The CROWNED KING Of Close Quarters! Auto-5 Mastery | Hunt: Showdown 1896

Intro

Hi guys, Rex here! Today we’re diving into one of the most feared weapons in close-range combat — the Auto-5. This semi-automatic shotgun dishes out high damage, fires incredibly fast, and comes with a generous magazine size of 5 bullets — making it a top-tier pick for clearing buildings and dominating in close quarters.

This weapon comes in two variants: the full-sized Auto-5, a 3-slot powerhouse with stronger stats overall — and the Auto-4, a compact 2-slot version unlocked through progression. While the Auto-4 takes a slight hit in performance, it’s a popular meta pick thanks to its low cost, fast handling, and devastating stopping power up close.

The Auto-5 supports four ammo types:

• Buckshot, the default, is consistent and well-rounded. It penetrates wooden walls, performs reliably at close to medium range, and is great across most scenarios.
• Slugs offer high damage, headshot potential, and can penetrate wooden walls — but they suffer from built-in deviation, making them slightly inaccurate at range even if your aim is dead-on.
• Flechette causes medium bleeding and has a tight spread, making two-taps easy in close- to mid-range fights — but it has no penetration power, limiting its effectiveness behind cover.
• Penny Shot is fantastic for PvE — it melts bosses, one-taps immolators without triggering explosions, and breaks doors with ease. But in PvP, it’s much more situational. Like Flechette, it can’t penetrate any surface, and while it’s brutal in open close-quarters fights, I’ve found it far less consistent than Buckshot overall.

For this mastery challenge, I focused entirely on Buckshot and Slugs — the two ammo types I find most dependable for dynamic, high-pressure fights.

When running the Auto-5, I paired it with the LeMat Pistol loaded with FMJ. This gave me a flexible backup for longer-range fights, plus the LeMat’s shotgun barrel let me stack even more buckshot or slugs for the primary weapon.

When using the Auto-4, I switched to the Drilling Shorty — which offered similar utility. The two rifle barrels gave me strong long-range coverage with high velocity rounds, while the shotgun barrel let me either stack ammo or mix and match, running slugs on one weapon and buckshot on the other. For even more flexibility I sometimes grabbed the quartermaster trait, which allowed me to run the drilling shorty with the full-sized Auto-5.

In this video, I’ll be putting both variants to the test — and as always, I’ll give you my full verdict and recommendations at the end. But without further ado — let’s dive into it!

Thoughts & Recommendations

After playing the Auto-5 and Auto-4 for a couple of days, here’s what I found.

Overall, these weapons perform exactly as you’d expect — they absolutely shred in close quarters when running Buckshot and offer surprising range potential with Slugs. The full-sized Auto-5 costs 600 Hunt Dollars before factoring in special ammo, making it a pricey investment. Meanwhile, the Auto-4 comes in at just 300, which is far more affordable — and probably explains why it’s such a popular meta pick. Although it has weaker stats, it still performs incredibly well up close. Despite its power, the Auto-5 does kick hard between shots, so controlling the recoil takes a bit of practice — but I didn’t find it too punishing once I got used to it.

Throughout my matches, I often found myself caught in the wrong kind of fight for this weapon — especially when running Buckshot. In close quarters, it tears through enemies — but outside of that ideal range, it really starts to struggle. There were plenty of moments where I had to rely on my sidearm instead, which wasn’t always optimal at longer distances.

Slugs, on the other hand, felt much more flexible. They gave me the power to dominate in close quarters, while still letting me land hits at medium range — and I even managed a few really satisfying headshots at distance. In my experience, Buckshot is generally more beginner-friendly — you don’t have to be pinpoint accurate to land kills. But Slugs really reward players with sharper aim and more experience.

All in all, this was a great challenge. When the fight played to the weapon’s strengths, it felt unstoppable — and while I probably had some rough luck with early encounters, I still had a ton of fun. I don’t normally play the Auto-5 often, so this was a great reminder of just how strong it can be in the right hands.

But now I want to hear your opinion! What do you think about the Auto-4 and Auto-5 — and what’s your favorite ammo type to run with them? Drop a comment below — and until next time, I’ll see you in the bayou!