A Player's Honest Ranking of Red Dead Redemption 2 Rifles
This Red Dead Redemption 2 rifles ranking covers the best rifles and worst rifles—from Lancaster Repeater to Varmint Rifle—with prices and stats.
As a player who has spent the better part of 2026 still wandering the Heartlands, I have learned that rifles in Red Dead Redemption 2 are less like weapons and more like old riding partners. Some will carry you through a gunfight without complaint, while others collapse the moment the air gets hot. The Wild West may have been the birthplace of modern long-range combat, but Rockstar’s version refines that history into a collection of beautiful, flawed, and occasionally absurd tools. I have fired each of these rifles enough to know which ones earn a permanent place on my horse and which ones I only use to prove a point. This is my honest, first-person ranking.
| Rank | Rifle | Magazine | Story Price | Online Price | Best Use |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | Varmint Rifle | 14 | $72.00 | N/A | Small game hunting |
| 9 | Elephant Rifle | 2 | N/A | $580.00 | Close-range brute force |
| 8 | Carbine Repeater | 7 | $90.00 | Free | Early-game workhorse |
| 7 | Springfield Rifle | 1 | $120.00 | $156.00 | Accurate single-shot hunting |
| 6 | Rolling Block Rifle | 1 | $187.00 | $411.00 | Scoped long shots |
| 5 | Evans Repeater | 26 | $140.00 | $300.00 | Extended firefights |
| 4 | Bolt Action Rifle | 5 | $180.00 | $216.00 | All-purpose hunting and combat |
| 3 | Litchfield Repeater | 16 | $145.00 | $348.00 | Moving fights |
| 2 | Carcano Rifle | 6 | $190.00 | $456.00 | Long-range sniping |
| 1 | Lancaster Repeater | 14 | $135.00 | $243.00 | Everything |
10. 🐇 Varmint Rifle
The Varmint Rifle is the first lesson in reading a weapon’s name before trusting it. I bought it early for $72.00 because the 14-round tubular magazine seemed generous, but its small-caliber bite is so soft that even specialized ammunition feels like tossing pebbles. In my hands, it has all the menace of a sewing needle wrapped in velvet. For hunting snakes, rabbits, and lizards it is surgical, but the moment a cougar or an O’Driscoll closes the distance, I stop pretending it is a weapon.
9. 🐘 Elephant Rifle
Exclusive to Red Dead Online and priced at $580.00, the Elephant Rifle is what happens when artillery has a personality crisis. It fires two Nitro Express rounds with thunderclap authority, but the spread turns it into more of a hyper-accurate shotgun than a true rifle. I have used it to end a charging grizzly in one moment and whiff a stationary target the next. It rewards patience like a chess move, but in a running firefight it is about as practical as a sledgehammer with a sniper’s ego.
8. 🐎 Carbine Repeater
Most of my early hours were spent married to the Carbine Repeater. Whether picked up in the open world or handed to me for free in Red Dead Online, it is the training saddle of the rifle world. At $90.00 in the store and holding 7 rounds, it does decent damage with average accuracy. I cannot call it special, but I respect it the way you respect a mule that never throws you. It serves until something with more teeth becomes available.
7. 🎯 Springfield Rifle
The Trapdoor Springfield is a single-shot history lesson. Available after Chapter 1 for $120.00 in story mode and $156.00 online, it hits with genuine authority and stays accurate over long range. But the single-shot action is like keeping a museum piece on your horse: gorgeous, meaningful, and one breath short when a gang ambushes you. I use it for clean hunting shots and then immediately switch back to something more forgiving.
6. 🔭 Rolling Block Rifle
The Rolling Block is the first of two dedicated snipers, always scoped and delivered free during “The Sheep And The Goats” in story mode. It costs $187.00 in story or $411.00 online if you miss that moment. When I settle behind it, the world becomes a still photograph; the rifle hits like a lighthouse beam focused through a needle’s eye. But one shot is all I get, and if the wolves are already moving, that single round begins to feel like a cruel joke.
5. 🌊 Evans Repeater
The Evans Repeater holds 26 rounds, which is enough to make me feel briefly immortal. After “American Distillation” in Chapter 3, I paid $140.00 in story or $300.00 online. Its damage and accuracy sit right in the middle, but the rate of fire and capacity are like a river that never stops flowing, even if it rarely carves a canyon. In extended shootouts it keeps me pulling the trigger while enemies reload.
4. ⚙️ Bolt Action Rifle
The Krag-Jorgensen bolt action is the rifle I recommend to players who want one tool for almost everything. It appears for purchase in Chapter 3 at $180.00, or $216.00 online, and I occasionally looted it from NPCs as early as Chapter 2. With 5 rounds, it is accurate, smooth, and hard-hitting, a metronome of death when I control my breathing. Its only sins are a limited magazine and a tendency to lose composure when I am sprinting through brush.
3. 🔥 Litchfield Repeater
Based on the 1860 Henry, the Litchfield Repeater asks you to trade speed for certainty. After completing “Goodbye, Dear Friend,” I bought it for $145.00 in story or $348.00 online. The 16-round magazine and accuracy while moving make it a reliable companion in chaotic fights. It reloads like molasses, but the shots land with enough weight that I rarely mind.
2. 🇮🇹 Carcano Rifle
The Carcano is a glass cannon with an Italian accent. Available in the second half of the campaign at $190.00 story or $456.00 online, this scoped bolt action is historically anachronistic but gorgeous. It holds 6 rounds and demands the scope, which means I lose third-person awareness. Even so, for long-range hunting or dueling other players, it turns distance into a one-sided conversation.
1. 👑 Lancaster Repeater
The Lancaster Repeater is my frontier heirloom. It is the iconic Winchester lever-action, available in various open-world spots or for $135.00 story and $243.00 online. It carries 14 rounds, reloads quickly, and performs above average in damage, accuracy, and fire rate. In my 2026 replays, I still treat it like a Swiss Army knife forged in frontier starlight: no matter the threat, it has an answer. Whether I am riding hard across Big Valley or clearing a hideout, the Lancaster is the last rifle I would ever set down.
