I've hunted that general area in recent years and have seen a pretty noticeable drop in age class/quality over the last 3 seasons. Congrats on pulling the 4th season tag; hopefully you see what you're after.
The Vixia HF G30 HD was the first one I bought. I don't know much about aperture and focal lengths either. We just figured it out and learned how to use a couple editing apps. Jump in and you'll learn as you go.
I use final cut pro. I am not the most technologically savvy but I do find it relatively simple to use. I've been using it for videos like you mentioned for about 8 years.
I have been using a Canon Vixia HF G30 HD video camera for the last 8 seasons. I consider most of what I video inside of 350 yards to be pretty decent quality, relatively speaking. I probably have $1500ish into this setup including extra batteries/chargers/etc. It isn't Outdoors Channel...
I believe the 9 is up front and the 100 is on the day of the draw for NR as far as credit card charges go. It just shows up as 109 on the CPW portal when you look there. Think we're all on the same page?