Survivalist's rifle

The Survivalist's rifle is a weapon in the Fallout: New Vegas add-on Honest Hearts.

Background
This rifle is a special-purpose weapon designed for use by personnel requiring an accurate, high-powered weapon with excellent penetration, such as checkpoint guards. The standard service rifle barrel was replaced with a shorter, more maneuverable one, while the chamber and magazine well were modified to accept a larger caliber ammunition: The 12.7mm cartridge. It offers good ballistic performance, firepower, and penetration at range, making it ideal for eliminating threats that would otherwise prove resistant to standard-issue 5.56mm or high velocity 5mm rounds. This particular rifle was issued to occupation troops stationed in Canada, where resistance fighters remained a constant threat to military operations. In fact, it was assembled and issued from Long Branch Arsenal in Toronto, Ontario, forcibly annexed as a USA territory.

It was used by Randall Clark, a United States Army veteran who was stationed on the Canadian front and witnessed atrocities carried out in the name of the Stars and Stripes first-hand. Carrying it with him on the way home, to Salt Lake City, it became his closest friend after the city was obliterated by nuclear fire and he sought refuge in Zion. Lacking gunsmithing skills, he repaired damage by jury-rigging the rifle, replacing damaged wooden parts with furniture salvaged from other weapons and binding it with metal clamps. Its front sights were bent out of position during one of his many combat encounters in the canyon. The Survivalist never fixed it, adapting to using it bent.

Characteristics
The unique service rifle is an excellent general purpose weapon effective at all but the longest ranges. It offers considerable firepower, good accuracy, acceptable action point cost in VATS and a high rate of fire in regular combat. Its performance is only slightly hampered by the damaged sights: The upper right side of the bent front sight is where the rounds will land. Adapting to it takes a bit of practice, but in the end, it's no different than regular sights on other weapons, such as This Machine.

This Machine is the closest analogue to the Survivalist's rifle in the base game, especially if the player selects the Grunt perk which boosts both weapons' damage output. In this situation, Survivalist's has a slightly higher damage than This Machine loaded with regular .308 rounds in this situation, shoots faster, and is more accurate. If using alternative ammunition, This Machine takes the lead by a slim margin if loaded with .308 JSP. However, the gap closes if Survivalist's receives 12.7mm JHP rounds from Gun Runners' Arsenal.

The one drawback of the rifle is that 12.7mm rounds are rarely found in the wild and usually must be purchased from vendors. Coupled with its high fire rate, it's definitely a choice for the affluent Courier.

Variants

 * Service rifle: Basic variant.

Location

 * Red Gate: Found in The Survivalist's duffle bag near Randall Clark's remains. The area is populated by yao guai, giant cazadores, green geckos, and bighorners may be found here as well. If the player doesn't collect the weapon before The Advance Scouts quest, White Legs may collect the rifle from the bag and use it in combat. In this situation, the player may miss out on the rifle entirely if it's not collected before the end of the DLC, as all White Legs despawn at that point, together with any remaining loot.

Behind the scenes

 * Arrêt! and Stop! are carved onto the rifle's stock, referencing its use in occupied Canada's bilingual regions. Interestingly, while the words are presented as verbs, the French one is a noun, as in arrêt de bus (bus stop).
 * The Survivalist's rifle was loosely based on the .50 Beowulf AR-15 platform conversion.
 * LONG BRANCH ARSENAL ONTARIO, USA TERRITORY are printed onto the weapon above the trigger, together with a thirteen star variant of the United States roundel. Long Branch is found in the southwest end of Toronto, Ontario. During both World Wars, a small area further west of Long Branch known as Port Credit manufactured rifles used by the Canadian forces during the wars.