Red Dead Redemption 2 has 5 Hunting Request Locations. Completing all Hunting Requests is needed for 100% Completion. They count as a type of collectible. This guide explains exactly how to get the perfect carcasses and where to find the animals to finish the RDR2 hunting requests.
The first four are available in chapter 2 (but without the deadeye skill from chapter 6 that marks critical hit spots these are pretty much impossible anyway so don’t bother until having beaten the game). The last one only unlocks in the Epilogue so you must play through the story first to complete them all.
Valentine Hunting Request. The first Hunting Request that can be completed in the game is the one that can be started in Valentine. Head to the post office in the town, find the poster and get hunting: you need to get a Perfect Squirrel Carcass and an Adult Rabbit Perfect Carcass.
To start them you must find a poster at one of the train stations. The way it works is that you must kill specific animals (ideally with 3-star quality) with the weapon detailed in the below guide. The carcasses must be in perfect condition, meaning it has to be a clean kill (1 shot kill in the weakpoint with the right weapon). 3-star animals are guaranteed to give a perfect carcass on a clean kill. You can also get perfect carcasses from 1-star and 2-star animals, but sometimes they are only in “good” condition. Just kill all animals of the required type and pick up their bodies, take special care with the 3-star ones. Never skin the animals, just pick up their carcass and you should see an update for the hunting request in the top left corner. After you found all that are needed for one hunting request, you can return to the post office to mail a “filled request” to Ms. Hobbs. After sending a filled request back to Ms. Hobbs you must collect her reward from the post office after 24 hours to start the next hunting request. The animals have specific spawn areas but these are all detailed in the guide. First, we’ll go through the hunting in more detail again.
Important: The Legendary Buck Trinket helps with this! It increases animal quality when you collect them. You get it by skinning the Legendary Buck and then crafting the Buck Trinket at a Fence. With this I was able to pick up 1-star and 2-star carcasses and they still counted as “perfect”.
Summing up: you have one luck-based factor that’s getting the animal to spawn. Then you must know what weapon to kill it with (pointed out in guide) and then you have a skill-based factor of having to kill it in a clean shot. If you don’t kill it in one shot it’s too late, the carcass won’t be perfect condition and you can look for a new animal. Expect this to take up to 20 hours (or more) for all 5 hunting requests, depending on luck and your skill.
Can’t get an animal to spawn? Try this: Make a Manual Save, Quit to Title Screen, Continue. It will cycle through the animals in the area each time you do this. The game seems to spawn at least one 3-star animal in the area and quitting makes different animals show up. Making a camp and advancing time can also help.
Glitch Warning (Quest not progressing): When completing a Hunting Request (when sending a mail to Ms. Hobbs), make sure you do not have any other perfect carcasses for the next hunting request in your inventory! Otherwise, the game might glitch out and never give you the follow-up quest, thus making it impossible to complete the hunting requests and thus the 100% completion! There’s yet another glitch; when you’ve already gotten a bigger carcass (rabbit, opossum, skunk, beaver) and you saved the game after, but reloaded the save, then the carcass can simply disappear and is no longer checked off in your quest log. It is therefore best to keep these animals for last or to do the entire request in one sitting with no reloads.
Glitch Warning #2 (Posters not available): Some players have reported not being able to find the posters anywhere. This could be because you have the stranger mission “The Ties that Bind Us” active. So if you can’t find the posters, it’s most likely because you accepted this mission, and completing it should fix the issue.
There are 5 train stations where you can find a poster that starts the Hunting Questline. You only need to get one of these posters, the next quests will trigger automatically. You just do one request and after mailing all animals, the next hunting request gets added to your satchel instantly. So just pick any of these 5 to get started, e.g. the one from Valentine.
Poster Location #1: Valentine Post Office
Poster Location #2: Strawberry Post Office
Poster Location #3: Rhodes Post Office
Poster Location #4: Saint Denis Post Office
Poster Location #5: Van Horn Trading Outpost Post Office
Required Animals: Squirrel, Adult Rabbit.
Just like rabbits, squirrels can spawn almost anywhere in the northern half of the map. They are found particularly often in the top right edge of the map. They are very small and hard to see in the grass. I found them by putting some herbivore bait on the road and just aiming there from time to time (the auto-aim will kick in and focus on the animal).
