Leveling up weapons?

[ToadReaver]

Try leveling weapons on bosses, as leveling is dependent on damage done. So if you want to level your weapon/skill, shot tougher characters. If you want the kill count for your ego challenge, then shoot weaker.

Example: hellbug Matriarch instance -
Shoot skitters with an AR - for the '5000 kills,' then
Shoot Matriarch with SMG - for the 'raise SMG skill level to 5'

This will level your SMG faster than the AR simply because the Matriarch can take more damage. Don't know if this would affect high crits such as Snipers - they may 'over' damage a weak enemy, but still give full exp.

[Strea Lai]

Raising your weapon skill raises your EGO rating by 4. Maxing out the exp on a gun gives the gun a bonus and prevents that gun from raising your weapon skill(until you reset it).

Yep. I have been using the same Sub to lvl up that weapon skill.....(up to 7 13 more to go....) but every time the weapon exp gets maxed I reset it.

[FantasyMeister]

Forges are the fastest way I can think of, just shoot them in the yellow 'eye' when it opens up, nowhere else. You'll find lots of emergencies in San Franciso that involve Forges but it's not easy getting around there at 1500ish EGO.

San Quentin Hulker you can do any time after you've completed San Quentin in the main storyline.

Only other tip I can give you is use Blast Rifles at close range to make sure every bullet hits, or if using a semi-automatic with scope make sure you go for crit headshots on every 'soft' target (Raiders, 99ers etc). And always carry a spare to switch over to once you've maxed out your existing rifle.

I think the fastest 0-20 if you just want the Achievement is semi-automatic sniper rifles on Hulker. You get something like 10k xp just for shooting him in the brain, 20k if there's more than one of you fighting him, and he exposes his brain 3 times during the fight.

[Majik518]

You can max out launchers in 4-5 hours 1-20 easily at big stone reach.