This Budget Loadout SLAPS! Frontier 73c Marksman & LeMat | Hunt: Showdown 1896

Hi guys, REX here — and welcome back to my budget loadout series, where I cover cheap but reliable setups I genuinely recommend you try out. Together with my community, I’ve set an upper price limit of 600 Hunt Dollars per loadout, keeping things as cheap as possible without sacrificing efficiency.

Today we’re running the Frontier 73c Marksman with High Velocity ammo, paired with the LeMat — a solid mid- to long-range setup that rewards positioning, clean aim, and smart engagement choices.

The Frontier 73c Marksman used to be one of my favorite scoped weapons back in the day. I’ve always loved scopes in Hunt, and this one still feels great. You can absolutely run the iron sight version if you prefer, but the Marksman scope gives you that extra consistency at range.

With High Velocity ammo, the rifle sits at 500 muzzle velocity and a 160 meter drop range, which makes headshots feel significantly easier and more reliable compared to the standard 400 velocity. There’s less leading required and rarely any need to account for bullet drop in typical mid-range fights. It simply feels more consistent at distance and punishes players who are caught in the open or overpeek.

The biggest weakness of the Frontier Marksman is close quarters. Inside compounds, especially if you’re playing solo, it can get uncomfortable if you’re forced into chaotic fights without strong positioning.

But that’s where the LeMat comes in.

I’m running standard ammo to keep this build budget friendly. The main reason to pick the LeMat over alternatives like the Pax or Conversion is the underbarrel shotgun. It gives you a solid close-range option that the other pistols simply don’t offer unless you invest heavily into Fanning.

For tools, I’m running knuckle knife, medkit, flare pistol, and decoy fuses for solo. In teams, I recommend swapping the decoys for choke bombs.

Consumable-wise, I’m bringing a small vitality shot, a small regeneration shot, a large stamina shot, and an ammo box. The ammo box is particularly useful when running High Velocity and taking extended long-range fights.

Trait-wise, Necromancer is a must-have in my opinion. Scopesmith is also a core pick for this build, as it lets you stay in scope and increases your firing speed while scoped, which directly improves consistency.

Beyond that, I usually run Vigilant, Magpie, Dauntless, and Kiteskin for solo. For teams, I skip the last three in favor of Resilience.

Once you have more trait points available, Levering is highly recommended. In my opinion, it’s far more consistent on the Frontier than Fanning is on the LeMat. It also costs one less trait point and allows you to keep the LeMat in shotgun mode while still having strong close-range potential on the rifle when needed.

The total cost for this loadout is 559 Hunt Dollars, keeping it safely under the 600 limit for this series. If you want to bring the price down further, you can cut the High Velocity ammo, downgrade the stamina shot, and swap the ammo box for a waxed dynamite. That brings the total down to 418 Hunt Dollars — or 413 if you’re running chokes in a team instead of decoy fuses.

But without further ado — let’s dive into it.