move on a chess board. During each move you're gathering intel to help you form your next move.
Take at least 1 trekking pole and USE that mofo. Anything that seems a little too sketchy to traverse that particular way? Don't do it! Take your time and figure out another safer way around. Make sure in your Med kit you've got some pain-killers in there to allow you to hobble your ass outta there if you get jacked-up. Get yourself a Personal Locator Beacon! Cheap insurance man.
Biggest thing though? Just know "Yo, I got this!" and feel confident that with all your prep work you did you should be able to handle just about anything.
I highly recommend packing most of your hunting pack 1 or 2 nights BEFORE the night you have to go. You wanna be able to take your time and be very thoughtful in making sure you've got everything you should need. Any doubts? Double and Triple check whatever it is. You wanna be confident on the day of that you've got everything. Just grab n go that morning, ya know?
And for sure get yourself at least 2 TrailCams (and cable locks for them). When you find places where the evidence makes you think this is a choke point that they come thru, post up a TrailCam that points at that choke point. But don't put up the TrailCam too close to a trail, if you have to, try to hide it better by "brushing it in" just so other hunters don't see it and start thinking maybe this is a place they should be going to also.
When you do finally get lucky and take an animal. When you're done, make sure to put the remains off the trail, someplace where other hunters and hikers aren't going to see it. You don't need to be tipping off other hunters that there are deer there.
If you take pics of stuff to post on line, make sure the angle is either somewhat downward or somewhat upward. You don't want to leave too much background stuff showing in the shots that could tip-off some other savvy hunter to your location you were at when you took that pic.
