Bow is the easiest way to hunt deer in my opinion, but if you dont have one you can sneak up behind them and any sufficiently fast weapon can murder them if you get close enough to hit before they spook. Just be sure to stay behind them, line of sight is apparently a thing.

When it comes to grind, I haven't checked out all the newest stuff yet (stopped playing for a bit so there would be new stuff to check out when i came back) but in my experience so far its specifically the bronze age that feels the most tedious. Iron can be tedious to, but theres also a lot more you can do with it that will likely remain useful for more than just the next few days after you get it, some iron stuff you will likely use for the majority of the rest of the game (like the longboat) whereas bronze just feels like a part you have to slog through to get to the actually good stuff.