Weapons are the heart of combat in Hunt: Showdown 1896, but picking a loadout isn’t as simple as choosing the gun with the highest Damage stat.
Every weapon asks you to make trade-offs. A powerful rifle might consume most of your Weapon Capacity. Compact Ammo gives you plenty of reserve ammunition but sacrifices some damage and penetration. Long Ammo hits much harder, but its smaller ammo reserve and steeper bullet drop demand more deliberate shots. Then you have shotguns, bows, crossbows, melee weapons, and unusual Special Ammo weapons that play by completely different rules.
There are also Traits to consider. Levering can transform how you use a lever-action rifle, Fanning changes single-action revolvers, Quartermaster opens completely different loadout combinations, and traits such as Iron Eye or Fast Fingers can make particular weapon actions much smoother.
So, if you’re new to Hunt—or simply trying to understand the current weapon system better—here’s how everything fits together.
Hunt Showdown 1896 Best Gun 2026 – Weapons Tier List
Base weapons are available for Hunt Dollars from Bloodline Rank 0.
Weapon variants are a little different. Things such as scopes, silencers, bayonets, and other specialized versions are unlocked by earning Weapon XP within that weapon family before they become available to purchase.
Many weapons also have Legendary skins obtainable from different sources.
How you actually acquire weapons during play depends on the mode.
In Bounty Hunt and Bounty Clash, you prepare your Hunter beforehand with your chosen Weapons, Tools, and Consumables.
Soul Survivor works differently. You enter the map and have to find the weapons you’ll use during the match.
There are also Scarce and event-specific weapons that can’t simply be purchased with Hunt Dollars. These must be obtained during Missions and, depending on the weapon/event, may involve Pledge Marks.
Hunt Weapon Slot Sizes Explained
One of the first systems you need to understand is Weapon Capacity.
A Hunter normally has 5 Weapon Capacity, with weapons taking anywhere from one to five slots.
1-Slot Weapons
These are your smallest options and mainly include:
Pistols, smaller melee weapons, and specialized equipment such as the Hand Crossbow.
Their biggest strength is flexibility. A 1-slot weapon can easily fill the remaining space beside a huge primary weapon.
2-Slot Weapons
This category includes:
Sawn-off rifles and shotguns, stocked pistols, most dual-wielded pistol combinations, larger handguns such as the Uppercut and Dolch 96, and large melee weapons including the Combat Axe and Katana.
These are particularly useful when you want something more substantial than a regular sidearm without committing to another full-sized weapon.
3-Slot Weapons
Three-slot equipment includes Carbines, large sawn-off shotguns, large stocked pistols, the Hunting Bow, and Bomb Lance.
They’re essentially the middle ground of Hunt’s loadout system.
4-Slot Weapons
Most full-length Rifles and Shotguns occupy four slots.
The Crossbow is also a four-slot Special weapon.
That usually leaves one slot for a compact secondary under the standard five-slot capacity.
5-Slot Weapons
Five-slot weapons are the largest options.
This category includes particularly powerful weapons such as the Nitro Express, Auto-5, and Mosin-Nagant Avtomat, as well as heavily equipped variants such as the Maynard Sniper Silencer.
Taking one normally consumes your entire standard Weapon Capacity.
That’s where Quartermaster can become particularly interesting.
Quartermaster
The Quartermaster Trait increases your Weapon Capacity from 5 to 6 slots.
It doesn’t sound enormous until you look at the combinations it enables.
You can now carry:
- Two 3-slot weapons
- One 4-slot + one 2-slot weapon
- One 5-slot + one 1-slot weapon
That makes Quartermaster less of a simple capacity increase and more of a loadout-building Trait.
If there’s a specific medium-sized secondary you desperately want beside a full-length rifle or shotgun, Quartermaster may be what makes the setup possible.
Hunt Showdown 1896 Ammo Types Explained
There are six primary ammunition categories:
Compact Ammo, Medium Ammo, Long Ammo, Special Long Ammo, Shotgun Shells, and Special Ammo.
Each has different characteristics, so your ammunition choice affects far more than how many bullets you’re carrying.
Compact Ammo
Compact Ammo generally gives you:
Lower damage
Lower muzzle velocity
Lower penetration
Smoother bullet drop
Large ammunition reserves
Rifles can have around 20–28 extra rounds, while pistols have roughly 12–21.
This makes Compact Ammo forgiving from a resource perspective. You can afford to take more shots than with ammunition types that provide tiny reserves.
The trade-off is that you’re giving up some raw ballistic performance.
Compact Ammo weapons include:
Infantry 73L, Marathon, Ranger 73, Frontier 73C, Vandal 73C, Bornheim No. 3, Conversion, LeMat, Nagant M1895, New Army, and Officer.
