Each rifle in Hunt: Showdown brings its own unique combination of stats, from bullet damage and fire rate to velocity and special ammo types, making them perform distinctly in both PvP and PvE encounters. Rifles are typically the go-to for mid to long-range combat, and their effectiveness can vary significantly based on playstyle and situational needs. Today, we’ll be breaking down various categories—like lever-action, bolt-action, and single-shot rifles—assessing their strengths, weaknesses, and role in the current meta. This Hunt: Showdown rifle tier list ranks each weapon based on its raw stats, in-game performance, and popularity, so you’ll know exactly which rifle to choose for the best results.
Rifle Tier List Criteria
In this tier list, rifles are ranked based on several key factors that determine their effectiveness in Hunt: Showdown. These criteria include:
- Damage Output: How much damage the rifle deals per shot, especially in headshots and body shots, and how it fares against both players and AI.
- Fire Rate: The speed at which the rifle can fire successive shots, which plays a crucial role in intense PvP situations and when dealing with multiple enemies.
- Bullet Velocity: The speed at which bullets travel, impacting how easy it is to land long-range shots and compensate for bullet drop.
- Ammo Types: The availability of special ammo like High Velocity, FMJ, and DumDum, and how these alter the rifle’s performance in terms of damage, range, or utility.
- Reload Speed: How quickly the rifle can be reloaded, which can be a game-changer in both PvP and PvE engagements.
- Utility & Versatility: The rifle’s adaptability in different combat scenarios—whether it excels in close-range firefights or thrives at long distances.
- Meta Relevance: The rifle’s current popularity and effectiveness in the game’s meta, taking into account recent updates and balance changes.
Using these factors, I will rank rifles from S-tier (the best of the best) to lower tiers, ensuring a comprehensive look at each weapon’s strengths and weaknesses.
Hunt Rifle Tier List
S
Lebel 1886
I may be a bit biased towards this gun since I fell in love with it the moment I tried it out, but I think many will agree with me on this one. It's a bolt-action rifle that's quite similar to the Mosin-Nagant, albeit almost twice as cheap and with much better iron sight. It has high ammo penetration and damage, velocity and fire rate. It shines when played in mid (50m) to long (100m+) encounters, but it holds up surprisingly well in closer combat too.
Krag
A bolt-action rifle with surprisingly high fire rate and reload speed. Performs exceptionally well in the hands of aggressive players that like to push mid to long range encounters. The only "downside" is the fact that it does not have access to strong ammo such as Spitzer.
Centennial
The Centennial is arguably the best medium ammo rifle in the game. It has insanely high muzzle velocity and decent fire rate, with access to DumDum ammo that adds bleeding pressure and forces enemies to run or take cover. Overall, a great, accessible and cheap gun that works well in all star lobbies.
Mosin-Nagant
The Mosin is a popular bolt-action rifle that hits like a truck and can be quickly reloaded using a stripper clip. It has high ammo penetration resulting in more damage, good fire rate and access some of the best special ammo types such as the Spitzer.
Marathon Swift
A swift variant of the Marathon, it still remains a pump-action rifle but with a speed-loader for faster reloads. The best compact ammo rifle you can play, and it's very cheap as well.
Drilling
The Drilling beats all other long ammo rifles that can't use Spitzer ammo(in terms of velocity. It also has one of the highest drop ranges in the game— 165 and packs a decent amount of ammo that should be enough even for players who aren't too accurate with their shots.
A
Vetterli 71 Cyclone
The Cyclone version of the Vetterli 71 is much cheaper than it used to be which made it shoot up in popularity for lobbies under 6 star. It has incredible fire rate, and recoil but the damage is a bit lacking now that it requires 2 body shots to kill.
Nitro Express
One of the most expensive guns in the game, the Nitro Express is a break-action rifle with two barrels. It has a somewhat long one-shot range with Shredder Ammo (which is quite expensive too), and only has 6 ammo so if you're not accurate, be prepared to stock up on ammo boxes!
Marathon
The Marathon is a pump-action rifle that's a great alternative to the Infantry 73L if you haven't unlocked it yet. It features high muzzle velocity and is currently one of the best compact ammo rifles.
