Varmint Rifle

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

Characteristics
The varmint rifle is a low powered bolt-action entry weapon. The Courier receives a free one in a poor condition and with a good supply of ammunition from Sunny Smiles during the tutorial quest Back in the Saddle in Goodsprings. They are also common among low level Powder Gangers and Fiends, and are inexpensive to repair.

Although its damage and damage-per-second (DPS) are low, it can be very accurate at long ranges if you manually target outside of V.A.T.S. With good Guns and Sneak skills, one-shot kills with sneak attack critical head shots are possible against low level non-player characters. With the addition of the night scope and silencer modifications, its usefulness later game is further extended.

The varmint rifle has one of the best scope modifications for low light vision. Though it doesn't always make the opponent light up, it does let the player make out their details.

Durability
The varmint rifle can fire a total of about 595 standard rounds, the equivalent of 119 reloads, or 75 reloads when modified with extended magazines, from full condition before breaking.

Modifications

 * Varmint rifle night scope: adds mid to long range scope with night vision and 2.86x magnification.
 * Varmint rifle silencer: silences the weapon.
 * Varmint rifle extended mags: +3 rounds per magazine.

Variant

 * Ratslayer, a unique version found in Broc flower cave with all the mods pre-attached. It boasts better damage, critical damage, critical chance, spread, rate of fire and lower Action Points for usage in V.A.T.S. and a synthetic black stock.

Locations

 * Cap counterfeiting shack - on the shelves opposite the entrance.
 * Dixon carries one.
 * Goodsprings - one is given to the player character by Sunny Smiles during the quest Back in the Saddle.
 * Lucky Jim Mine - on the shelves in the corner of the mine house.
 * NCR Correctional Facility - located in the north-west watchtower.
 * Powder Gangers commonly carry these.
 * Primm - in the sheriff's office, behind the table in the corner opposite the bed with the corpses of Sheriff McBain and Mrs. McBain
 * Carried by convicts in the Bison Steve Hotel.
 * Silver Peak Mine - located inside the shack on the shelves.
 * Viper gunslingers will rarely carry one at lower levels.
 * Vikki and Vance Casino, Primm - on top of the wall of safes in casino cashier's office.
 * Wolfhorn ranch - on the shelves in the shack.
 * Jackal gang members generally carry these.
 * One can be bought from the Vendortron at the Gun Runners kiosk.
 * Fiends will usually carry them.
 * The NCR trooper that greets you when arriving at Primm for the first time carries one.

Behind the scenes
The varmint rifle was intended to be chambered for .22LR rounds at some point during development. Among the indicators is the "Reduced Limb Damage" effect previously shown in the Pip-Boy for both the silenced .22 pistol and the silenced .22 SMG (prior to patch 1.3.0) being named "DummyNVVarmintRifle", as well as Dixon carrying a varmint rifle in his inventory along with 16 .22LR rounds, rather than 5.56mm rounds. However the .22LR variant was so unpopular due to the low damage that its ammunition was changed to 5.56mm.

Bugs

 * After applying the silencer to an already scoped rifle, aiming towards the Freeside's north gate from next to the Mick & Ralph's crier causes the screen to completely glitch out; however it returns to normal after exiting zoomed mode or by looking away.
 * While zooming in with the weapon holstered with the scope, a black line will run across the screen.
 * While carrying multiple rifles, attempting to access them in the pip boy will show only one rifle. Dropping or otherwise removing the rifle from your inventory will cause the remaining rifles to be shown. The hidden rifles will also be at 100% condition no matter what condition they were previously at. This can make repairing a varmint rifle problematic.