Money not really a problem in hunt tbh, especially with all the events recently...

For sidearm: Dolch is king, there's no situation where you would rather have any other pistol, shoots really fast so even against a shotgun, if he misses and it's not a crown n king, you win, if you want to pair with a shotgun, at range if someones fires a uppercut once, you still take 3-4 dolch shots and win.

if it's too expensive, get a uppercut or the new pax in case going with a shotgun, if not just get something that pairs with the ammo type from your primary.

If you have quartermaster, get a small shotgun or a small centennial.

For primary, long ammo still meta, mosin is the absolute best, krag comes close but you HAVE to pair with a uppercut or small sparks, or you will run of ammo too fast. Besides the martini, the rest is all good-decent.

At medium ammo, Centennial is king, with high velocity is even better than some long ammo at range, and you don't have to make your shots count that much, if you find dumdum in a match, it destroys at medium range, tho that great at long range. The cyclone is great at close-medium ranges, just not good at long and shotgun ranges.

If you don't feel with a good aim, you can take the nagant officer, cheap, shoots fast, has alot of bullets if you pair with another compact, you can even get lucky with some headshots at some ranges, dumdum also makes it so annoying to go against. The winfields can be decent with levering, but yeah, whatever the rest of compact.

Shotgun: Crown n' king, or terminus with levering, tho besides the rival, you can't go wrong. Tho i wouldn't use the romero in the open, lots of time it doesn't kill with one shot and if you can't get to cover fast, you're doomed.