While a simple axe might suffice for the start of your journey in Sons of the Forest, eventually, you’ll need something with a little more kick. Fortunately, several weapons are scattered around the island, one of which is a high-powered bolt-action rifle.
This particular weapon was added to Sons of the Forest in a June 2023 patch update. The rifle is terrific at eliminating single targets from a far distance, as it shoots one powerful bullet at a time. As with most items in the game, though, you’ll need to venture into a specific location to grab the rifle, which requires some additional items to reach.
Below, you can see everything you need to get the gun, its location, and some ammo locations as well.
Bolt-action rifle location in Sons of the Forest
The bolt-action rifle is located in a cave on the east side of the snowy mountain in the center of the map. More specifically, the cave is situated on the northwest end of the large lake that sits just to the east of the mountain. Fortunately, the cave is pretty obvious once you reach its general area, so you shouldn’t have to search too much to find it. You can see the cave’s location in the screenshot below:
Before you start your journey to reach the cave, you need to have a Rebreather in your inventory. Near the middle of the cave, you have to travel down into a small pool of water to reach the other side, which is impossible to do without the Rebreather.
You can find the Rebreather in Sons of the Forest in a cave on the far north side of the island. The cave requires a light source to navigate. Near the end of the cave, you’ll find a pool of water and the rebreather on the other side of the pool. Don’t go into the water, as there’s also a shark inside, which you can avoid or stun by using the Stun Gun. The shark won’t be there if you’re playing on Peaceful mode
To avoid the shark, simply walk the path on the right side of the room and grab the rebreather without going into the water. Once you have the rebreather, exit the cave, and you can now equip the item whenever you need to go underneath the water.
With your rebreather now in hand, you can head over to the cave where the bolt-action rifle is located. Enter the cave and equip the rebreather when you need to dive into the water. You can take it off after successfully navigating the underwater path and keep going further into the cave. Always stay straight in the cave and don’t head down any paths to the left or right.
Eventually, you’ll stumble across another path of water that has various body parts scattered in it, which you can swim through. On the other side of the water, look for a man’s body against a wall. Loot the body and keep moving forward, making sure the wall the body was on stays on your right side. With that bearing, you’ll find another body hanging from the ceiling in a well-lit area of the cave. This is the body that has the rifle, so loot it and then pick up the rifle ammo that’s lying on the floor. Exit the cave, and you can equip your new rifle in Sons of the Forest.
Rifle ammo locations in Sons of the Forest
Following the June 2023 patch that added the rifle, you can find a small amount of rifle ammo right when you start the game in Sons of the Forest. Loot all of the suitcases that fell from the chopper, and you’ll find around three containers of rifle ammo. That’s a start, but it’s nowhere near enough ammo to last you for the entire game.
You can find more rifle ammo by looting dead bodies and containers at abandoned camps or by finding Ammo Caves around the map. You can also enter caves, bunkers, and vaults to find a solid amount of rifle ammo in the various containers that are scattered around these locations.
However, if you never want to run out of rifle ammo again, you can use a console command to spawn as much of it as you need. To do this, follow the steps below:
- Type in the word “cheatstick” (without the quotations) while in-game. You don’t have to be unpaused or at a menu, type in the word.
- After the word is typed, press the F1 key to bring up the console command menu.
- On the console command menu, type in: spawnitem rifleammo [number].
- Press enter once you’re finished with the command and, if done correctly, the game will. spawn in boxes of rifle ammo for you to pick up.
You can do this as many times as you want in Sons of the Forest. You can also technically get a rifle by using the console command menu if you don’t want to go into the cave to get it.
To spawn the rifle using console commands, use the following command: additem rifle. This spawns a rifle in your inventory for you to equip.
Rifle ammo ID in Sons of the Forest
The final way to obtain rifle ammo in Sons of the Forest is to use its ID number and alter the game’s source code to change your inventory. This is a more roundabout way of using console commands, but it’s another option we felt we should go over. You can learn exactly how to use an item’s ID number to spawn it in Sons of the Forest by reading our command console guide.
If you already know how to do that, the ID number for rifle ammo is 387. Also, if you’re interested, the ID number for the rifle itself is: 361.
That covers everything you need to know about finding the rifle and rifle ammo in Sons of the Forest.