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 skill combined with all of its modifications (except extended mags) to keep it quiet so you can get plenty of critical hits, otherwise this rifle has 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 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.