Help me understand Hunting Rifles

General Discussion
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Hunting Rifles!

The Meuser is probably the second or third weapon a player picks up, and for me it was the second weapon I dropped and never touched again until I had a five-star version, only to drop it again after a while. I have absoultely no reason to ever use one. Mind, I’m excluding the PvG from this, it’s an anti-material sniper rifle and performs very well.

So, where do my problems begin? First off, sustained damage. The very slow fire rate of both Meuser and Älgstudsare plus the very small magazine make for a good first shot on a distant enemy, but enemies mostly roam in packs and doing a full fight with a HR is quite the drag as you can get very easily overwhelmed. Even Älgstüdare is bolt-action despite it saying that it’s semi-auto, reload times for both rifles are quite long considering their magazine size.

Secondly, there are no reflex sights for them and I either have to use iron sights, which are rather cumbersome on both (AG 4 has wonderful iron sights with a very good view as a counter example). The attachments in general are rather a letdown, no extended magazines, no semi-auto mode, no reflex and nothing to make it stand apart.

Finally, the damage. Quite the caliber, but penetration is mid-tier at best and I still need multiple hits on a hunter’s machine gun to make it come off, more than a magazine to take out Military hunters on normal difficulty. Then, Älgstudare has an even smaller mag than the Meuser without anything keeping the two apart but a tiny bit of damage. As a counter-example, Assault Rifles all have their own feel, AG4 is the battle rifle for higher ranges and constant precision it’s supposed to be, while AG5 has the lighter feel of the smaller caliber it carries, and the AK is just a bullet hose with a very punishing recoil, but a high reward for people who invest perks and practice into it.

Then, finally, there’s the PvG 90 which is all-around better than both hunting rifles, semi-auto, highest penetration in the game and able to wreck Tanks from 300 meters away. If you get the experimental no enemy will ever be a menace again, 30 shots and an FNIX tank is gone. On a side note, a magnus or 12 gauge with slugs can do the job of any hunting rifle with a scope and silencer, being able to kill a runner in a single shot on the fuel tank when hollow point ammo is used, with both being more versatile.

So please hunting rifle users, if there are any, tell me ways to properly use a hunting rifle and get something out of them, help me understand why they are like this.

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Well, im in love with my älgstudsare… :slight_smile:
I got it equipped with a silencer and a 4-8x scope and its been extremely useful in silently taking down runners and scouts, especially around heavier enemies, often without any detection.
I also use it alot when setting gas tank traps.

I could of course use a silenced pistol to set off the traps, but im rocking a brännbollsträ as secondary, just for the pure fun of it, smacking anything from ticks to hunters and as a finishing touch on the occasional harvester&tank.

The mauser on the other hand seems to be a forced fit in the game, its there simply because its so very popular as a civilian rifle in sweden after the military sold off their stockpiled mausers to civilian hunters.

But its somewhat worthless to have them both, and since the älgstudsare has higher damage per shot, its obviously the better choice.

I do have the exp pvg too, but since its LOUD as a drunken teenager, i tend to keep it in my backpack for the heavier enemies, rivals and tanks mainly.

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What are you running in the other slot? My experience comes from skirmish difficulty, and I found the hunting guns to be slow to make those hunter packs into scrap because you need more than one mag for them even with some perks into damage. Also, do you prefer AP or soft-point ammo? When using the Pvg from several hundred meters enemies can’t detect you, the exp pvg is awesome due to the insane muzzle velocity and low fall-off.

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I do agree the älgstudsare is the better one and the best for stealth attacks i took down 6 runners before they noticed me. The mauser is really just a gun for the early game it’s sluggish and useless against the speedy hunters barely doing anything without many clips of ammo. The PVG is the all round best in damage and speed of taking machines down but it is very loud as liggesten said and will draw alot of attention. To sum them up. älgstudsare is the best for a stealth mission, PVG is best for an all out scrap with the big machines and mauser is really in my opinion quite useless and you should just recycle them.

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I was hoping we get an experimental hunting rifle at some point, the PvG already outperformed them before, especially on heavy targets that will notice you anyway after you fire the first shot.

Thing is, when in GenZ do you have little ammo and when do enemies not bomb you through cover or simply come running? I mean especially runners always move pretty close to you. Magnus is just like a HR when equipped wih a scope and silencer but has a faster RoF. Gotta learn the bullet drop, though. But to be honest, I switched from sniping runners to simply using the Carl Gustav to wipe out the whole group in a single shot.

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Well… there is very little to explain, you have the answer in the name - HUNTING rifle. It wasn’t made to fight an all out war against machines.

