Take a different class. A one time experience shooting film Is not going to teach you much. Having knowledge of how silver halide works for capture and the process might add something your understanding of image creation but really not much. The rules for camera capture have not changed much only the media. Also, past experience in with reputable photo/lab courses, generally the school provides the camera/film etc. so that all students are on the same page. Chances are pretty good that most people are not gonna go back to film. Although nice to know (you can read a book). Understanding the film process is more complex than processing and printing one roll of film. Put your time and MONEY learning in the place your going to be with your photography. You would be better off learning how a sensor works. Learn about RGB you can read about CMYK. Sorry to be so NETATIVE :( just sayin :)

Learn to use the technology! A 3 or 4 shot burst in high speed continuous mode guarantees the ability to produce a photograph with no blinkers etc., chimping does not! Trying to review each member of even small groups is a waste of time, and not easy anyway. It is an exceedingly unprofessional use of chimping!

Granted that this is actually a professional technique though, because it really needs lighting that can fire at the same intensity and color multiple times in one second. Multiple high power studio strobes make it easy, and anything less is a potential failure or excessive work.

I agree. I have a similar setup (Minolta 600mm, Sony a99ii and matching 1.4 TC) and at that distance things are not as sharp as when I shoot a subject from 150' away. You need to increase your shutter speed substantially for that setup as well to give yourself a fighting chance. In your photos of the deer you cannot get too much better resolution with the conditions you have. The grasses are slim and any wind movement will cause detail loss. You certainly are too far away for any fur detail. The DOF at that distance is in the order of 10s of yards.

I would try using the same setup and testing at different distances. This will give you an idea of how your photos degrade with distance.
There is also a loss in resolution when using a full-frame lens on a cropped sensor camera.