Hunting Rifle

[konrax]

The hunting rifle on pvp servers is pretty deadly because of it's superior range and high damage. Even with a 2x on it the rifle can be really nasty.

[Maynard69]

The hunting rifle on pvp servers is pretty deadly because of it's superior range and high damage. Even with a 2x on it the rifle can be really nasty.

 

Yep, thats where I first started liking the HR. It is pretty beastly if you spot the other guy at range. You used to be able to find them quickly too in backpacks and such. Was a great starter weapon for that, but back then no scope so Sniper was king at range.

[Carl_Bar]

I don't know what you've been doing with the hunting rifle but I've been able to keep my sights on enemies while operating the action with the hunting rifle. The reload animation in my experience completely ignores whether or not you're aiming.

 

By no means am I saying the Hunting Rifle is better than the marksman rifle either, I'm just saying it's not useless, and I've definitely gotten away with picking off zombies a LOT with the Hunting Rifle, and fully equipped with a long scope, suppressor, bipod and with the right perks, it can be remarkably effective, it does have some advantages over the bow, however.

 

1. You don't have to draw it and hold down the fire button to have a shot ready. I've been in many situations with the bow in which I was not able to fully draw the bow before the zombies closed in. The ability to snap-shoot is very, very valuable.

2. The arrow of a bow has significant drop, inferior accuracy and bows don't have very good sighting options. A hunting rifle uses rayscanning, thus has a way higher effective range, much higher accuracy, and can also mount an 8x scope to fulfill the task of the marksman rifle in the early game.

3. While the bow's ammunition is very easy to craft, the Hunting Rifle's very good accuracy, damage and range means that with the amount of 7.62mm ammo you do find (it's by no means rare) you can get by without crafting the ammunition, and while the bow's upgrades are lacking, the hunting rifle has more potential.

4. If you have non-running zombies and you back up slowly and methodically fire the hunting rifle at the zombies' heads (you walking backwards will draw them into a disorganized pursuit and they'll just follow you), you'll likely thin the horde down rather easily. You can kill hordes if you're disciplined, patient and skilled with the hunting rifle. I have loads of experience since I've been playing the game since before the AK-47 was introduced and 99% of the kills I got were with the hunting rifle, backing up slowly, and methodically picking off the zombies one at a time. In fact, I didn't have an automatic weapon at all in that save file (the SMG was practically impossible to find).

 

Now, if you have a marksman rifle, should you pick a Hunting Rifle? No. Marksman Rifles ARE better. But comparing the hunting rifle to a bow isn't really fair to either the bow or the hunting rifle, and a hunting rifle is still an excellent weapon when used correctly.

 

If you don;t have time to draw a bowstring back you shouldn't be using a bow or a hunting rifle.

 

Combat in this game comes broadly in 4 forms:

 

1. Sneaking through buildings sneak killing lone zombies with the occasional one waking up on you.

 

2. Sneaking through a building and ethier having it go wrong or just not bother with the sneak part so a whole room full of zombies rush you at once.

 

3. Horde Nights

 

4. Running into random zombies at a distance out in the wild.

 

 

Exactly one of those is conductive to using a hunting rifle. The last one. In any other scenario the RoF or noise is an issue. And that last one is where the bow excels. Yes you need to know what your doing and i agree the primitive bow is absolute junk, but i haven't found getting a low tier wooden bow too arduous.

 

I'll have to check but the last time i used the hunting rifle the reload animation interrupted the aiming by taking the sight out of alignment.

 

Are you on the wrong forum? talking about a different game? 70% of this is the opposite of what happens in 7d2d lol a18 feathers are rarer than ammo.. and bows are harder to find and just as hard to craft. If I wanted to waste no bullets, I would just melee everything. If I ever get a hold of compound bow I might use it just to use up feathers since I have no use for them until then.

 

AK does near 1/2 the damage of the HR in a lot of cases for the same bullet, a ton less range, and is way less accurate.

