Regarding the concerns about the ammo ..

[jswarpaint]

The 30-30 and the .243 when playing the first time seemed to bounce off of the deer.. I lost many but then shot deer later with a .308 one time that had been shot already .. i guess these were the 5 or 6 deer or more that I wounded .. oooops.

The story at Nez Pierce tries to tell you but its just a vocal tip ... it says something about take the shot at 120 yards ..

It seems with the 30-30 and the .243 this is key one must be 120 yards or closer the deer do not run far and I have not lost any .. in addition and also very important .. seems to be to also ..

use the better ammo.

the .308 seems to be able to stop them at 160 yards to 200 perhaps further but I don't shoot further so who knows .. again, whilst using the better ammo.

[Lanani]

In general, whether you will be able to take down an animal in one shot will depend on 2 things:
1. shot placement, i.e. did you hit something vital?
2. hit energy of the bullet at the time it hit the animal vs. hit energy required to cause lethal injuries on said animal

Both of these vary from species to species, which is why the animal and weapon tiers exist as a shorthand--to help players quickly match the right gun to the right tier. The 30-30 is classified as a tier 4/5 gun, because its standard ammo is tier 4 (and in fact the rifle was classified as a tier 4 rifle before alternate ammos were introduced), whereas the alternate ammo for it is tier 5.

Now, the game requires you to kill a white-tailed deer or mule deer with this rifle early on, before the shop is even unlocked, so you need to kill a tier 5 animal with a tier 4 weapon. This is still possible if you get close enough, hence the game telling you to get within 120 yards. You will, of course, also need good shot placement. It's also why the very next mission tells you to buy a rifle more appropriate to deer hunting (i.e. a tier 5 rifle for tier 5 animals).

Likewise, you can still take an overpowered rifle to a smaller animals (e.g. shoot a fox with the 30-30 without losing hunt rating), assuming you shoot from far enough away (since the bullet loses hit energy the farther it travels).

[jswarpaint]

Originally posted by Lanani:

In general, whether you will be able to take down an animal in one shot will depend on 2 things:
1. shot placement, i.e. did you hit something vital?
2. hit energy of the bullet at the time it hit the animal vs. hit energy required to cause lethal injuries on said animal

Both of these vary from species to species, which is why the animal and weapon tiers exist as a shorthand--to help players quickly match the right gun to the right tier. The 30-30 is classified as a tier 4/5 gun, because its standard ammo is tier 4 (and in fact the rifle was classified as a tier 4 rifle before alternate ammos were introduced), whereas the alternate ammo for it is tier 5.

Now, the game requires you to kill a white-tailed deer or mule deer with this rifle early on, before the shop is even unlocked, so you need to kill a tier 5 animal with a tier 4 weapon. This is still possible if you get close enough, hence the game telling you to get within 120 yards. You will, of course, also need good shot placement. It's also why the very next mission tells you to buy a rifle more appropriate to deer hunting (i.e. a tier 5 rifle for tier 5 animals).

Likewise, you can still take an overpowered rifle to a smaller animals (e.g. shoot a fox with the 30-30 without losing hunt rating), assuming you shoot from far enough away (since the bullet loses hit energy the farther it travels).

Thanks for a complete answer this is quite helpful ... for example, I wasn't going to shoot badgers anymore until I got the right tier weapon .. which will be awhile before I engage in this as I would rather mount some stuff and get better equipment but actually I could just dust off the 30-30 and go for a longer shot which would be interesting ...

[Lanani]

Actually, quick correction on my last post, I misremembered mission order. You get asked to buy a tier 5 rifle BEFORE going deer hunting. The only animals you MUST shoot with grandpa's old rifle are the badgers in the tutorial.

For what it's worth, I often use grandpa's old rifle as my secondary weapon whenever I go somewhere that doesn't require a shotgun (no birds or hares), as the meat loss on tier 3 animals will still be rather small and thanks to the alternate ammo (which is tier 5), GOR is now also useful for most deer.

[kevvy2k]

A lynx can withstand a 338 round at 350M lmao