Should mean the damage of the shots, rather than the damage of bopping things with the gun. If you’ve loaded it with ammo, it’ll further reveal its meaning by becoming a set of numbers meaning gundamage+ammodamage=totaldamage.
In general it’s roughly comparable to the total damage of melee weapons, though how accurate a shot you score means a lot. Even with very high-range rifles, you’re better off firing at short ranges to get the maximum amount of solid hits for more damage. Which makes shotguns remarkably more useful than most players give them credit for. Unless you play with hordes on. In THAT case you’re better off not even moving, breathing, or otherwise making any noise. :V
As for actual rifles, hoard at least one of every ammo type, if its practical to do so. Any decent gun with burst fire is potentially wasteful, but good for “oh shit” scenarios. You will be wasting ammo in the long run if you picked the Tripper Happy trait, though.