 

Marksman is good, but slightly less damage than the HR, perked correctly reload is fast and it is not hard to pre-aim and fire fast with the HR, I don't even see the marksman as much of an upgrade. To me they are nearly equal now that u can put the best scope on the HR.

 

This is dependent on the ads working correctly tho, the way it is now is pretty meh, its still good tho

 

Feathers are rarer and whilever your using a primitive bow that can be an issue, but once you get your first wooden bow i've never had serious issues.

 

Also yes the HR does roughly double the damage of an AK. So what i can squeeze of a 2-3 round burst, re aim, and be ready to fire another before you've fired and reloaded your hunting rifle.

 

@Maynard69

 

I cannot be mad at people who don't like the hunting rifle. They simply prefer a completely different play style with different weapons. Nothing wrong with that.

The game simply supports more than one play style.

It's only annoying when they keep trying to change every weapon in the game to work with their one play style. That's not cool.

 

Yes the game supports more than one playstyle, but when one of those, (really more given how many other decent weapons there are), is blatantly inferiour to the other/s you have a balance issue. Usable isn't the same as equivalent. The Hunting rifle is usable. But there's no combat situation where proper use of an alternative does not offer clear advantages and no disadvantages that actually matter, (Provided you don;t try to full auto AK everything in sight with a machine gun ammo efficiency really isn't a serious problem for any of the weapons), over it.

[Maynard69]

Lmao, I dont like the Archery, I like the HR. You dont like the HR, you like Archery. That is ok. But a lot of what you say is kinda bull there ^

 

Not everybody sneaks, I play on insane and dont really try to sneak at all. (except night time in the wild, that is fun to sneak kill) POI's are not as stuffed with zombies as they once were. By the time they are really dangerous you are equipped to handle it. I can throw down a junk turret and 1 shot most z's with the HR. If not, the turret will help finish them. The reload is not that slow.

 

I never said feathers were an issue. I could care less, I am not using arrows. Cant be an issue for me. Ammo is just as easy to get without long side trips checking every dang birds nest.

 

Also saying "so what" to 1 shotting vs 2-3 burst. That is 2x-3x more bullets wasted. (at minimum, thats if you 100% headshot) That is 1000-2000 additional bullets for the 1000 I would use. Saving them for horde night. (you could probably add another 500-1000 to that since mine never miss) Hardly a "so what"

 

Also it is not like I dont have an AK (and perked sledge) still on my belt if I get in trouble. Just because I use the HR a lot, doesnt mean I cant use the AK. I just prefer not to because it is a waste compared to how I am doing it.

 

After damn near 7000 hours, i have kinda got a feel for it.

[Laz Man]

A 50 cal. would be glorious lol

 

Maybe the .50 cal could be the unique legendary rifle. 😂

[ComradeSch]

If you don;t have time to draw a bowstring back you shouldn't be using a bow or a hunting rifle.

 

Combat in this game comes broadly in 4 forms:

 

1. Sneaking through buildings sneak killing lone zombies with the occasional one waking up on you.

 

2. Sneaking through a building and ethier having it go wrong or just not bother with the sneak part so a whole room full of zombies rush you at once.

 

3. Horde Nights

 

4. Running into random zombies at a distance out in the wild.

 

 

Exactly one of those is conductive to using a hunting rifle. The last one. In any other scenario the RoF or noise is an issue. And that last one is where the bow excels. Yes you need to know what your doing and i agree the primitive bow is absolute junk, but i haven't found getting a low tier wooden bow too arduous.

 

I'll have to check but the last time i used the hunting rifle the reload animation interrupted the aiming by taking the sight out of alignment.

 

 

 

Feathers are rarer and whilever your using a primitive bow that can be an issue, but once you get your first wooden bow i've never had serious issues.

 

Also yes the HR does roughly double the damage of an AK. So what i can squeeze of a 2-3 round burst, re aim, and be ready to fire another before you've fired and reloaded your hunting rifle.

