The CZ57 Avenger is without a doubt the best, the only advantage a fully modded minigun has over it is the ammo.
The Avenger has almost half the spread, it does more damage per shot, it still has a higher DPS then a minigun with highspeed motor, it has more HP, it uses half of the AP, fires 4 more bullets in VATS and it weighs 7 lbs less.
The Avenger actually has less spread then any other gun in this list, it definitely gets my vote.

Huh, that's funny, didn't even realize anyone actually used the cyberdog guns. The constant barking and slow rate of fire bugs me.

The Light Machinegun is actually nice if you use matchstick ammo and have the trigger discipline trait. That means my LMG has -85 spread.

Alright, I'm gonna vote. GRA Assault Carbine, fully modded. Quick, clean, durable, accurate, no fluff.

Huh, FIDO? Assault Carbine? Avenger? 45SMG? Not even close. The best is the Light Machine Gun. I love automatics and use em all, but the LMG is the best overall gun.

ALL automatics with HP/JHP slaughter low DT targets - so that really does not matter. Three things hurt full automatics: DT, reloads and spread.

Lets see against a 15 DT target - toss out the 45 SMG and 12.7 SMG. Don't get me wrong - those guns are amazing against Low DT targets, but they really struggle against a high DT targets.

The Assault Carbine - not even close to the LMG. Good for trash killing, but that is about it. Low DMG and small mag. The -10 DT is nice, but without that the gun is worthless. Still the LMG will do the same DAM or higher per shot using regular 5.56 ammo. And magazine size is not even close.

Avenger/Minigun: Powerful deadly. Amazing DPS. However, two really bad drawbacks: Spin up and reload. You don't want either one in the middle of a fight against a group of 4 Deathclaws. The reload is especially painful. The gun are a real pain against Cazadors or other fast moving targets.

Light Machine Gun: The 45 SMG will out perform it against a 0 DT target. The Avenger will do better against a single target. But outside of that, the LMG rules. You can pump out over 5,250 points of dmg before a reload. And reloads are fast. The Avenger can only do about 1600 points of dmg before reloading. And reloads slow. Plus the spin up means you tend to hold the fire button down and switch targets, instead of backing off. That is why the regular Minigun beats the Avenger. But the LMG beats them both. It can handles low DT targets and high dt targets. And you can pump out sustained DPS against any target.

There are two things you failed to mention here: the Avenger has double the HP and has nearly a third of the spread. I've already explained in my previous post why the regular fully modded minigun is definitely not as good as the Avenger so I'm not going to bother doing it again. I'm not saying that the Avenger is the best weapon for all situations, just the ones where you need to bring an unholy amount of firepower on some veteran rangers/legionnaires. The DPS combined with the -10 DT and the lowest spread of any automatic gun is pretty insane. The reload time is pretty brutal, but I find that whatever I'm shooting at is dead before the end of the pack(Rawr certainly was). The spinup time can easily be worked around by anticipating enemies and the rifle level of spread. I know I go on about the spread, but it's unbelievable how precise it is. To each his own I guess.

I went with the LMG. I think that the main drawback is the spread, but that is only really an issue at far distances.

Avenger. Just Avenger. It beats every damn thing on that list for absolute devastation. The way I see it, it's only competition is the K9000+++. Those two guns are the "avatar of death" guns that can and do beat just about everything.

-Nukeknockout

The Bozar has slightly less spread with Match Hand Load ammo (0.4875 compared to the Avenger's 0.55.) Too bad it's 30 round clip keeps it from being taken very seriously as an automatic weapon. My vote also goes to the Avenger.

Sleepytime gots 3 votes its silent sleak black plus the ammo is common. Worth my vote :thumbsup:

Idk man, avenger or the 12.7. They shoulda brought back the china assault rifle.

biased poll and a fail poll. When it comes to basics, Avenger is the best overall auto gun, period. Trigger Discipline makes this gun godly to use, to the point where I'm SNIPING Deathclaws miles away from a mountain side (felt so awesome to rain down thunder from the 'heavens'), plus with the natural -10DT with its normal ammo capacity, it beats LMG, and other auto guns to a complete pulp (though if you want to get seriously complicated, the highest DPS goes to the .45 submachine gun, though you must get all the right perks, chems, items to make it up there, otherwise, Avenger). Ammo size was never a problem with me especially at Hoover dam or facing 5 Deathclaws or so. Got a swarm of Deathclaws? get Armored piercing rounds and send those lizards all to hell in SECONDS (firing at a Deathclaw with 100 guns skill and AP rounds, and the dino died before it could even turn around). This gun clearly goes for DAM, rather then Capacity, which is a great trade, since most of the enemies you will encounter late game in Hoover Dam can't even handle the firepower from it. Killing a whole battalion of Legionaires in one clip never felt so satisfying in my entire life.

Avenger gets the vote. Period.

