Well, you are right... we have limited "wilderness" experience. Hubby is a long-time city boy, I lived four years on a 27 acre wooded farm, and I LOVED the outdoors, but that was in MS, and the only wildlife I ever ran into was deer... you could hear coyote every now and then... but nothing as severe as mountain lions and bears. I camped, hiked, and spent pretty much all of my teenage years in the woods swimming in ponds full of water moccasins.
Since we homeschool, my children and I are learning through a combination of online sources and books and videos about native wildlife, edibles, medicinal, etc. We are taking archery lessons as a whole family, and plan to use that as well as gun hunting eventually, but we have no experience with large game. Being that I lived on a farm, I did my fair share of rabbit, fish, and chicken gutting We are getting guns and lessons, and like I said before, don't plan to go all out until it is necessary for the safety of the family, until then, learn and put into practice. I think as far as the biggest drawback is that I have only lived in this part of the country for a year, and am VERY unsure of a lot of things, even more so in that the land we are buying is a different climate altogether than where we are (four hours apart.)
As far as cooking, I have been looking into several options. Solar ovens for one, possibly alcohol stoves... not sure yet. I watched a seminar on cooking when the lights go out, and took notes, but I have yet to sit down with hubby and discuss pros and cons (he works loooooong hours). I am, of course, gleaning as much knowledge from this post and looking into those things as well. (Btw, what a wonderful bunch of people you all are!!)