Varmint Rifle

The varmint rifle is a weapon in Fallout: New Vegas.

Characteristics
A varmint rifle is a small-caliber firearm used for varmint hunting—killing animals such as rats, rabbits, birds, squirrels, gophers, and other animals considered to be farm pests. This weapon has a strength requirement of 3.

The varmint rifle uses 5.56mm ammo. It is considered low-power, but boasts a high critical bonus and deals significant damage to limbs. You can also attach a suppressor to keep it from alerting enemies in the area, a night-vision scope, and an extended magazine.

The most effective way to use the varmint rifle is to have a high sneak combined with all of mods (except extended mags) to keep it quiet so you can get plenty of critical hit, otherwise this rifle has a very low power.

Locations

 * One is given to you by Sunny Smiles for killing geckos around Goodsprings.
 * They can be found on various convicts.
 * They can often be found on lower level enemies; once a higher level is reached enemies start to carry Hunting Rifles or even semi-automatic rifles such as the Service Rifles instead.

Mods

 * Varmint rifle night scope - Adds mid to long range scope with night vision.
 * Varmint rifle silencer - Silences.
 * Varmint rifle extended mags +3 rounds per magazine.

Variants

 * Ratslayer

Appearances
The varmint rifle only appears in Fallout: New Vegas.

Bugs

 * Occasionally, for no quantifiable reason, the rifle will snap above your head. To fix this, simply move around, jump, change weapons, or, if all else fails, reload a previous save.
 * While having the varmint rifle with nightscope equipped on your back a black line will appear across the center of your screen.
 * When the rifle is on your back while not wearing power armor, it may occasionally float about 6 inches off your characters back, best seen from a 3rd person side view.
 * When you hold this weapon or the Ratslayer (unique Varmint Rifle) your character will hold it as a standard rifle and will not use the thumb hole.