Medium Ammo
Medium Ammo steps things up with greater:
Damage
Muzzle velocity
Penetration
The compromise is slightly steeper bullet drop and a smaller reserve.
Medium rifles generally have around 12–24 additional rounds, while pistols have around 12.
Medium Ammo weapons include:
Centennial, Drilling, Maynard Sniper, Springfield 1866, Wildland, 1865 Carbine, Vetterli 71, Pax, and Scottfield.
The Wildland is a Scarce weapon, meaning it isn’t normally available for purchase and must be obtained during a Mission.
Long Ammo
Long Ammo represents large-caliber black-powder weaponry.
You get:
High damage
Strong penetration
Steep bullet drop
Small ammunition reserves
Rifles generally have around 10–18 extra rounds, while pistols carry roughly 6–14.
Long Ammo therefore rewards careful shooting. Missing becomes more costly when you don’t have an enormous reserve to burn through.
Long Ammo weapons include:
Mako 1895, Martini-Henry, Sparks, 1890 Cavalry, Haymaker, and Uppercut.
Special Long Ammo
Special Long Ammo uses large-caliber smokeless powder.
These weapons offer the highest damage and muzzle velocity characteristics of these ammunition categories, but there’s an important restriction:
Special Long Ammo cannot share ammunition with black-powder Long Ammo weapons.
Its weapon pool consists of:
Krag, Lebel 1886, Mosin-Nagant, Berthier 1892, and Mosin Obrez.
Keep that ammo-sharing restriction in mind when you’re designing a loadout around ammunition compatibility.
Shotgun Shells
Shotguns use 12- and 20-gauge shells, firing a spread of 14 pellets over short distances.
The shotgun lineup includes:
Auto-5, Homestead 78, Rival 78, Romero 77, Slate, Specter 1882, and Terminus.
The Homestead 78 is Scarce and must be found in a Mission rather than purchased normally.
The LeMat and Drilling are also worth remembering because both have an additional shotgun barrel you can switch to despite belonging to other primary ammunition categories.
Special Ammo
Special Ammo covers weapons whose ammunition doesn’t neatly fit the conventional firearm categories.
That includes weapons such as:
Nitro Express, Crossbow, Shredder, Bomb Lance, Hunting Bow, Bomb Launcher, Chu Ko Nu, Dolch 96, Flame Rifle, and Hand Crossbow.
The Shredder and Flame Rifle are Scarce weapons that can’t normally be purchased.
The Bomb Lance deserves another mention because it’s not simply a launcher—it is also an extremely powerful melee weapon capable of killing enemies with a single hit.
Custom Ammo Changes the Equation
Don’t assume a weapon is locked into the basic behavior of its ammunition category.
Custom Ammo can alter those characteristics.
Depending on the ammunition available, Custom Ammo can improve characteristics such as penetration or muzzle velocity or introduce status effects including:
Bleeding
Burning
Poisoning
That means two Hunters carrying variants from the same weapon family can potentially be preparing for very different engagements.
Weapon Action Types Explained
Ammo and Weapon Capacity tell only part of the story.
Hunt’s weapons also operate through different action mechanisms, and those mechanisms can determine which Traits are valuable.
Bolt-Action Weapons
Bolt-action rifles require you to operate the bolt to chamber the next cartridge.
They benefit from Iron Eye, allowing you to remain on target through your sights while cycling the bolt.
Certain weapons can also benefit from Bulletgrubber, preventing live rounds from being wasted when they’re otherwise ejected during reloads.
Lever-Action Weapons
Lever-action rifles and shotguns cycle their next cartridge using a lever.
Iron Eye can help maintain your sight picture while cycling.
More importantly, lever-action weapons can benefit heavily from Levering, allowing extremely rapid hipfire.
If you’re building around Levering, your weapon selection should reflect that rather than treating the Trait as an afterthought.
Pump-Action Weapons
Pump-action rifles and shotguns cycle rounds using a sliding handguard.
They can benefit from Iron Eye, although its usefulness is naturally less significant for shotguns because shotguns are equally accurate when hipfired and ADS.
Certain pump weapons can also use Bulletgrubber to prevent ejected rounds from being wasted during reloads.
Single-Shot Weapons
Single-shot rifles, shotguns, pistols, crossbows, and bomb launchers have to load another cartridge or projectile manually after firing.
Rifles can benefit from Fast Fingers, which speeds up reloading using bullets held in the supporting hand.
Single-shot weapons have another interesting advantage:
You can divide their ammunition pool between two ammunition types.
For example, you could carry regular ammunition alongside Custom Ammo or split your supply between two different Custom Ammo types.
This gives single-shot weapons a degree of situational flexibility that isn’t immediately obvious from their basic stats.
Double-Barrel Weapons
Double-barrel rifles and shotguns provide exactly what you’d expect:
Two shots before manually reloading.
