That was me. Here's the thing with HBGs. You really only need to worry about three things. The reload/recoil, the ammo cap, and what you can siege fire.
DISCLAIMER:THIS IS NOT A MIN-MAXING GUIDE. THIS IS FOR PEOPLE THAT WANT TO PLAY HBG, AND JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN.
The reload should never be above Below Average if you plan on using Normal 2/Pierce 2 in NON siege. E.g., if you want to use a HBG but don't like or can't use siege mode. Average reload will load Normal 2 in about 1.5 seconds while Below Average will load it in about 1.7. It's a negligible difference and doesn't really matter much in the long run. Pierce 2 is slightly longer of a reload than that. Generally speaking though, even with a slightly longer reload, pierce 2 (even 3) will out-dps normal 2 guns assuming you hit ~half of the piercing hits (as pierce ammunition tends to out-damage normals in ideal hitzones by double, even triple in some cases. Recoil should never really be an issue. If you're Normal 2 gunning, I don't think there's an HBG in the game that can't fire it with no recoil, so this should never really be an issue. If you're pierce gunning, most will be able to fire at least pierce 2, which is all you need. Pierce 3 is badass when you get it to complete it's hits, but that very, very rarely happens on anything but the biggest monsters. So basically, don't worry about reload, and only worry about recoil when using pierce guns. Pierce 2 requires "Some" recoil (one step down from average) to fire without a delay.
Ammo capacity will simply be what determines the kind of ammo you'll be using. ONLY WORRY ABOUT NORMAL AND PIERCE AMMUNITION. Status shots should be reserved almost exclusively for LBGs, not to mention they almost entirely require low recoil to fire without delay, so they're insanely slow. You can still bring along status shots if you really want to, but don't expect anything other than poison to really ever have an effect. You're much more useful doing damage in the time it took you to fire all 12 para 1 shots and still not get a para on the monster. Bottom line, you're looking for (typically) at least 5-7 pierce 1/2 shots per reload in a Pierce HBG, and 6-9 Normal 2 shots per reload in a Normal HBG. Internal shots are gimmicks that you don't really need to worry about too much. They can be useful, like slicing and triblast, but like I said, they're the gimmicks of the HBG world. Don't rely or care about them too much unless you "just HAVE to use long 2 and go full sniper mode."
Siege fired ammo is the last thing you should worry about. And this is ONLY if you plan on using it. Some people prefer to be more mobile. You will do more damage in siege mode, but you're much more vulnerable and if a monster goes out of critical distance, you're going to be hitting much, much lower until you either get up and move, or they come back. This is why I tried my Shot Up with dedicated Siege mode-ing Normal 2s. The critical distance on Normal 2s is MASSIVE with shot up. I was effectively in critical distance the ENTIRE fight. With teammates getting aggro, I was just laying into the monsters non-stop. It was glorious. Although, I had to make a LOT of ammo.
That's about it. To recap, Recoil/Reload is negligible in most circumstances. Don't use it for pierce if you can't fire Pierce 2s and virtually anything works for Normal 2s. Ammo capacity is as simple as looking at the ammo caps and thinking "the clips are higher for Normal 2/Pierce 1/2 so this must be a Normal 2/Pierce gun, I'll use it for that! Internal ammo is cool, but it's whatever." And finally, siege mode is only relevant if you actually want to use siege mode. Many people don't, many people do. It's personal preference. If you do, just make sure you follow the recoil rule above with pierce, siege mode doesn't negate recoil.
So yes, since raw is almost always high for HBGs, you can use virtually any HBG you want (based on looks or other criteria) and still dish out damage on par, and even much better in a lot of circumstances, than most melee hunters.
Hopefully I didn't miss anything. Any questions?