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Haha true. It’s also a civilian weapon, not some military grade anti-material rifle, but there’s also game balancing which is fueled not by real life counterparts but by how something ties into the general balance of the game. This is why cars explode and shooting a a car battery causes an EMP in GenZ :slight_smile:

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They only have one use as far as I see: Sniping runners silently, early in the game. That’s it!
IRL, the 7,62x51 is more powerful than both the .243 and the .270, so I believe both hunting rifles are pointless to use once you get the .50 BMG. (Edit: The .270 and the 7,62x51 are roughly equal in terms of energy on impact. .270 has higher velocity, but a lighter bullet.)
It would make more sense if the “Älgstudsare” was chambered in a real moose caliber, like .375 H&H magnum! :sunglasses:

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The Hunting rifles equipped with silencer and scope are very useful against runners, and if you´re good you can destroy 4 or 5 in a row per mag, depending of which one you are using, i´ve been doing that since the beginning, one of the Hunting rifles is always with me and i usually destroy 4/5 runners in a row.
For me using the PV90 for everything is kinda boring, but that´s me.

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Both s-rifles are bolt-action and that inherently makes their fire rate slow. Same is with 12G shotty. It’s pump-action makes it’s fire rate also slow, yet i don’t see you listing it as drawback for 12G shotty.
I wonder why? :thinking:

Description says that it’s “capable of semi-auto”, not that “it is semi-auto”. There is a difference.

Why would you want to use reflex sight (i guess Red Dot) on them in the first place? :thinking: Do you want to cheese the game by quick scoping?
Also, PVG90 (.50 cal) doesn’t have reflex sight either but i don’t see you complaining about that.

The same can be said about shotguns as well:

  • 12G pump-action - no extended mag, no semi-auto fire, no vision mod.
  • Sjöqvist semi-auto - no extended mag, no scope what-so-ever, no vision mod, no silencer. Only weapon attachment it can take is choke and that’s it.

Meusser (.243) and Älgstudstäre (.270) have one key advantage over PGV90 (.50 cal) and that is their ability to equip silencers. For a stealth gameplay, silenced shots are crucial.

.44 Magnum and 12G shotty can do that up to 50m of range. Try sniping runner’s fuel tanks at 200-400m range with .44 Magnum or 12G shotty and look how you fare.

I’ve used .243 from the beginning to late-game reliably since i play with sneak&snipe tactics. I did get .270 in mid-game but for some reason, i couldn’t kill runners with single shot reliably and so, i switched back to .243. .270 also has a lot more recoil compared to the .243 and having one less round capacity didn’t help .270 case either in my eyes.

If your gameplay style is running in guns blazing then yes, .243 and .270 doesn’t have any use for you. But for those who love sneaking and sniping, .243 and .270 are very good silenced long range weapons.

While you don’t see any use for .243 and .270, i don’t see any use for shotguns. For different play styles there are different weapons.

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Since I prefer a stealthy gameplay with shooting from long distances the hunting rifles are my way to go. In early game the Meusser is a good weapon although the projectiles aren’t very accurate. When you get your hands on the Älgstudsare (given that you have ammo for it) just dump the Meusser. Although the mag can only carry 4 rounds the projectiles are way more accurate (although for some reason, shooting the energy cell of a runner not always triggers the destruction of the runner for the Älgstudsare). I use the breath holding ability (ALT key on PC) to reduce sway. In addition I prefer to have the Marksman skill which eliminates total sway and I use a 6-12× scope. This way I can hit anything I see silently. In combination with prone this makes me feel like a real sniper. Very cool indeed.

Usually I tend to scout around the target area to get to know the surroundings, count the enemies and look out for the best position to attack. At first I try to eliminate as many runners as possible. The moment the char reloads the weapon I change my position since the machines usually run towards the position I were shooting at (even with the best silencer attached). The next steps depend on what type of enemies is left and if you’re spotted. Sometimes I am able to shoot another 4 shots against the enemy, sometimes I need to switch towards the second weapon which is usually the AK.

Hunting rifles work also very well when defending from inside a building (no machines glitching into it provided). Shooting 4 rounds, pulling back into a safe spot, reload, shooting 4 rounds etc works good in this way for me. Depending on the enemy I usually occupy the upper floor of a building. Only when the machines shoot gas cartridges I shoot from the lower floor, since the gas behaviour in this game is terrible.

For 1 round the damage the hunting rifle does is pretty severe combined to 1 round of an assault rifle. What kills the hunting rifles is the tiny magazine. Hunting rifles are … well … for hunting animals. In those cases you don’t need a large magazine.

Another good way for me to use the hunting rifle are the hallways in the bunkers. A runner or ticks at the end of a hallway are best fought with a long range weapon in my case.

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