Survivalist's Rifle

The Survivalist's rifle is a weapon in the Fallout: New Vegas add-on Honest Hearts. It is the unique variant of the service rifle.

Background
This weapon was originally a U.S. checkpoint guard carbine used in Canada, issued from the Long Branch Arsenal in Toronto, Ontario, USA territory. Chambered for the 12.7mm round, this weapon offered sentries the firepower necessary to intercept anyone attempting to breach a checkpoint, regardless of their gear or vehicle. As a high caliber carbine, it has a shorter barrel length, making it more compact, and a wider diameter to accommodate the high powered round.

This particular rifle once belonged to Randall Clark, an ex-U.S. Army soldier who sought refuge in Zion National Park after the Great War. The rifle was used by the survivalist for decades. All parts are heavily worn, with sun bleaching visible on the wood and metal of the gun. Due to a lack of replacement parts, Clark had to improvise repairs. As a result, the original handguard was replaced with a new one from salvaged wood, held in place with metal clamps, while the front sight is bent out of shape.

Artefacts of its service during the Canadian occupation are still plainly visible on the lower receiver. The U.S. stars are stamped above the magazine well, along with a declaration that it is the "PROPERTY OF U.S. GOVT CHKPNT CARBINE 12.7MM CAL.". The facility of origin is stamped above the trigger, denoting it as originating from "LONG BRANCH ARSENAL ONTARIO, USA TERRITORY". Long Branch is found in the southwest end of Toronto, Ontario. Historically, Port Credit west of Long Branch was responsible for manufacturing rifles for the Canadian Army. Finally, the stock bears carved words referring to its intended role: "Stop!" on one side and "Arrêt!" (French for "Halt!") on the other.

Characteristics
The rifle has a high rate of fire, relatively low spread, respectable AP cost and high damage that can be raised considerably with the Grunt perk. When looking through the iron sights to aim, the forward sight is bent out of line with the rear channel on top of the carrying handle, thus not creating the sight picture seen when using an undamaged service rifle. However, using the upper right side of the bent front sight as the aiming point corrects this, providing a slightly counterintuitive solution to this problem.

The damage is slightly higher than This Machine when loaded with regular .308 rounds if the Grunt perk is taken, but the Survivalist's rifle fires nearly twice as fast and far more accurately. Even if This Machine is loaded with .308 JSPs, the difference in damage is not substantial and can be mitigated by using 12.7 JHPs from the add-on Gun Runners' Arsenal.

However, the rifle uses rare 12.7mm rounds which generally must be bought from vendors, and the high rate of fire makes it relatively easy to overuse if one is not mindful of ammunition conservation. The damage threshold multiplier from 12.7mm JHP rounds and lower damage from normal 12.7mm rounds may also cause the Survivalist rifle to be less than optimal against armored targets.

Durability
The Survivalist's rifle can fire a total of about 2,495 standard rounds, the equivalent of 250 reloads, from full condition before breaking.

Variants

 * Service rifle

Location

 * The Red Gate: The rifle is found in a duffle bag marked "The Survivalist's duffle bag" next to Randall Clark's skeleton. Yao guai, giant cazadores, green geckos and/or bighorners may be found here as well. At the summit of the Red Gate, the Courier will see three trees and the bag containing the weapon is wedged between some boulders underneath the trees, propped up on the rocks. Alternately, it can be reached by climbing up the backside.
 * Note that non-player characters will automatically scan the contents of the bag and collect the weapon to use it. This is particularly noticeable during The Advance Scouts quest, when White Legs may find the rifle and use it. The player will have to kill them in order to retrieve it.
 * If Honest Hearts is completed before retrieving the rifle, and a non-player character has picked up the rifle, it can not be acquired, as all non-player characters apart from enemies disappear from Zion upon completion of the add-on.

Behind the scenes

 * The French word arrêt on one side of the rifle's stock, which translates as "a stop" or "a halt," is paired with "stop" written in English on the other side of the stock. This, combined with information from Randall Clark's terminal entries, indicates that this rifle was used during the U.S. occupation of Canada.
 * Though it is a French word, the correct way of telling someone to stop in French would be to use the imperative "Arrête" or "Arrêtez," not "Arrêt." "Arrêt" replaces "Stop" on Stop signs in French-speaking parts of Canada, as each is a stop, but not a command to stop.
 * Joshua Sawyer added the reference to the Canadian occupation with the Survivalist's rifle, because he felt that Canada was not mentioned much in lore, and the weapon could explore the subject.
 * The Survivalist's rifle was loosely based on the .50 Beowulf AR-15 platform conversion.