 

 

 

Yes the game supports more than one playstyle, but when one of those, (really more given how many other decent weapons there are), is blatantly inferiour to the other/s you have a balance issue. Usable isn't the same as equivalent. The Hunting rifle is usable. But there's no combat situation where proper use of an alternative does not offer clear advantages and no disadvantages that actually matter, (Provided you don;t try to full auto AK everything in sight with a machine gun ammo efficiency really isn't a serious problem for any of the weapons), over it.

 

Drawing the string on the bow takes IIRC 3/4 of a second. You can fail to actually shoot the bow if you don't deliberately hold down the trigger. If you have a hunting rifle equipped you WILL be guaranteed to get that shot off so you can switch to a shotgun. With a bow, you might not get that shot because the bow requires you to deliberately draw the bow to get a chance at a shot, whereas the hunting rifle just requires a quick tap, which is very possible to do even accidentally if you get startled.

 

I have also used the hunting rifle to great effect in all four scenarioes you mentioned. ALL of them. For literal years of owning the game. If you put thought into playing the game and don't just go "DURR JUST LAND BULLETZ IN THE AREA AND DATS IT", you're going to do well. You can, with strategy, usually get through most any situation with most any weapon. You can lead zombies on a long chase, slowly whittling them down with the wooden club and backing up, leading them into the open where they're more vulnerable. You can get on a bicycle and ride away from a blood moon horde.

 

I just played 7DTD yesterday and I've seen the reload animation not get interrupted by sights. Hell, I had an 8x scope on mine and the action cycled without a problem. I've also modded mine with a bipod, suppressor and folding stock, and I can pick off sleepers very quick, and when things go rather sideways (usually thanks to me breaking into safes with a sledgehammer) I just take out a shotgun. Or put some distance between me and the zombies and power-attack with said sledgehammer, sending the zombies flying and usually one-shotting them bit by bit.

[Laz Man]

Iam doing exactly the same. Funnel zombies to congo line, slow them down with barbed wire and electric fence, and shot with HR with 7,62 AP and penetrator skill through many heads at ones. Everything is running smooth and with low ammo costs as long as no demolisher appears. Then one shot from junk turret or my friend shotgun to the body, and we have great hole and terrified faces right away...

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]30200[/ATTACH]

 

I love my hunting rifle...cant wait until I have a blue/purple one. 😎💥💥💥😵

 

https://7daystodie.com/forums/showthread.php?131780-LazMan-vs-Day-21-Horde

[Whorhay]

Combat in this game comes broadly in 4 forms:

 

1. Sneaking through buildings sneak killing lone zombies with the occasional one waking up on you.

 

2. Sneaking through a building and ethier having it go wrong or just not bother with the sneak part so a whole room full of zombies rush you at once.

 

3. Horde Nights

 

4. Running into random zombies at a distance out in the wild.

 

 

Exactly one of those is conductive to using a hunting rifle. The last one. In any other scenario the RoF or noise is an issue. And that last one is where the bow excels. Yes you need to know what your doing and i agree the primitive bow is absolute junk, but i haven't found getting a low tier wooden bow too arduous.

 

Hunting rifle is all I used for the first 4 or 5 blood moons, until I finally found a Marksman Rifle. RoF was not a serious concern because the zombies simply didn't spawn and move fast enough to keep me firing non-stop. The only slowdowns for the zombie are a seven block high pyramid of blocks with steps they had to climb before getting into the kill zone. The kill zone is a block wide and about 16 blocks long covered with barbed wire and electric fences once I could get them. The furthest I ever had any zombies make it down the kill zone was a spider that I just couldn't seem to hit and he made it most of the way but never got in melee range, I didn't have electric fences at that time. Once I got the electric fences up the zombies never made it more than six blocks down the kill zone. I suppose if you bump up blood moon count it might get tougher to keep up with the Hunting Rifle, but on default settings, and a thought out defensive structure it is a strong blood moon gun. And of course it being so ammo efficient means you don't have to waste as much time farming for resources to make ammunition. I just did the day 49 horde and only went through a bit over 300 rounds, I can usually find that much or more in a week of looting. In fact I've only been making AP ammo, but haven't needed to use any yet.

