New weapon purchase, the powerful 'Rangemaster 338' | theHunter: Call of the Wild

Hello, gamers. Welcome back to my blog.

We are still in Silver Ridge Peaks, enjoying the weather, trekking to the top of the mountains and hunting a range of animals from wild Turkeys to massive Bisons.

This reserve is abandoned in Bison populations and they are found in big herds you will surely get more than 1 if you have powerful rifles in your load-outs.

I started the session by looking at the store to see if I can buy another powerful rifle. I have been using the versatile yet powerful 7mm magnum rifle whose bullet covers animals from classes 4 to 8. Not bad for big game hunting but I wanted to have a more powerful rifle.

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I saw the 'Rangemaster 338' and surely this one is made for big games only as its bullets cover classes 7-9. It costs a whooping 60K bucks and I had 65K so I went ahead and bought it along with the bullets. It takes a lot of time to earn 60K cash but I guess it was worth it.

With this new weapon in my hands, I went out to look for Bisons. It was beautiful, the sun was shining brightly.... perfect hunting weather.

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Soon, I heard noises coming from the woods. When I went and investigated I accidentally spooked a small group of Bisons. This was a perfect opportunity to test my new weapon.

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I saw the animals, they were trying to flee but kept getting stuck in the dense forest and bumping into trees. Their AI was not well optimized for this biome I guess or it was just a weird glitch. I shot down a couple of them and both of them died soon. I can feel the power of this gun.

If those shots were from my old rifle it would have taken them longer to die and I had to track them down but the Rangemaster is impressive even at close range.

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The first hunt gave me the gold trophy. What a start to the day, a fine female weighing just over 500 kg was enough for a gold badge. I thought only huge males would give me gold and diamond trophies. Well, this was new and I was happy to get it. Now that I think about it, that depends on the trophy type and in Bison's case it is their Horns. So, it must be heavily dependent on their skull and horns.

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A new UI update came in the game and although I didn't see many changes but the harvest screen has been revamped. It looks much cleaner. I can see a lot more information when going to the 'Truescore' screen. That will focus the view on the trophy organ and will show you the extra information about your harvest.

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While I was looking following the tracks of the previously spotted Bison group, I heard Pronghorn calls coming from the northern side. I quickly tried to spot them and found them. It was a medium-sized group with a couple of males. They were all travelling away from me so I had very less time. I quickly equipped the 7mm magnum rifle which covers their class and shot down one of the bigger males from the group.

There was no chance I can take down another one, they are one of the fastest land animals and can vanish in a blink of an eye. I went to harvest my kill.

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This was only a silver trophy, weighing just over 50 kg. My bullet slightly missed the heart but it was still an instant kill. Both lungs were punctured and the animal collapsed instantly to the ground.

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Looking for my next kill, I reached a big lake located in the middle of the reserve. I was hoping to find some thirsty animals at the edge of the lake.

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And I was right, a lone Bighorn Sheep was there, perhaps waiting for its mates to arrive as well. It was calmly drinking water so I had a good shot. I waited until I had a perfect side-on angle to shoot the lungs.

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I aimed slightly lower where the heart is located. I always miss the heart by shooting just above it but this time I took my sweet time and got a perfect heart shot. Love to see a well-executed shot. This was from over 200 meters so it was not a bad shot.

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Their trophy organ is also a skull and horns. As their names suggest they have big horns, much broader at the base and make a nice curve.

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I had my dog with me which helps in tracking down the injured animal. I like to take him with me on my hunts but sometimes he can scare the animals too so you need to be extra careful and make him sit in critical situations.

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The last kill levelled me up and I got a new skill point to spare. These skills are divided into two sections: stalker and ambusher.

In the ambusher section, I liked the Fatal Attraction which should help me attract animals easily to my callers. This is very useful in bow hunting and hunting in dense forests.

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While in the Stalker section, I wanted to spend my skill point on the 'Soft feet' skill. This would reduce the noise generated when moving through bushes and shrubs. I loved this one as most of the time animals get spooked by hearing me way before they see me coming. So, I went with this one. I will go for the 'Fatal Attraction' next time.

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I love the levelling-up system in this game, it gives you a slight advantage but you need to work hard to get those. A well-balanced game with well-made maps/reserves, each with unique species of animal that behaves and responds to your actions. Their AI is not bad with slight hiccups here and there.

Thanks for reading...

Until next time...