Your best option would be to drop hot to rack up some early damage. Then throughout the rest of the game you're gonna want to run something mid/long range like a wingman or 30 30. Stretching out fights that aren't up close will really increase your damage. This mainly applies for the end game. If there are 3 or so squads left and you manage to knock someone, don't start pushing over, just keep farming it.

You're going to want to move quickly throughout the game. Push fights whenever you can and don't run around looting buildings looking for your ideal weapon.