[Laz Man]

Hunting rifle is all I used for the first 4 or 5 blood moons, until I finally found a Marksman Rifle. RoF was not a serious concern because the zombies simply didn't spawn and move fast enough to keep me firing non-stop. The only slowdowns for the zombie are a seven block high pyramid of blocks with steps they had to climb before getting into the kill zone. The kill zone is a block wide and about 16 blocks long covered with barbed wire and electric fences once I could get them. The furthest I ever had any zombies make it down the kill zone was a spider that I just couldn't seem to hit and he made it most of the way but never got in melee range, I didn't have electric fences at that time. Once I got the electric fences up the zombies never made it more than six blocks down the kill zone. I suppose if you bump up blood moon count it might get tougher to keep up with the Hunting Rifle, but on default settings, and a thought out defensive structure it is a strong blood moon gun. And of course it being so ammo efficient means you don't have to waste as much time farming for resources to make ammunition. I just did the day 49 horde and only went through a bit over 300 rounds, I can usually find that much or more in a week of looting. In fact I've only been making AP ammo, but haven't needed to use any yet.

 

I used a similar strat for my 21 day BM horde and had similar results as you. Loving my perception / int build. 😎👍

[ComradeSch]

BTW, people, because some of the players in the thread are trashing on the hunting rifle, I recorded myself clearing an entire dungeon with just a hunting rifle. I also got video evidence that you can reload it while aiming down the sights.

If you know how to use it, it can very much get you by.

[Laz Man]

BTW, people, because some of the players in the thread are trashing on the hunting rifle, I recorded myself clearing an entire dungeon with just a hunting rifle. I also got video evidence that you can reload it while aiming down the sights.

If you know how to use it, it can very much get you by.

 

I dont know to take that video serious or if you are being sarcastic. The best part was when you pointed at a corner talking about how a sleeper is normally there and then a second later get ambushed by the closet zed lol.....I almost fell out of my chair. Good stuff. 😂

[Carl_Bar]

BTW, people, because some of the players in the thread are trashing on the hunting rifle, I recorded myself clearing an entire dungeon with just a hunting rifle. I also got video evidence that you can reload it while aiming down the sights.

If you know how to use it, it can very much get you by.

 

I'm going to watch the rest in a second, but regarding reloading whilst looking down the sight thats not behaviour i experienced, but then i never put a scope on a hunting rifle before, (in my experiance the reflex sight is the best ever but i think i mostly used iron sights, we'd got marksmen by the time i found a sight mod). Also as noted it was a few patches ago so they may have changed the behavior. What happened for em was it would force me out of the sight picture and into the reload animation that played after the second shot when you zoomed out. That makes lining up followup shots a lot harder as i'm sure you can imagine.

[Carl_Bar]

I dont know to take that video serious or if you are being sarcastic. The best part was when you pointed at a corner talking about how a sleeper is normally there and then a second later get ambushed by the closet zed lol.....I almost fell out of my chair. Good stuff.

 

Ok having watched it, definitely sarcastic given the zombie speed. That little run away while firing backwards taking your sweet time just won't work on run at night, especially if you get a feral. Now daytime more reasonable though anything more than 1 feral is still going to totally screw with your plan.

 

But here's the problem. The video seems to be focused on "you can clear a PoI with a hunting Rifle".

 

I never said you couldn't. I said it would be an inferiour choice. And it would. A Bow in that scenario would have been as fast and less expendables intensive at the minimum, (since it's more stealthy probably faster as you wouldn't have woken as much stuff up), and pretty much any other option would have been faster still with only the AK being more expendables intensive, (given the number of donked shots and greater ease of manufacturing shotgun/9mm ammo the low absolute rounds usage of the Hunting Rifle isn't as impressive as it might seem), and the AK is definitely not the weapon for that scenario unless you need both speed and safety.

