I Was WRONG! Drilling Mastery | Hunt: Showdown 1896

Intro

Hi guys, rex here! If you’ve been following my channel for a while, you probably already know that I’ve never been much of a Drilling fan. This weapon seems to be a community favourite, and in this video, I am giving it an honest try to see if I can be converted.

The drilling is a unique rifle in Hunt: Showdown. It features 2 medium ammo rifle barrels and a shotgun barrel, making it the only weapon of its kind. The fire rate is quite fast, allowing for quick double taps or a couple of slick headshots if your aim is true. The drilling also has a shorty variant which takes weapon 2 slots instead of 3 and features the same triple barrel setup with overall lower stats, making it a great secondary option for a quartermaster loadout or a solid combo with any 2-slot weapon.

The drilling fires a variety of ammo types. With regular medium ammo, it deals 120 damage and has a drop range of 145 meters. The base velocity is 530 meters per second, which can be further increased to 655 with high velocity ammo. High velocity ammo also increases the drop range by 20 meters, which is quite significant, but reduces the damage to 116 and increases the recoil. Next up, dumdum ammo inflicts intense bleeding on impact but has drastically lower velocity. The dumdum projectiles travel at 371 meters per second, has 20 meters reduced drop range compared to regular ammo and has no penetration power. Finally FMJ ammo has the same velocity and drop range as dumdum ammo. What sets this ammo type apart is the increased penetration power and damage retention over distance.

Now that we’ve covered the rifle ammo types, let’s talk about the shotgun. The drilling’s shotgun barrel fires regular buckshot as well as 3 special ammo types. The first thing you’ll notice is that the hip fire spread on regular buckshot is very tight, making it accurate and easy to use. Regular buckshot can also penetrate wooden walls on close range. Next up, Flechette ammo has even tighter hip fire spread and causes bleeding on impact but has no penetration power. The second special ammo type is penny shot. This ammo type, like flechette, has no penetration power, but has a wider spread. It is generally very good for boss killing or fighting players in close range, but lacks the wall bang capabilities that regular buckshot has, and is less accurate on range. Finally, slugs are single large shotgun projectiles dealing massive damage. Slugs are ideal for accurate chest shots or even headshots, acting as a third rifle barrel for the Drilling in particular. Slugs have a slight deviation in their accuracy, meaning shots could be somewhat unpredictable, especially on longer distances.

I played both drilling variants for a couple of days, and this video features the best rounds. At the end of the video I will share my thoughts and recommendations for this weapon, so stay tuned, but without further ado – let’s dive into it!

Thoughts & Recommendations

After having played the Drilling for a couple of days, I surprised to say that I changed my mind. For the first time in a very long time, I really enjoyed this weapon, and it generally performed quite well once I got into it. My main issue with the Drilling in the past has been the iron sights and the somewhat slow and clunky ADS animation. The iron sights are in my opinion one of the worst in the game, as the ball-pin makes it very hard to aim accurately. Despite this fact, I made it work quite well with a combination of practise and muscle memory. The shotgun felt amazing on both the regular and the shorty variant, and both variants were a lot of fun to play.

One thing that threw me off a bit was the full reload mechanic. When you reload the drilling, you typically have to reload the shotgun barrel and the rifle barrels separately. What I learnt the hard way, is that once all barrels are empty, the reload mechanic changes, as all 3 barrels will be reloaded in a single animation. This completely threw me off and got me killed at one point during this challenge, although had I known, I probably wouldn’t have died in that case.

As for ammo types, I played all four ammo types for the main barrels, and exclusively buckshot for the shotgun. Overall, regular ammo outperformed everything else for me, and as such I ended up playing that for the most part. I had quite a few dumdum rounds, but it just didn’t perform that well in comparison.

A final note regarding the drilling is that the weapon is rather expensive, costing 510 hunt dollars excluding special ammo. That’s a quite steep price for this weapon in my opinion, and I wouldn’t mind seeing it reduced a bit in the future.

So what is the final verdict? Did I get converted? Yes and no. I certainly enjoyed this weapon a lot more than I have in the past, and when it worked out it was a blast! I still think the price is a bit too steep, and the iron sights are not great, but with enough practise this weapon is an absolute beast. If anything, this challenge has given me a taste for the drilling, and I’ll probably take it for another spin some time soon!

What is YOUR opinion on the Drilling? Is it worth the price, and how good is it really? Let me know in the comments, and until next time, I’ll see you in the bayou!