There are some components in COTW that have always been the go to option and I have some ideas that would hopefully balance things out.
Drink Zones - Everybody farms them, it's not so much a hunting game if we all just set the drink zone time and go to water...My solution would to change them to maybe 4-6 one hour slots throughout the day as this means you can't excessively farm them but you can plan your hunt to stop by water if a zone time is coming up. It also means that animals won't always be there as there will be a lot more travelling which is much more natural.
Polymer Tips - Significantly more popular than soft points because they are better and more reliable. I think you could increase the penetration of all soft points by about 50% and they would be viable but not overpowered. If you want reliable penetration you get polymer tips, if you want harder hits at the cost of a little penetration you get soft points. At the moment soft points are very rarely used.
Rifles - A fantastic choice of weapon but I think they have a bit too much of an advantage over the others. Just a small tweak of doubling the radius of hunting pressure will make you consider other options. Much like bows have less pressure. Shotguns and handguns will be more dense pressure but rifles should be bigger I feel.
Shotguns - Buckshot is utterly hopeless in cotw. It needs 50m effective range increase and to do real damage. It wouldn't be overpowered, it'll be as strong as a bow but spooks animals. I also think that the "damaged trophy organ" needs to be disabled for buckshot as one stray pellet ruining your trophy is not worth the risk of using it. Also birdshot should reach 50m.