Medicine Stick (GRA)

The Medicine Stick is a Guns skill weapon added by the Fallout: New Vegas add-on Gun Runners' Arsenal.

Characteristics
The Medicine Stick is a unique brush gun. It has an increased ammunition capacity, a less intrusive rear sight than the regular brush gun, and it is also much cleaner in appearance. The Medicine Stick also features a unique stock with a unique symbol on it. The symbol is composed of beads, string, and two bird feathers attached to the symbol.

Due to the gun having a tubular magazine, it is reloaded by hand, one bullet at a time; as such, it can be interrupted mid-way through reloading and fired if needed. Because of this, it gives the gun the added advantage of firing before reloading is completed, which is a great perk if only a single/few round(s) are needed.

Variants

 * Brush gun - the common variant found in the Mojave.

Locations

 * Gun Runners, sold by Vendortron.

Behind the scenes

 * Medicine sticks are also called spirit sticks by some Native American tribes. They are decorated with beads and feathers from spirit animals such as the eagle and the bear. Spirit sticks are used for rituals pertaining to the spirit world, thus implying the Medicine Stick can take away "bad spirits" and send them to the spirit world. Additionally, the symbol on the stock of the rifle resembles a medicine wheel, a symbol of spiritual power common among many Native American tribes.

Bugs

 * When reloading, double-tapping the hotkey to change ammunition types will fully reload the gun.
 * When firing from long ranges it appears that the sights aren't completely aligned, meaning you'll have to aim slightly to the left of an enemy for a direct hit.
 * Sometimes the lever may remain downward after running while reloading. This is purely aesthetic, however; it will return to its original position when you stop moving or holster the weapon.
 * Sometimes while reloading in third-person view, you may not see the usual lever action after reloading.
 * There is a unique bug that occurs in third-person; walking at a snail's pace with the weapon drawn will sometimes cause your player to hold the weapon with his/her right hand, he/she will only be holding the weapon by its trigger while the other is positioned as if he/she isn't holding anything. This will only persist if you continue to walk at a snail's pace; once you begin to run (or completely stop), you will hold your gun normally with two hands.
 * If you look at the opposite side of the stock when holstered, the feather will have disappeared. This is most evident when wearing heavy/medium armor like power armor or NCR Ranger patrol armor.
 * This may be a simple oversight similar to when you are stuck inside a rock, where you can see out of it, but not into it.
 * As with the regular brush gun, the Medicine Stick may still glitch in VATS mode, where the cocking handle is stuck in the downward position, and the player will not fire any rounds, and will stay in the glitched state until killed. This may require a reload of a previous save.