 

And yes time actually matters, each day that passes brings you close to another bloodmoon, so time to loot matters.

[Carl_Bar]

Hunting rifle is all I used for the first 4 or 5 blood moons, until I finally found a Marksman Rifle. RoF was not a serious concern because the zombies simply didn't spawn and move fast enough to keep me firing non-stop. The only slowdowns for the zombie are a seven block high pyramid of blocks with steps they had to climb before getting into the kill zone. The kill zone is a block wide and about 16 blocks long covered with barbed wire and electric fences once I could get them. The furthest I ever had any zombies make it down the kill zone was a spider that I just couldn't seem to hit and he made it most of the way but never got in melee range, I didn't have electric fences at that time. Once I got the electric fences up the zombies never made it more than six blocks down the kill zone. I suppose if you bump up blood moon count it might get tougher to keep up with the Hunting Rifle, but on default settings, and a thought out defensive structure it is a strong blood moon gun. And of course it being so ammo efficient means you don't have to waste as much time farming for resources to make ammunition. I just did the day 49 horde and only went through a bit over 300 rounds, I can usually find that much or more in a week of looting. In fact I've only been making AP ammo, but haven't needed to use any yet.

 

The devs have gone out of their way repeatedly to try and stop the zombies from attacking in a way that makes a setup like this work. They clearly consider abusing pathing an exploit so i don't consider it a valid argument for why the hunting rifle is amazing, (besides in that scenario you can build all kinds of scenarios for various weapons and what have you's that will perform amazingly).

[seagas]

All I know is on BM night with Demolition Zs about, the AK or M60 won't be my weapon of choice, a nice clean insta kill head shot for me.

[Adam the Waster]

Maybe the .50 cal could be the unique legendary rifle.

 

i think you should be able to make it when you get all the sniping books!

 

and it needs a lot of parts to make. but you would need 50.cal rounds and the ammo has a natural penetration. but has another ammo you can craft for it call "50.cal HE rounds" which when fired acts like a pipe bomb explosion but the ammo is hard to make!

[Maynard69]

The devs have gone out of their way repeatedly to try and stop the zombies from attacking in a way that makes a setup like this work. They clearly consider abusing pathing an exploit so i don't consider it a valid argument for why the hunting rifle is amazing, (besides in that scenario you can build all kinds of scenarios for various weapons and what have you's that will perform amazingly).

 

Wrong again, a choke point with traps is not something they consider an exploit. Thats from madmole.

 

The simple gap bases where the zombies loop is. Those could be made with no traps and exploited a behavior of the AI to be safe while you do nothing with minimal effort. That is what they have issue with, and rightly so.

 

In what scenario with what weapons exactly is better than than the highest damage most penetrating gun, with zombies lined up in hallway being shocked waiting for ez headshots. You said you can but couldnt be bothered to say any specifics.

[e1ghtbit]

I think the HR is ok but the range that it's good for is outside the range that zombies spawn in around you at.

[Squigee]

I don't understand why people don't talk about the fact that the HR is not in the same base Stats as the AK?

For me when I start I choose what play style I want and what Stats I want to raise.

By raising my main stat I raise the damage of the weapons included with it and so they become the preferred weapon.

 

I have a game were I focused on perception? the one for the HR.

So I use the HR often but that does not mean I never use an AK or pistol, it is just my preferred weapon.

I don't walk in a house with my rifle in hand that would be silly, I want something that fires fast in case a feral comes at me in a tight space.

But if I see a sleeper I get the HR out and snipe them in the head.

 

In another game I went Vitality and brawling and so I only use the HR for hunting and special occasions.

 

Why the need to compare? Everything is based on base stats, perking intelligence and using only iron knuckles and AK is ok but you are severely gimping yourself. Build around the stats you choose.