Weapon: Small Game Arrows or Varmint Rifle
Rabbits can spawn pretty much anywhere in the northern half of the map. You will sometimes see them running across the road. They are the most common animals in the game.
Weapon: Varmint Rifle
Required Animals: Cardinal, Rat, Woodpecker.
The Cardinal is a bird. Can be sitting or flying. Will fly away when you get close.
Weapon: Small Game Arrows or Varmint Rifle
I always found a bunch of rats in the cave behind the waterfall of Elysian Pool. Be sure to enter at daytime so that the cave part with the rats is lit. Simply walk through the waterfall. Make sure you equip a lantern (weapon wheel, bottom right under melee weapons) so you can see in the dark. Walk to the end of the cave. At day there’s a lit area and several rats running around. Use Small Game Arrows, with that I even got a perfect carcass from a 1-star rat.
Weapon: Small Game Arrows or Varmint Rifle
One of the most common birds that can spawn almost anywhere in the northern half of the map.
Weapon: Small Game Arrows or Varmint Rifle
Required Animals: Chipmunk, Oriole, Robin, Opossum.
They look similar to squirrels and are the same size, and can also spawn in overlapping areas. They are rarer than squirrels and have more few spawn zones.
Weapon: Small Game Arrows or Varmint Rifle
A very rare bird that spawns only in small specific zones. Stick to the marked zones exactly. Can be sitting or flying.
Weapon: Small Game Arrows or Varmint Rifle
Another bird that is limited to only a few possible spawn zones.
Weapon: Small Game Arrows or Varmint Rifle
Only found in a few distinct places, not found anywhere else.
Weapon: Varmint Rifle
Required Animals: Songbird, Sparrow, Toad, Bullfrog, Skunk.
One of the most common birds, can spawn almost anywhere on the map.
Weapon: Small Game Arrows or Varmint Rifle
A common bird that can spawn almost anywhere on the northern half of the map.
Weapon: Small Game Arrows or Varmint Rifle
Toads only spawn near water (rivers, lakes, islands).
Weapon: Small Game Arrows or Varmint Rifle
They only spawn in a few places near water. Do not confuse with toads.
Weapon: Small Game Arrows or Varmint Rifle
Skunks are found almost anywhere on the map. They are more frequent in the north-east.
Weapon: Varmint Rifle
Required Animals: Cedar Waxwing, Bat, Blue Jay, Crow, Beaver.
Cedar Waxwing is another bird, can be sitting or flying.
Weapon: Small Game Arrows or Varmint Rifle
Bats are only found in caves, for example the cave behind the waterfall at Elysian Pool (walk through the waterfall to get there).
Weapon: Small Game Arrows or Varmint Rifle
The blue jay is a blue-colored bird, only found in a few spawn zones, rare. Stick to the marked spawn zones exactly. It likes to live near water.
Weapon: Small Game Arrows or Varmint Rifle
Crows are among the most common birds. Can be flying or sitting.
Weapon: Small Game Arrows or Varmint Rifle
Beavers live only at select zones around rivers and a lake. They have small spawn zones but tend to show up there very often.
Weapon: Varmint Rifle
After having mailed all hunting requests to Ms. Hobbs she will send you an invite in the mail after 1-2 days (you can rest at camp to advance time). Read the invite and head to her quest marker. She will give you the Squirrel Statue as a reward. You must put it above the fireplace at beecher’s hope (your farm after the story), then it gets stolen 6 times and you have to find it at different locations and put it back above the fireplace. After each time, sleep for 24 hours so it gets stolen again and can be found at the next location. The trophy pops after finding it for the sixth time:
1. Chest in John’s Bedroom
2. Check the Chimney in John’s Bedroom
3. Go to the kitchen where you’ll find a ladder to the loft. It’s in the chest on the right.
4. Outside next to the barn where the sheep are, inside the wheelbarrow.
5. Inside the barn, climb the ladder and it’s in the chest.
6. This one isn’t on the farm. It’s way off in the north of West Elizabeth Region, north of Strawberry, on Mount Shann (Location Screenshot).
That’s all the Hunting Requests in RDR2 and how to get perfect animal carcasses. For all other collectibles and 100% completion check out our full Red Dead Redemption 2 100% Guide.