It depends on the animal you're hunting. For example, a deer would require a rifle. Smaller animals typically can be hunted with a varmint rifle. If you dont know what gun you need, you can study the animal and open the compendium to see the information on it. The weapon required is towards the bottom of the compendium entry for the animal. Hope this helps!

Whenever I’m hunting I use a Springfield for medium and big game and a varmint for small animals. I’ve never had any need for any other gun when hunting

@BillybobTheDestroyer Good advice 👍 I prefer a bolt action for its 5 round capacity, but the Springfield may be better for some applications.

Make sure to get head shots though. With bows you can shoot them basically in any vital organ, with guns it’s very important to get the head if you don’t want the pelts to degrade

@BillybobTheDestroyer I forgot to mention that 🫠😅

Largest/Large (Bear, Moose, Gator,, Deer, Elk, etc.)

Rolling Block or Carcano (preserves all of the above)

Medium/Medium Small (Fox, Coyote, etc.)

Choice of repeater or Normal Arrows

Small (Muskrat, Skunk, Armadillo, Gila Monster, etc.)

Varmint Rifle

Smallest (Frog, Snake, Crab, Squirrel, etc.)

Small Game Arrows

I haven't played in awhile but I know the Rolling Block/Carcano saves you a weapon slot if you want to have a loadout that preserves everything in the game. No need to use a normal rifle if you use a heavy rifle, as the lighter rifles are just unable to preserve stronger hides, while the heavy rifles are proper hunting rifles regardless of opinion, and won't ruin deer-sized pelts. I usually rock a shotgun for safety reasons, as I usually hunt with purpose, but you can swap your one-handed for sawed-offs if you still want the full hunting loadout and a panic weapon.

Thank you all!

Don’t use repeaters on large animals like bison or bears because headshots won’t give clean kills

My list of good hunting weapons

Rolling Block (Big game),

Varmint/any repeater (medium-to small Deers and rabbits)

Shotguns (flocks of birds)

Bows and arrows, in-place of Varmint and repeater to ensure a perfect pelt.