RDO Bolt Action Rifle doesnt kill bull moose.....

[Wild West]

I came across an Bull Moose, perfect stars.. Shot it in the head with a Bolt Action Rifle. It didnt kill it.. By the way aiming with K+M is awfull Online. Especially for hunting, you will never get a perfect pelt

[Steven Shipler (JSA)]

Hehehe I was about to say what is a BULL MOUSE then read the thing and moose, try using Dead Eye and hit it in the head sometimes that works but the sometimes the game has issues.

[Jeff]

It happens. You might have done something wrong but we don't know what it is exactly due to lack of info.

I still mess up 3 star pelts sometimes.

checklist:

-rifle was cleaned so condition is in the top "bracket"
-sometimes a large animal requires a "scoped" rifle so I tend to zoom in with the rifle on the head, sometimes that matters. Pretty sure it doesn't mean sniper but idk.
-usually your ammo matters. If you were using normal and it failed to kill, try express or something. Sometimes I hit with express and it damages it so have to switch back to normal.
-It's possible you were at a bad angle and thought you got the head but hit something else. Using dead eye can help for finding the red zone more often.

edit: also range and accuracy stat on the weapon are factors. There is a hidden circle for max range to always get a perfect hit which is different for each animal. If you are too far it's possible to just miss or hit "uncleanly" even though you were aimed perfectly.

I do that for squirrels sometimes since they require to be really close with a bow, like close enough to scare them off most of the time.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Use High Velocity or Express Ammo type.
I don't even waste my time with Regular Ammo, I instead turn that into Split Ammo.

I guess it's just you. I got perfect pelts all the time in RDO, even as a low level.
In RDO though you really shouldn't be worried about perfect pelts until you get pamphlet for at least High Velocity ammo type. Then switch to that and use a head-shot. It can help to quickly switch to Dead Eye even without X marking the target, so you can properly see the deep red areas where you are supposed to hit it. Course with a animal such as a Deer or Moose type; this is fairly obvious and easy to hit the correct area.

What helps is not getting too close to spook it, but close enough to where the option to CALL it is available. When you call it out, it'll stick its head up and look in your direction, which gives perfect opportunity for face/head shot.

If an animal has any kind of antlers or horns, do not hit those at all, or it will damage the entire pelt and not the animal.

[Draxenthor]

The Bolt Action Rifle is one of the go-to weapons for hunting in Red Dead, both in Story Mode and Online. If it didn't make a clean kill then something wasn't done right.

1: Ammo Type; Rifle Ammo - Express is what's automatically loading into the Rolling Block and Carcano Scoped Rifles, so if you're hunting with a B.A this is a MUST to load into your gun before you go hunting!

2: Weapon cleanliness; Check your weapon in the weapon wheel and see it's stat "Condition" to see how dirty the weapon is. Overuse or even running through water will begin to degrade it. The lower the bar, the less damage the gun will do.
On KBM, press and hold TAB to bring up the weapon wheel. As you hover over the weapon, press the middle-mouse button to perform "Maintenance" on the gun, then it's press and hold R to clean the weapon with any Gun Oil you have. Even below one block, the gun's condition can make a huge difference which you can tell by rust on the gun and it even makes a muffled "POP" rather than a "BANG" noise.
If you have no gun oil then head to a gun smith to clean your guns for around $2. Gus also sells a trinket that slows down weapon degrading by 10% if you bring him the animal parts and the jewellery needed, so you might have to go hunting to craft this!

3: Scope; Without using a scope, you may have clipped the edge of the hit box to register a shot to the head. Even hitting the collar or an antler won't kill them instantly, so be aware of where you shoot. Big and fast animals, like a moose, bear or cougar, you need to aim directly into the face of the animal for the head shot to count.
With predators, such as wolves or a cougar, the camera begins shaking a little so going no-scope head shot won't always land. (View bonus tip below)

4: Call; If the moose wasn't looking at you, chances are you clipped the shrubbery before the shot landed. Unlike Story Mode, where Dead Eye slows the game down so you can get a head shot without worrying, the game doesn't slow down Online when Dead Eye is activated. So for Online, it might be better to use the "Call" option so the animal looks right at you before you pull the trigger.


A few things to look for next time. Always use Express in your Bolt Action when hunting, weapon is clean, use the Scope, and use Call so the animal lifts up it's head for the clean kill.

BONUS TIP: To get a clean kill on predators, like wolves, cougars or panthers, be sure to run and climb on the nearest boulder where they spawn. The animals will be unable to reach you, so they will start circling around the boulder until they stop and snarl at you. This gives the perfect opportunity to scope up and put a bullet clean into their head!
(Wolf should be killed with a Repeater)

[SvartSol]

One word: ThunderCarcanoFalconBird.

[Wild West]

Draxenthor thanks that you took the time to get me some tips. With these tips I will hunt better. I am lvl 30 so I don't have much benefits.

[gerald2]

Originally posted by Wild West:

I came across an Bull Moose, perfect stars.. Shot it in the head with a Bolt Action Rifle. It didnt kill it.. By the way aiming with K+M is awfull Online. Especially for hunting, you will never get a perfect pelt

proly laggs ,in my case often happens if i shoot quicly same person w/o deadeye half shots are innefective weird thing.

[Draxenthor]

Originally posted by Wild West:

Draxenthor thanks that you took the time to get me some tips. With these tips I will hunt better. I am lvl 30 so I don't have much benefits.

You're more than welcome. I hope this will help you in Hunting as you progress with Online play. If you start going down the Trader Role, you can purchase a Hunting Wagon that allows you to store up to 5 Large carcasses (Cougars, Bucks, Panthers) which works like a portable fridge, so they stay in top quality until you either sell them or donate them to your Trader role.
If you like hunting, I'd suggest buying into the role. It costs 15 Gold Bars but you can make a lot of cash back from the sales, especially if you look for Discord servers where they do Trader Trains to sell multiple trader wagons back-to-back.

And I looked up the Trinket I mentioned, it's a Beaver Tooth trinket that's sold by Gus if you provide him with a Beaver Tooth and a specific piece of jewellery. It does cost a bit, but 10% reduction can help a bit with keeping your weapons in good condition.

Good luck!