Bounty Hunter

I was out in big valley, hunting the Legendary buck and was clear that bounty hunter patrols were common. The first bunch I fought and died to, the second I hid from. When they disappeared, I went to hunt the buck. All went like expected, following tracks, copious amounts of boars, etc. etc. But when I found the final clue near a camp, things started to get weird. Bounty hunters showed up, not to far from me, and I got the message of “the legendary animal cannot be tracked since there is too much activity”. I panicked, but thought, I just need to escape, I can come back later. But to my surprise, there was a hunter animal icon on my mini map, and after a hasty investigation, I found the Legendary Buck lying dead on the floor. No blood, no nothing. I skinned it and ran for the hills to escaped the bounty hunters, whilst being a little bewildered.

What the hell happened?

So I was playing rdr2 story mode and by Lancaster was really dirty and I saw some bounty hunters I shot one he died but none of the other hunters were altered then I shot another one and it wasn’t alerted and then I cleaned my gun then shot in the air and that’s when they were alerted. If anyone can tell me if the is a feature in game I’ll really appreciate it

So I was an idiot and bought the Trader role before I bought the Bounty Hunter role. So I've been grinding to get gold and I'm almost up to 15 bars, and I'm thinking about getting the Premium Bounty Hunter role just for the provisions satchel. What I'm wondering is can I get the regular Bounty Hunter role and upgrade to the Premium one later on? Or is that not an option?