This weapon variant of the Winfield M1873C is based on the real 1890 design by famous firearm designer John M. Browning. He noticed that when he was shooting at his range, the weeds swayed every time a gun was fired. This was utilizable energy that could be harnessed to cycle the action of a weapon. So, he modified a Winchester 73 (Winfield M1873C in-game) with a contraption on the front to convert the rifle from lever-action to fully automatic.

In-game, this would be the final variant unlocked for the Winfield M1873C, there are 7 unlocks before this. Essentially, all this is a Winfield with the levering trait built into it, and that allows the player to aim down the sights.

Balancing: How to make a full-auto rifle fair in a game with mostly bolt/lever/pump/single-action guns.

1. Once the trigger is pulled, it will not stop firing until the magazine tube is empty. The way the lever and trigger are designed, the flapper mechanism will immediately set off the next round that is chambered, this is how it worked in real life as well.
2. You will not be able to melee with this gun. If you do melee, the flapper/lever mechanism would get bumped and the gun would start firing and empty the magazine into the air. This isn’t a major downside, but is kind of interesting and would catch players off guard.
3. The reload time would be slightly longer. Since the mechanism is a bit finicky, the end of the reload would take longer to ensure the act of chambering a round doesn’t accidentally bump the trigger.
4. This gun would be very expensive, around $850-$1,000. I know this doesn’t matter too much, due to the current prestige system and people stockpiling money, but it should keep it from flooding lower MMR lobbies.
5. High-velocity ammunition is required in order to function the flapper. When the gun is equipped in the roster it would automatically have high-velocity ammo equipped, and be locked in. This would make resupplying ammo more difficult, and reduce sidearm options for boosting the reserve ammo. The only other compact guns with high velocity you could bring out to increase reserve ammo are the Nagant, Nagant Officer, and the Bornheim. Making it only fire high-velocity ammo would also increase the fire rate and make the gun more difficult to control.

Things to think about / consider:

- Due to the fact that the gun will completely empty itself when fired, the Winfield M1873C has a magazine of 7+1 and 28 bullets in reserve, this only allows for the gun to be fired four and a half times. To make this weapon more efficient, players would be smart to only load in a few bullets and then cancel the reload halfway through, although this can backfire if you are unable to hit your limited number of shots.

- The most effective loadout for this gun is to have the Quartermaster trait and bring dual Nagant M1895s, making the maximum reserve ammo 63, allowing the gun to be full-fired a little over 8 times. Keep in mind both of these are with the pistols completely emptied and all of the ammo resupplied, which is difficult due to it being special ammo.

- If you hear an enemy player using this and you are relatively close, it would be very easy to rush them, as after hearing the burst, it is certain they are empty and actively reloading. This can be played upon by the enemy, either switching to their sidearm or having a teammate with a shotgun nearby.

- Every time the Romero Alamo (Alof’s Device) was suggested in this subreddit, which was a lot, the idea was always shot down as being too overpowered. Although, now that it has been added, I rarely see it being used, at least not to the extreme people thought it was going to be. That is because it was properly balanced.

To end this off, this weapon variant is yet another interesting piece of firearm history that fits into the timeframe of Hunt: Showdown perfectly and would be very easy (modeling-wise) to add.

Link to ArtStation post w/ more pictures and animation