Automatic Rifle

The automatic rifle is a weapon in the Fallout: New Vegas add-on Dead Money.

Background
The automatic rifle is a powerful support weapon firing .308 caliber rounds. The weapon holds 20 rounds in a box magazine, has a higher base damage per shot than any other fully-automatic projectile weapon and a comparatively high Critical Chance.

Although it is a rifle with a very long barrel and high-powered rifle ammunition, it suffers from poor spread when compared to bolt-action and semi-automatic rifles, having the highest spread of any fully-automatic weapon in the game. Even when upgraded, it has the lowest fire rate of any automatic weapon, and its low durability means it will degrade rapidly with frequent use and require regular maintenance. The automatic rifle fires two round bursts with each separate attack in V.A.T.S. at the cost of 35 Action Points.

Durability
The automatic rifle can fire a total of about 995 standard rounds, the equivalent of 50 reloads, from full condition before breaking.

Modifications

 * Automatic rifle upgraded internals - Increases rate of fire by 10%.

Locations

 * Villa police station - one can be found to the left of the main entrance through the locked contraband storeroom door, along with boxes of .308 rounds. The contraband room cannot be picked and can be only accessed via a computer terminal on a desk next to the door with a Science skill of 75 required.
 * Villa - can be found next to one of Dean's Secret Stashes on a rooftop, in a courtyard covered with the Cloud. Another can be found in a footlocker inside a courtyard a short distance northwest of the doors to the Residential District, behind the northwest pillar.
 * Sierra Madre casino - one can be found across from a gun cabinet on the second floor. Another can be found in a gun cabinet in the cashier's office on the first floor.
 * Puesta del Sol switching station - can be found to the left of Ennis's locker. On the ground next to it are several dozen armor-piercing rounds.
 * Salida del Sol courtyard - next to a corpse and a Dean's Secret Stash, in the water with all the Sierra Madre chips.
 * Salida del Sol South - one in a gun cabinet on the ground floor of a building south of the building with the upturned pool table. Another can be found east of the Salida switching station, on a second-floor balcony next to a beeping radio.

Behind the scenes
Joshua Sawyer stated that the rifle is "based on the M1918 but with modifications to the grip and other parts."

Bugs

 * If loading a saved game from the main menu in which one has an automatic rifle equipped and drawn, the reload animation takes twice as long as normal. This can be solved by simply switching to another gun and then back again.
 * If kneeling and reloading the automatic rifle, it will reload in a standing position rather than a kneeling one.