WORTH USING?! Nagant M1895 Mastery | Hunt: Showdown 1896

Intro

Hi guys, REX here! Today, we’re looking at the one pistol most players never touch — and for good reason. But after playing every variant for this mastery, I think it deserves a second chance.

The Nagant is a single-action, compact-ammo pistol. It’s cheap, it’s slow, and on paper it’s clearly outclassed by many other pistols. But it also has very unique ammo and trait synchronization, which makes it an interesting weapon — especially if your goal is having fun rather than chasing the meta.

This mastery covers the Nagant M1895 as well as the Silencer, Precision, and Deadeye variants.

The base Nagant deals 91 damage, fires at 330 meters per second, and has a 70-meter drop range. It’s quite slow and can be punishing if you don’t hit consistent torso- or head shots. It’s single-slot, supports fanning, and can be dual-wielded, but it’s very limited overall.

The Silencer variant trades performance for stealth, dropping to 85 damage, 280 meters per second velocity, and a 60-meter drop range, but it gains obvious utility in return. When combined with special ammo and fanning, it plays very differently from the other variants.

The Nagant Precision is a two-slot variant with a stock, giving it better handling and consistency while maintaining the same damage, velocity and drop range as the base Nagant. With a recent update, Crytek introduced fanning on all single-action pistols, which means both Precision variants can now use it.

The Nagant Deadeye adds a Deadeye scope on top of that, making it the only pistol in the game that can combine a scope with fanning.

Next, let’s talk about ammo types.

Regular ammo follows the base stats of the weapon — low velocity, modest damage, and normal penetration.

High Velocity ammo significantly improves bullet speed, increasing it from 330 to 450 meters per second, and also extends the drop range by 10 meters. The downside is increased recoil and less reserve ammo.

Poison ammo follows base stats but applies the poison effect, limiting hearing and vision and preventing healing while active. It has no penetration power and can be countered by an antidote shot, but it offers strong PvE value and good close-range pressure, especially on the silenced Nagant with fanning.

Dumdum ammo also follows base stats but applies intense bleeding on impact. Velocity is slightly reduced — down to 300 meters per second — and like poison, it has no penetration power. It’s good for applying pressure but less reliable if the enemy is behind cover.

Subsonic ammo trades performance for stealth. On the silenced Nagant, velocity drops from 280 to 221 meters per second, and drop range goes from 60 to 50 meters. Realistically, this ammo only makes sense on the silencer.

I played all of the Nagant variants for this mastery, and this video features the best rounds. At the end, I’ll share my thoughts and recommendations and whether I think this weapon is worth using — but without further ado, let’s dive into it.

Thoughts & Recommendations

After having played the Nagant variants for a few days, my overall opinion is pretty simple: this is generally more of a fun weapon than a good weapon, with one exception.

The biggest positive surprise was the Silencer with fanning and poison ammo. The fanning is extremely fast, the close-range damage output is solid, and poison gives it strong PvE value. This is the one setup that actually feels consistently effective and is arguably more powerful than most players give it credit for.

The Precision variants with fanning were the most fun to play. Running the Precision alongside the Deadeye turned out to be a goofy but surprisingly effective loadout. It’s not strong, it’s not efficient — but it works more often than you’d expect.

That said, the Nagant is slow, low-damage, and heavily outclassed by many other pistols. Even with fanning, it can’t compete with something like a Conversion pistol in my opinion. I wouldn’t recommend it for high-MMR lobbies, perhaps apart from the silencer with poison and fanning for certain builds.

Where the Nagant really shines is price. At 24 to 30 Hunt Dollars, it’s extremely budget-friendly – in fact the special ammo costs more than the weapon itself. It’s slightly underrated — not because it’s secretly strong, but because a lot of people discard it entirely due to it being the cheapest weapon in the game.

My recommendation is simple.
If you want the most effective Nagant setup, run the Silencer with poison ammo and fanning and pair it with a strong rifle that can hold its own. I would not pair this with another Nagant for a serious loadout, even though I did for this mastery.

If you want maximum fun, try the Precision and Deadeye together with fanning. It’s honestly so much more fun than you’d expect, and if you want to optimize further you could even run the scope smith and steady aim traits to make the Deadeye even more powerful on range.

On a sidenote, I was genuinely surprised by the Dual Nagant pistols during my Dual Pistols Mastery, so make sure to check that one out if you missed it!

But now I want to hear your opinion! What do YOU think about the Nagant, and what is your favorite variant and ammo combination?

Let me know in the comments — and until next time, I’ll see you in the bayou.