The ULTIMATE All-Round Rifle! Ranger 73 Mastery | Hunt: Showdown 1896

Intro

Hi guys, REX here!
The ranger 73 is a compact ammo rifle that comes with 3 main variants – the regular ranger, the aperture and the swift.

This rifle has a lot going for it, as it is quite cheap, has really good iron sights, fast reloading with the swift variant’s speed loader AND a very large ammo capacity.

While the ranger is great in itself, it becomes much deadlier and more fun to play with the levering trait, which can be assigned for 7 trait points.

With levering, this rifle brings serious stopping power, and goes from being mostly good on range to being a great all-round weapon due to its very tight hipfire spread and fast fire rate.

The ranger can run a variety of special ammo types.

FMJ ammo is my personal favorite, as it significantly increases the penetration power which works really well with levering in close range fights, however this does come at the cost of lower bullet velocity and higher recoil, catering more to a close to medium range playstyle.

Poison ammo inflicts the poison effect on impact, which impairs your hearing and vision and prevents healing for the duration of the effect.

Compact fire ammo will set enemy hunters on fire up to 20 meters away with the first shot if they don’t have the salveskin trait.

Keep in mind, fire and poison ammo does not penetrate surfaces at all.

Next up, high velocity ammo increases the bullet speed from 400 to 500 meters per second and the drop range from 140 to 160 meters, but also increases recoil.

Finally, subsonic ammo reduces the noise made by your gunshots, at the cost of drastically reduced bullet speed.

Because of how versatile the ranger is with levering, you can basically run any sidearm you want with it.

If I play solo, I like to run a conversion pistol with FMJ to stack extra ammo for the ranger, and if I play in a team I typically take a hand crossbow with revive & choke bolts for utility and optimal teamplay.

I played the ranger for a couple of days, and this video features the best rounds!

At the end of the video, I’ll give you my thoughts and recommendations for the Ranger, but without further ado – Let’s dive into it!

Thoughts & Recommendations

After having played the ranger for a couple of streams, my experience was just about as expected.

You really can’t go wrong with this weapon, as it is highly versatile and works for just about any playstyle.

The fact that it is so affordable makes it a perfect option for anyone, whether you are new to the game and looking for a good starter rifle, or a more experienced player who wants a fun and effective all-round weapon that rewards a high skill level by performing accordingly.

I personally don’t see the reason to play anything other than the swift variant, but I am also not much of an aperture fan.

For this reason I stuck to the Swift for these rounds, as I think it is by far the best variant for this weapon.

For ammo types, I recommend FMJ if you like to play more aggressively in close to medium range, or HV if you are playing a bit slower and want to pick more shots from afar.

Fire, poison and subsonic ammo are not worth it in comparison in my opinion.

What do YOU think about the ranger, and what is your favorite ranger loadout? Let me know in the comments, and until next time – I’ll see you in the bayou!