The obvious tactical advantage is the immediate follow-up opportunity. You aren’t forced through an action cycle or reload after the first trigger pull.
Semi-Automatic and Automatic Weapons
Semi-automatic weapons automatically chamber the next round after each shot.
Automatic weapons continue firing while the trigger is held.
The major downside is financial:
Semi-automatic and automatic weapons are considerably more expensive than other weapon-action categories.
Their convenience and fire rate therefore come with an economic cost when putting together Hunters.
Single-Action Revolvers
Single-action revolvers require the hammer to be manually cocked before every shot.
Their major Trait synergy is Fanning.
Fanning lets you rapidly hipfire these weapons, potentially changing how you use the revolver at close range.
Double-Action Revolvers
Double-action revolvers automatically cock their hammer when you pull the trigger.
That naturally gives them different firing characteristics, but there’s an important Trait restriction:
Double-action revolvers cannot use Fanning.
Keep that distinction in mind before spending Trait points expecting every revolver to benefit from the same setup.
All Hunt Showdown 1896 Weapon Categories
Here’s a cleaner reference for the base weapon pool provided.
| Category | Weapons |
|---|---|
| Compact Ammo | Infantry 73L, Marathon, Ranger 73, Frontier 73C, Vandal 73C, Bornheim No. 3, Conversion, LeMat, Nagant M1895, New Army, Officer |
| Medium Ammo | Centennial, Drilling, Maynard Sniper, Springfield 1866, Wildland, 1865 Carbine, Vetterli 71, Pax, Scottfield |
| Long Ammo | Mako 1895, Martini-Henry, Sparks, 1890 Cavalry, Haymaker, Uppercut |
| Special Long Ammo | Krag, Lebel 1886, Mosin-Nagant, Berthier 1892, Mosin Obrez |
| Shotguns | Auto-5, Homestead 78, Rival 78, Romero 77, Slate, Specter 1882, Terminus |
| Special Ammo | Nitro Express, Crossbow, Shredder, Bomb Lance, Hunting Bow, Bomb Launcher, Chu Ko Nu, Dolch 96, Flame Rifle, Hand Crossbow |
| Melee | Combat Axe, Katana, Railroad Hammer, Baseball Bat, Cavalry Saber, Machete |
This list covers the base weapons; individual weapon families can have additional variants.
Melee Weapons
Dedicated melee options remain part of Hunt’s weapon system rather than melee being restricted to attacks performed with firearms.
The dedicated melee weapon pool includes:
Combat Axe – 2 slots
Katana – 2 slots
Railroad Hammer – 2 slots
Baseball Bat – 1 slot
Cavalry Saber – 1 slot
Machete – 1 slot
The slot distinction matters quite a bit.
Taking a Katana, for example, commits two slots to your melee option. A Baseball Bat, Cavalry Saber, or Machete requires only one.
Then there’s the Bomb Lance, which belongs to Special Ammo but doubles as an exceptionally dangerous melee weapon.
Understanding Weapon Stats
This is where I’d recommend new players spend some time.
Hunt provides several statistics that describe different parts of a weapon’s performance, and focusing entirely on Damage can give you a very incomplete picture.
Damage
Damage represents the damage caused by a shot hitting a Hunter in the upper torso at 10 meters.
For shotguns, the displayed value instead represents average center-mass damage at 10 meters.
That’s an important qualification.
Damage isn’t simply a universal number telling you exactly how much health every shot will remove regardless of distance, hit location, or weapon type.
Drop Range
Drop Range tells you the distance at which a projectile falls roughly 20 cm—or about one head height—below your original point of aim.
You can see this value in the HUD while aiming down sights.
Projectile drop depends on several variables, including:
Ammo type
Velocity
Barrel length
Weapon action type
This is why learning one rifle doesn’t automatically make your lead and holdover perfect with another.
Rate of Fire
Rate of Fire is the number of shots fired per minute.
Importantly, this statistic includes reload time.
So don’t interpret it simply as how rapidly the weapon can mechanically spit out rounds while ammunition is available.
Cycle Time
Cycle Time tells you how long, in seconds, the weapon takes to become ready for another shot.
For single-shot weapons, this includes their reload time.
For Dual Wield setups, it represents the time required for the weapon that fired first to become ready again.
This stat is particularly useful when comparing how quickly weapons can realistically deliver follow-up shots.
Spread
Spread describes the relative size of your weapon’s crosshair when firing from the hip.
Shotguns naturally have comparatively wider spread.
If you regularly rely on hipfire—especially with Traits designed around it—this stat deserves more attention than it might initially seem to warrant.
Sway
Sway represents how much your weapon moves while you’re aiming down sights.
A gun can have fantastic theoretical offensive statistics but still demand much more precise handling if keeping the sight steady is difficult.
Vertical Recoil
Vertical Recoil is measured in degrees and represents the upward kick produced after firing.
