So I was thinking, after looking at the 9mm machine gun and it's mod, am I the only person that sees it functionally useless? Basically when fully modded it becomes an excessive ammo depleter. It's mods are 'more ammo space' and 'increased fire rate'. Honestly, I feel the 10mm SMG is far more useful.

Yay that gun is a real ammo hog among the high ROF weapons. And its custom ammo is in short supply.

I do love the look and feel of the gun through.

It does look cool, but Mods are meant to make a weapon better, I dont think becoming a bullet hog is exactly useful when every round counts.

I say eff both and go straight to the LMG.

10mm SMG is more useful IMO. I prefer travelling with 150 lbs or less, it helps me have alot of room in my inventory in case I go scaving.

I find all 9mm weapons in the game are pointless around lvl 10 or so. I use the 9mm pistol as a back up, I find it kills humans just fine with enough skill but the submachine gun does waste ammo and why shoot so many rounds when one well placed shot with the pistol works just as well.

Of course 10mm SMG is much more useful. But you don't get it in Dr. Mitchell's house for free, do you?

9mm SMG is a beginner's weapon. It has all the firepower you need at Level 1 in Goodsprings. It wastes lots of ammo, but 9mm ammo is cheap and common; you can afford to waste it. It sells for good caps once you're done with it. What's not to like?

Tbh heavy weight perk is one of the greatest additions so far.But Colonel your rite that the weight of 20 pounds is a big downer for the Lmg.Not sure if a riot shotgun would suit you both better.

Just reached level 20+ on one character by killing everything I came across with the 9mm pistol, not useless far from it.

The ammo is however in short supply, but just take any .357 all the .22's some shotgun buckshot you have break them down and you have a vast supply.

The 9mm smg, with fast shot and fully modded is a killer.
True the 10mm deals more damage but a 9mm is cheaper, earlier to find, lighter and its ammo is cheaper to reload at the bench.

It will also rip through any unarmoured foe, and if needed the +p rounds makes it deadly far more than the 10mm against mid armoured foes.

All this said it's best for a strength 3 build non sneak build.

It not useless at all. Were you actually using it or were you just looking at its stats? Just try it on nightstalkers or casadores and you see. Especially fully moded. It have DPS close to 10mm SMG. 10mm is slightly better but you can not convert 9mm to 10mm since it uses different primer. So if you run out of 10mm and there is stock of 9mm in your safe, grab 9mm SMG. As for its ammo consumption efficiency, its not much different to other full auto weapons. Most of them are less efficient bullet to bullet compared to single shot weapons. But those are weapons which you do not use for sniping. If you take out auto weapon it means you are in situation when each second counts.

I like the 10mm for almost anything. I have headshot guys 100' away, give or take, and if you have good trigger discipline, I play Stalker mostly, it's a fine weapon.

When you can squeeze out 3 round bursts you are getting to the point that this thing is all you need. Deathclaws are the only problem with a one weapon build. You would need to set them up pretty carefully.

The only automatic weapon I'll use is the Marksman Carbine. I'm always selling the 9mm/10mm Submachine Gun.

The Marksman isnt automatic, its a semi-auto.

9mm+/Vance is the most accurate SMG (aside from RCW). 9mm are cheap and plentiful, and handy against Cazador.

Unless you prefer Riot.

I am level 16, The 9mm SMG is useful because 9MM ammo is available from most vendors when I want it. I am finding 10mm is not always available from multiple vendors, which can be annoying. I am looking at weapons based on 5mm ammo now, given how common 5mm is.

Not all guns are intended to be equally useful all the way to level 30. 9mms are good early game weapons when options are more limited.

The Assault Rifle would be your best choice then.

Yes it's the easiest and less stat entensive 5mm gun.
Tbh though apart from better range accuracy and far more common ammo / surplus ammo the 9mm smg is just as good.

Never use the subbies at all. Just use them to make money, Jury Rig the condition up using the handguns. It seems pointless after you've got 60,000 caps though...

I stockpiled 1000 rounds of ammo for my 9mm smg and took out a few nightstalker dens.... it was intense though because they come in packs and you will have to reload a few times to kill get them all. The 9mm smg worked terrific against all geckos and ghouls. On a whim I went into camp McCarrran and wiped out most of the base using the 9mm SMG even though the shield indicator popped up on most targets... emptying a full clip at point blank range is still potent.

EDIT: That is with fast shot perk and faster reloading so I was able to pump out rounds at a pretty high rate.