I Accidentally Fell In Love With This Rifle… 1890 Cavalry Mastery | Hunt: Showdown 1896

1. Introduction

When I first picked up the 1890 Cavalry, I expected to test it for a few rounds and move on. Instead, I somehow ended up playing it for several days straight.

Hi guys, Rex here, and today we’re taking a look at the 1890 Cavalry, a 3-slot long ammo rifle that can be purchased for just 56 Hunt Dollars.

The Cavalry deals 139 damage, fires at 380 meters per second, and has a drop range of 120 meters. At first glance, its stats place it very close to the Martini Henry, making it another hard-hitting single-shot rifle capable of downing hunters with a torso shot if they’re missing a small health chunk.

Compared to the Martini Henry, the Cavalry sacrifices a small amount of damage, velocity, and drop range. In return, it offers a slightly faster cycle time, better hip fire spread and lower recoil, giving it a smoother and more forgiving shooting experience overall. But perhaps most importantly this rifle only takes 3 slots instead of the Martini’s 4, making it far more flexible in terms of loadout options.

And like the Martini, the Cavalry can also run two ammo types, which can be a huge advantage in some cases.

2. Variants

The 1890 Cavalry Rifle currently only features one variant, which is the standard iron sights. The sights are rather unique on this rifle compared to other weapons in Hunt, but I find them oddly satisfying to use for some reason.

3. Ammo Types

The Cavalry currently has three ammo options to choose from.

Regular ammo follows the weapon’s base stats and offers a balanced experience.

FMJ ammo increases penetration power and retains more damage through surfaces and over distance. The downside is lower velocity, increased recoil, and reduced drop range, making shots harder to land consistently at longer ranges.

High Velocity increases bullet speed by 100 meters per second, bringing the velocity up to 480 meters per second, which helps tremendously when leading shots at range. It also increases the weapon’s drop range by 10 meters, making long-range shots slightly more consistent. The tradeoff is slightly reduced damage, increased recoil, and a smaller ammo reserve.

4. Traits

The Cavalry is compatible with the Fast Fingers trait.

For 4 trait points, Fast Fingers allows you to prepare additional rounds between your fingers, drastically improving reloading time. Since the Cavalry Rifle is a single-shot weapon, this significantly improves your follow-up shot potential and helps reduce one of the weapon’s biggest weaknesses.

5. Loadouts

For this mastery, I mostly paired the Cavalry Rifle with the Uppercut, which is not only a ton of fun to play but also incredibly powerful following a recent buff that brought its damage up to 126 – meaning it can 1-shot to the torso if a hunter is missing a health chunk.

If you’re running regular ammo, the two weapons share the same ammo pool, giving you excellent ammo economy alongside a powerful sidearm that can easily hold its own in close to medium-range fights.

If you’re running High Velocity, there is currently no sidearm that can share the ammo pool. The Uppercut remains a fantastic choice and a personal favorite of mine, but at that point you’re free to choose whatever best fits your playstyle.

A great budget option is the Conversion Pistol with FMJ. Once you pick up Fanning, it becomes a laser beam in close quarters while still performing surprisingly well at medium range.

Thanks to Update 2.8’s loadout changes, there are also more options than ever before. Since the Cavalry only takes 3 slots, you could pair with the Haymaker for a slightly weaker alternative to the Uppercut that features a shotgun barrel for close range. Or you could run a shorty shotgun variant like the Rival for quick follow ups and close-range dominance depending on your playstyle.

And if you decide to bring Quartermaster, the possibilities expand even further.

I’d probably prioritize bringing something capable of handling close-range fights, since that’s where the Cavalry Rifle is at its weakest, but this really just comes down to preference and playstyle.

6. Playstyle

The Cavalry is usually most effective at medium to long range and rewards good aim due to its single-shot nature.

Unless you land consistent headshots, you’ll usually need to rely on a quick follow up, either by quick swapping to your sidearm, or by relying on the Fast Fingers trait for faster follow-ups.

If possible, keeping some distance to the opponent is recommended, unless you are very confident in your capabilities and loadout. While the Cavalry Rifle can certainly win those engagements, it performs best when you can leverage its range advantage and maintain some distance.

Focus on positioning, place your shots well, and make good use of your secondary weapon whenever enemies manage to close the gap.

7. Mastery Setup

For this mastery, I played the 1890 Cavalry over several days. I mostly paired it with the Uppercut, and grabbed the Fast-Fingers trait when I had the points available. Since the weapon can run two ammo types I ended up playing a mix of regular and high velocity a lot of the time, which allowed me to replenish ammo from both regular and special ammo boxes as well as have a better ammo type for long range encounters.

This video features some of my best rounds, and at the end I’ll share my thoughts and recommendations, so stay tuned, but without further ado, let’s dive into it!

Outro

After having played the 1890 Cavalry for several days, I have to say this rifle is better than I expected! Somehow, it got me hooked quite early, and what started as testing a new weapon for a few rounds ended up with a full-on 1890 cavalry & uppercut streak. Even long after finishing my initial video on the weapon I found myself coming back to the loadout simply because I had so much fun and success playing it.

Performance wise, the rifle has everything you need at a very low price, along with incredible loadout flexibility due to its 3-slot nature. Ironically, the Uppercut ended up costing over 5 times as much as the rifle itself, but I suppose it balances out nicely in the end.

Ammo wise, I eventually came to the conclusion that HV ammo wasn’t really that impactful since the weapon’s velocity is decent by default, and perhaps more importantly the ammo capacity that comes with HV is very low. Despite this fact, I kept bringing it more as a backup option for long range and to more easily replenish my ammo through any ammo box available in a pinch, which I still think is a great call.

As for the Fast Fingers trait, it certainly feels strong on this weapon, however for my quick swapping playstyle I didn’t find it strictly necessary. In the end, I kept bringing it most of the time simply because there aren’t any meaningful downsides to it, and I didn’t have to keep reloading the rifle between swaps which allowed me to be more aggressive in fights.

Overall, the 1890 Cavalry has easily become one of my current favorites. It is affordable, fun, effective and incredibly flexible. Whether you end up pairing it with something like an uppercut for insane quick swap firepower, or something like a conversion with fanning or rival shorty for close range – this weapon will most certainly get the job done.

But now I want to hear YOUR opinion! What do YOU think about 1890 Cavalry, and what has been your favorite weapon pairing so far? Let me know in the comments, and until next time, I’ll see you in the Bayou!