"When a man with a .45 meets a man with a rifle, the man with a pistol is a dead man."

-"Ramon" from A Fistful of Dollars

"I'll stick with my forty-fives."

-"The man with no name" from A Fistful of Dollars

Ramon had a good point: if used correctly the rifle is the deadliest weapon around. Nothin' else can match it from a distance, and its large magazine and good rate of fire make it an excellent all-around weapon.

If ya like ta snipe at suckers from the safety of a hidey-hole the rifle th' gun ta use. Likewise if you find yerself comin' across enemies that are a good ways away, use the rifle to cut 'em down before they can get into pistol or shotgun range. It can hold a lot of rounds at once, but be sure and load the magazine before entering a fight 'cause it takes much longer to reload than most other weapons.

I, on the other hand, suck

at close range with the rifle. Two direct hits will kill most anyone but they're really hard to get in a tight battle. For a while I wuz determined to become better with the rifle and used it in every situation. However, while I mopped up at long range I got slaughtered by shotguns and pistols in close quarters. You can of course run backwards while continuing to shoot forwards in an effort to maximize your range advantage, but it's hard to do that and still maintain effective fire on your target. And on most levels the vast majority of encounters occur at point blank range.

So know when to use the rifle and when to switch to a more effective weapon. If ya really wanna become a serious rifleman then Ex-Marshal James Anderson is the only character to consider; his rifle can dot an "i" at 1000 paces. Matt "Dr. Death" Jackson also starts with a rifle but he's nowhere near as good a shot with it, and everyone else is pretty ineffective with them.

The following chart shows the shootin' accuracy of all six characters with a rifle. You'll notice that Anderson is head an' shoulders above th' rest who are all pretty similar. Of course there are other important factors involved in rifle-shootin' effectiveness, notably range, rate of fire and auto-aim capability.

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