World
Hunting and wildlife
Around 200 species of animals, birds and fish share the map, and they behave like a living ecosystem. Hunting well is mostly about three things: finding the animal, killing it cleanly with the right weapon, and handling the carcass properly.
Checked Sep 30, 2026 · Sources: OfficialCommunityCGN
What Rockstar says
The world holds around 200 species of animals, birds and fish, and each behaves and responds to its environment in its own way: deer, bison and pronghorn move in large herds, scavengers quickly find carrion, wolves attack in packs, possums play dead, and grizzly bears bluff charge when threatened. Official They compete on the food chain, and they will attack you and your horse if you threaten them.
Finding animals
- Eagle Eye opens early in the story and shows tracks and clues. Binoculars let you study an animal, and you can track it from there. Birds in flight and farm animals cannot be tracked.
- Time of day matters. Some animals, such as owls, are only out at night.
- Calling. Aim at an animal and use the call button to make it lift its head, then take the shot. It is the easiest way to a clean kill.
- Bait. Herbivore and predator baits, bought from general stores and the trapper, draw animals toward a spot. Predators will come for you too.
Quality: poor, good, perfect
Every carcass has a quality of one, two or three stars. A three-star animal gives a perfect pelt, and perfect pelts are what the trapper and Pearson want for crafting. What lowers quality:
- A kill that takes more than one shot, or the wrong weapon. If you use something too powerful, you can ruin the pelt. Too weak, and the animal may not die.
- Explosive ammunition on ordinary animals. Legendary animals are the exception: their pelts always come out perfect.
- Trampling a carcass with your horse.
Sources: Community checked Sep 30, 2026.
Weapon for the animal
| Animal size | Good choices |
|---|---|
| Small game (rabbits, squirrels, birds) | The Varmint Rifle (.22) or small game arrows. Rabbit pelts in perfect quality need the Varmint Rifle. |
| Deer, elk and other medium and large game | A clean head shot with something that kills in one hit: a repeater, a rifle or an arrow. Improved arrows suit large animals. Use the call to line up the shot. |
| Bears and cougars | Dead Eye with a powerful repeater, rifle or sniper rifle. For cougars, a bow from the top of a wagon or a rock: they cannot reach you there. |
| Legendary animals | Anything. The pelt is always perfect, so explosive ammunition is allowed. |
The bow is the most flexible hunting weapon: you switch arrow types per animal, most arrows can be picked up again, and it never degrades. Weapons guide
After the kill
- Skin or pluck the animal. A horse over the carcass skips the long animation.
- Where it goes. Butchers, the trapper and fences buy what you bring. Pearson takes carcasses for the camp stew and perfect pelts for crafting.
- Mind your horse. A horse can only carry so much, and carcasses on a horse spoil over time.
Honor rules
Killing farm and town animals loses honor and adds an animal-cruelty bounty. Honor also drops when you kill an animal without skinning it, leave a wounded animal to suffer, or make a long run of kills on the same species. Honor and law
Compendium notes
- 100% completion asks for 50 animal species and 10 fish species in the compendium, and the Master Hunter ranks are part of the 90 challenges. The checklist
- The Carolina parakeet can only be studied, killed and picked up for the compendium until you have killed 25. Treat the first few as precious.
- A short story location has wildlife of its own, and you can only handle it while you can roam freely there. Spoilers in the chapter guide
Next guides
- Legendary animals: sixteen, one of each per save.
- Fishing: rods, lures and fifteen legendary fish.
- Master Hunter challenges: ten ranks, ending with a legendary panther.
- Crafting: what to make with what you hunt.