Infantry 73L
The Infantry 73L is a lengthened Ranger 73 that's somewhat better at longer range and sports a high amount of ammo. If high-velocity bullets weren't mediocre at the moment, this gun would easily be S tier and beyond, considering the ridiculously low price point.
Ranger 73 Swift
A slight improvement over the base Ranger 73, the Swift uses a speed-loader for faster reload speeds which can wreak havoc when paired with Levering.
1865 Carbine
The 1865 Carbine is a lever-action repeating rifle that's very strong for medium range encounters because of its high base damage as well as access to FMJ bullets. It does however struggle in the long range territory, which is completely fine in my opinion since the gun only costs 70 dollars.
B
Berthier 1892
The Berthier 1892 is a french bolt-action carbine, it is overall a solid rifle that performs well on long range but struggles with ammo due to the reloads wasting bullets. I personally don't like it since it kinda forces you to play Bulletgrubber and/or Ammo Boxes as the gun only has 12 or 9 bullets when rolling with special ammo.
Mosin-Nagant Avtomat
The fully automatic version of Mosin-Nagant, aka the "Avtomat" is highly effective at medium-range combat but suffers from limited accuracy and ammo. You're forced to carry an ammo box, as well as a medium slot weapon that shares the same ammo type so that the Avtomat has more ammo, but you'll still run out of ammo in your first shootout.
Springfield 1866
A single-shot weapon with incredible utility, its high-velocity bullets allow it to match even the Mosin-Nagant which costs almost 20x more! The nature of being single-shot does however limit its versatility and performance in various shootout scenarios.
Ranger 73
The Ranger 73 is an improved version of the 73C with same stats but a larger magazine that performs even better in conjunction with Iron Eye and Levering.
Mako 1895 Aperture
The Mako is overall a decent rifle, with solid damage and fire rate that doesn't outperform any higher tier guns. It really deserves its place in the "B" aka balanced tier.
Officer Carbine
The Officer Carbine was dominating the compact-rifle meta for a while and has received a sizeable nerf. This in conjunction with the high-velocity bullets performing worse than before has made it struggle in the long-range category.
C
Frontier 73C
A lever-action repeater rifle, the Frontier 73C performs well with high-velocity ammo, but gets limited when not played with Iron Eye and Levering, since they both improve the usability of the gun by a solid amount. The gun is however, dirt cheap.
Vetterli 71
While budget-friendly, it’s outclassed by other unsilenced long ammo rifles in both velocity and damage, especially when paired with high-velocity ammo.
Sparks
The Sparks has very long drop range but has two very big downsides just like the Martini-Henry— slow reload time and a single-shot barrel. It also has poor muzzle velocity, making it harder to hit moving targets.
Martini-Henry
A single-shot British rifle that also features slow reload time which is very bad for single-shot gameplay. You miss the hit and more often than not you're dead.
Vetterli 71 Silencer
The Vetterli 71 Silencer is better than other large slot silenced weapons such as the Frontier and Sparks, but like other silenced weapons, it struggles with muzzle velocity. The issue with muzzle velocity gets fixed by playing high-velocity ammo, but it's currently weak and lowers the gun's damage too much to be effective.
D
Martini-Henry Ironside
The Martini-Henry Ironside is a single-shot breach-loading rifle. It has a magazine on the side that allows it to be shot like semi-automatic guns, but unfortunately on top of not having access to any powerful special ammo like spitzer, the magazine also blocks too much vision making it much harder to see enemies.
LeMat Carbine
While the stats aren’t terrible, the Lemat Carbine doesn’t shine in any of the important categories. Its velocity, damage, and fire rate are all mediocre, while also not having access to any of the more powerful ammo types that could pair well with it. It isn't played in 6 star matches at all because it requires Iron Eye to even be remotely effective.
Frontier 73C Silencer
This is a Winfield made, lever-action repeating rifle with a silencer on it. It is currently severely underpowered and not competitive enough for a large-slot rifle, let alone a silenced one. It is however, dirt cheap, meaning you can take it into a hunt in hopes to find a better weapon.
Sparks Silencer
Though it deals solid damage and decent iron sights, the slow muzzle velocity and single-shot nature make it a tough pick. It’s great for stealth on a budget, but that's about it.