LMG is not a bad gun, I won't lie, but in tight situations, it barely stands up, unless you have the Grunt perk that is.Even then, its accuracy is a BIG issue when a large gang of raiders are pushing in while the rest are pounding at your opposition from afar with grenade launchers and laser rifles, Even worst when Mutants are abound, where you NEED that accuracy to bead down on every damn mutie till they all drop dead, otherwise most of those shots you missed are basically your lost oppurtunity to put the hurt on them. Hell, I rather rely on the Automatic Rifle when it comes to THAT situation, and that rifles accuracy is terrible! (don't know why I keep coming back to it though.)

if your here for techinical answers, in DPS, The .45 submachine gun beats all, period.

if your here for opinions of taste, decency, and overall good in any situation where your auto-rifle needs to 'solve' the problem?
then Avenger is number one.
2nd. would be .45 submachine gun, LMG (I guess, maybe 3rd place) or Automatic Rifle.
3rd.LMG, 10mm smg.

Both the LMG, Minigun and Avenger have no problem cutting down a Deathclaws. The Avenger struggles against fast moving small targets like Cazadors. The LMG eats them for breakfast. The spin up and small ammo capacity are just too big of a drawback for me. To each there own.

BTW, all characters who want to really use full auto weapons should take Trigger Disp! The ROF penality is NOT applied to any automatic weapon. The spread decrease does impact full auto weapons. At the same time Fast Shot is the WORST trait a full auto gun character. It has no impact on ROF, but does increase spread. Yuck!

How is this true on the Avenger? I never had a problem with Cazadors seeing as how they ALWAYS fly in your direction, never trying to 'zig-zag' like they do when stationary. Avenger kills them easily if your aim is decent and not a player who screams and fires all over the place as if they just had a baby deathclaw crawl right up in their pant-leg.

-Spin up isnt a problem, since it never really had a spin up (under a SECOND and your blasting, so wha?)
-Ammo Capacity was small for the huge amount of punishment it made, you required less ammo to kill something, and it's true, so why have a larger capacity when you have enough to destroy squadrons of enemy forces?

Just my own personal experience on the Avenger/Minigun. Reloads are a pain and spin up is a pain. Ever been unloading on a group of Deathclaws when one you did not spot attacks from behind? It hurts, especially if you have to reload with a Deathclaw right next to you. Besides, you can always use the LMG and drop some Steady! Or use an AMR for long range.

But all of my heavy weapon characters also take explosives and I use the GMG/Mercy/25MM APW for the heavy lifting like Deathclaw killing.

12.7mm SMG is the best, anyone who disagrees is wrong.

that's why I take observations first in my surrounding area instead of blasting on through like a amateur Heavy Weapons player. While yes, Explosives take care of ANY of the creatures or beings in fallout's universe, remember that they haven't fixed the Collision bug, so if some Deathclaws walk out of a nuclear cloud unhurt, or untouched, its time to bring out Avenger and mow them down.

ha, that made me laugh! So you have NEVER overlooked a critter before attacking? Never been zoomed in on a target and have one come up from behind? Crap happens, and the biggest drawback to the avenger is the ammo capacity and long reload. The devs made it that way, otherwise it would be beyond a doubt the best auto gun in the game. With the Grunt perk the LMG has a 315 DPS vs 390 from Avenger. Sure the avenger is higher, but I can sustain that DPS a whole lot longer then the Avenger can. Why I perfer the LMG, it can handle anything the Avenger can. And is more forgiving if something unexpected happens.

'Tis why I surround myself with mines before engaging ANYTHING.

yes I never had a 'mysterious' critter coming up to me, simple as that, I mean cmon, whats your perception? 1? there are those moments when an enemy auto spawns behind you through trigger events, but other then that, none whatsoever. ED-E as a companion literally KILLS that motive or event your thinking of, seeing as you can just do a 360-degree spin and look around you to see what is going on, and scout about. This makes the game alot of fun to play and to RP about. Just running out there going "LEERRROOOY, JEEEEENKIIIINSSS!!!" will just kill you. Epically, but still kill you. The Reload is long, true, even with a high Agility, and with Rapid Reload it's still a bit long, but you make with what you do.

when you have a decent perception or even have ED-E around, it literally kills those moments of "OMG WTF WHERE DID HE COME FROM LOOLOLOL" to "damnit, well I knew there was something there, but I was too ignorant to scout or to look through a scope to see what the hell it was"

and yes, you can get away with the latter, seeing as how ED-E announces a threat with his battle tune.

I never use companions, makes the game too easy. You should try, beleive it or not it makes the game more exciting to have a critter get the drop on you

I guess I can, and you are right, it does make the game too easy in those moments. Alright, I'll take that hit, This Demoman is going Han-solo through the entire game.

I never really use any full auto weapons, they're just way too hard on ammo. But if I had to pick i'd say 45 auto just for the cool factor.

Assault Carbine - Undoubtedly THE BEST all round weapon in the game. By that, I mean it can kill anything, any range, any time of day. Other pros are that 5mm ammunition isn't too rare, cons are the fact that the GRA version isn't effected by grunt, making it useless. It fires faster and has more HP, but that just means it chews through more bullets to get the same DPS as the regular version and in turn degrades faster. Here's hoping they one day patch this.

Honerable mentions goes to Vance's 9mm Sub Machingun. 9mm ammunition is so common and cheap making this a great weapon to carry around to take out anything not worth using your better ammunition on.

They won't, it has been announced that no new patches will be released for New Vegas.

Bozar by far. Its accurate for a machine gun plus it kills enemies quickly.