[AshaMarie]

 

This is what I use and I am on Day 7 right now. I love it a lot. You will want the armor mod to reload guns faster along with whatever else helps with reload speed and you will be good to go.

[Maynard69]

I don't understand why people don't talk about the fact that the HR is not in the same base Stats as the AK?

For me when I start I choose what play style I want and what Stats I want to raise.

By raising my main stat I raise the damage of the weapons included with it and so they become the preferred weapon.

 

I have a game were I focused on perception? the one for the HR.

So I use the HR often but that does not mean I never use an AK or pistol, it is just my preferred weapon.

I don't walk in a house with my rifle in hand that would be silly, I want something that fires fast in case a feral comes at me in a tight space.

But if I see a sleeper I get the HR out and snipe them in the head.

 

In another game I went Vitality and brawling and so I only use the HR for hunting and special occasions.

 

Why the need to compare? Everything is based on base stats, perking intelligence and using only iron knuckles and AK is ok but you are severely gimping yourself. Build around the stats you choose.

 

Only reason comparison started happening was that dude jumped in here like "HR is trash, use bows, everything else can be better than HR yadda yadda yadda"

[Laz Man]

Only reason comparison started happening was that dude jumped in here like "HR is trash, use bows, everything else can be better than HR yadda yadda yadda"

 

Yeah kage could have used a better choice of words lol.....people generally dont take negative comments very well even if you preface or end the comment with "...no offense" or "Based on my playstyle..."

[Kage848]

Only reason comparison started happening was that dude jumped in here like "HR is trash, use bows, everything else can be better than HR yadda yadda yadda"

 

To be fair I did walk that back. Besides I was just joking to mess with the HR fans lol. My bad.

 

Also I never said to use the bow, that sucks too 😉

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

Yeah kage could have used a better choice of words lol.....people generally dont take negative comments very well even if you preface or end the comment with "...no offense" or "Based on my playstyle..."

 

Stating my opinion that the HR sucks is not negative in anyway. It's just one guys opinion on the interwebs. Dont make it fact. Just how I think of the weapon.

 

Youd think I kicked someone's dog or something lol.

 

Besides was all in good fun. I dont like the weapon but others do. That's fine. Everyone got the favorites and so on.

[Maynard69]

To be fair I did walk that back. Besides I was just joking to mess with the HR fans lol. My bad.

 

Also I never said to use the bow, that sucks too

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

 

 

Stating my opinion that the HR sucks is not negative in anyway. It's just one guys opinion on the interwebs. Dont make it fact. Just how I think of the weapon.

 

Youd think I kicked someone's dog or something lol.

 

Besides was all in good fun. I dont like the weapon but others do. That's fine. Everyone got the favorites and so on.

 

Ya, i didnt mean you. The other guy.

[Laz Man]

To be fair I did walk that back. Besides I was just joking to mess with the HR fans lol. My bad.

 

Also I never said to use the bow, that sucks too 😉

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

 

 

Stating my opinion that the HR sucks is not negative in anyway. It's just one guys opinion on the interwebs. Dont make it fact. Just how I think of the weapon.

 

Youd think I kicked someone's dog or something lol.

 

Besides was all in good fun. I dont like the weapon but others do. That's fine. Everyone got the favorites and so on.

 

Based on the responses you received, I'd beg to differ. Opinions are fine but it's how they are delivered will determine how they are received. Trust me on this one. I supervisor people and I've learned it's not what you say that matters the most but how you say it.

 

Here is an example of one opinion delivered 2 different ways.

 

1) I dont like Kage's youtube channel because his style is alittle over the top for my taste. I prefer to watch Games4zkickz.

 

2) Kage's youtube channel is "trash", Games4kickz is sooo much better then that garbage.

 

Which opinion do you think would be better received?

 

Fyi, this is just an example. I am one of your subscribers. 😎