It’s particularly important when evaluating weapons where rapid follow-up shots matter.
Reload Speed
Reload Speed measures how long it takes to completely reload an empty weapon.
The value includes unusual reload behavior, including clip reloads or weapon cycling that must occur before the final round can be inserted.
Don’t underestimate reload characteristics when comparing two otherwise similar guns. Hunt regularly puts you in situations where the timing of that next available shot matters.
Muzzle Velocity
Muzzle Velocity tells you how quickly the projectile travels in meters per second.
Hunt’s projectiles travel along ballistic arcs rather than instantly reaching their targets.
Higher velocity therefore becomes especially valuable when engaging moving Hunters at longer distances because you generally need less lead.
Melee Damage
Melee Damage describes how much damage the weapon’s light or heavy melee attack deals when striking a Hunter in the upper torso.
This is separate from the weapon’s ranged Damage value.
Stamina Consumption
Melee attacks aren’t free.
Stamina Consumption tells you how much of your 100-point Stamina pool a light or heavy melee attack consumes.
That’s particularly relevant when you’re repeatedly fighting in melee rather than using it as an occasional emergency option.
Don’t Use Old “Effective Range” Guides to Judge Current Weapons
If you’re reading older Hunt guides, you may encounter two statistics that aren’t part of the current system anymore.
The first is Effective Range.
It previously represented the distance at which a weapon could kill a Hunter with one shot, usually through a headshot.
Update 2.0 replaced Effective Range with Drop Range, following the change that made headshots lethal at any distance.
So if an older weapon guide heavily emphasizes Effective Range, remember that it’s discussing an outdated version of the stat system.
Handling Was Removed Too
Handling used to condense several characteristics into one percentage.
It incorporated things such as:
Weapon sway
Recoil
Bullet spread
Update 1.12 replaced Handling with separate Spread, Sway, and Vertical Recoil statistics.
That’s actually much more useful when comparing weapons because you can see precisely where a weapon’s strengths and weaknesses lie instead of trying to interpret one abstract percentage.
Weapon Cleaning and Dirt
Another feature you’ll encounter when reading older discussions is Weapon Cleaning.
Weapons become dirtier when left on the ground, such as after their Hunter gets downed.
The dirt itself is cosmetic and doesn’t reduce weapon performance.
Before Update 1.13, however, dirt remained permanently attached to the weapon unless you cleaned it.
Players could clean weapons through the menu using Blood Bonds or find Gun Oil during a match.
Even newly purchased standard weapons began with the lightest dirt layer, whereas Legendary skins were completely clean.
That system has since changed.
Weapons can still become dirty during a Mission, but successful extraction automatically cleans them.
So there’s no reason to treat dirt as a mechanical weapon penalty.
Broken Scopes Are Also Gone
Contraband weapons once came with another nasty drawback.
Scoped contraband weapons obtained from Tier I/Free Hunter recruits or found during matches—including weapons taken from dead Hunters—could have a large crack across their scope.
The crack substantially reduced usability, and there was no way to repair it.
Its severity was eventually reduced before the entire mechanic was removed.
Therefore, broken contraband scopes are another thing you may see mentioned in older Hunt discussions that no longer reflects the current weapon system.
How to Choose the Right Weapon
Rather than asking, “Which weapon has the highest Damage?”, I find it more useful to work backward from the type of fight you’re preparing for.
A shotgun loadout wants to create close-range engagements. A high-velocity rifle benefits from open sightlines where accurate longer-range shots become possible. A Special weapon can give you unusual utility but may introduce ammunition restrictions. Compact Ammo provides a healthier reserve, whereas Long and Special Long options ask you to make individual shots count.
Then consider your Traits.
If you’re investing in Levering, it makes sense to actually build around a compatible lever-action weapon. Fanning should influence your revolver selection because double-action revolvers can’t use it. Iron Eye complements several cycling actions. Fast Fingers can improve compatible single-shot rifles. Bulletgrubber can help compatible weapons preserve ammunition. And Quartermaster should make you reconsider the entire primary/secondary combination rather than merely giving you an extra slot that goes unused.
Finally, look at the complete stat profile: Damage tells you upper-torso performance at 10 meters, but Drop Range tells you more about projectile trajectory, Muzzle Velocity affects how comfortably you can engage moving targets, Cycle Time determines follow-up potential, and Spread, Sway, and Vertical Recoil tell you how manageable the weapon actually is.
That’s the important part of Hunt’s weapon system: the “best” gun is heavily dependent on the engagement you’re trying to create and the rest of your Hunter’s build.
A weapon you consistently land shots with—and whose weaknesses are covered by your secondary, Traits, and playstyle—is usually far more dangerous than a supposedly stronger weapon that puts you into fights your loadout isn’t designed to handle.