I love the hunting rifle I use it all the time as my #1 sniper.

Why, the RoF when modded is excellent and is not affected by as high a miss factor due to the lever action fire anim.
The scope and range is great.
The damage is perfect for long range snipe kills against godclaws.
It's reliable even when stood up for maximum view ranged head shots.
I love the look of it.
It's not silent meaning I actually have to play the game rather than tag sneak - stealth boy and auto kill everything without risk.

So it's a gun that lacks compared to others in certain circumstances, but I have used a razor blade to take down NV's bosses and guards.
Compared to that choice the hunting rifle is over powered.

I did everything short of outright begging to get Josh to make the "other" .45-70 weapon be a single shot of some kind. Instead he gave us the Brush gun, the most overpowered gun in the game. And it kills me to find he even modeled the long scope that could have been used on a Sharps or Rolling-block on the unique Cowboy Repeater. The slower fire rate would have helped to balance that weapon.

-Gunny out.

At least the Brush Gun is normal.....I think .45-70 revolvers are silly. I know they are being produced today....but they are a niche weapon for people who want to be able to brag they've got the most ridiculously overpowered handgun in existence or enjoy the pain from touching off a round in one of those things. I'm not sure why they left out a single shot .45-70 considering that's the traditional and obvious platform for the round, I can only guess they figured either the MW kids would hate the 3-5 second loading time and complain or that no one would bother with the AMR once introduced to a rifle which lived up to the .45-70's reputation of being capable of killing anything on legs native to North America. Given the brutal nerfing of the sniper and Gobi in the last patch, I think it's the latter....which is unfortunate as a Sharps, Rolling Block or Hi-Wall would have a lot more character than either the sniper rifle or AMR.

So we are complaining our weapons are too powerful again? With the Sniper Rifle gone Guns almost become early game EW for crying out loud.

I like this or a combo perk that gives you faster draw and reload for the Cowboy weapons. Lucky is a bummer to reload. My second character was purpose built to take the Cowboy perk and my only dissapointment is with dynamite. I ended up taking one explosives perk to try and get better damage but it still feels weak with my explosives skill at 75+. Been using the .44 magnum revolver and carbine with regular ammo. Got the SWC from the NPC but does not show up on the bench so I guess it also needs hand loader.

A modified Hunter perk that gave benefits to each of the 3 hunter weapons would be cool. I have never used any of these as I already had better alternatives by the time I found them.

I use the Hunting Shotgun extensively....with both mods and 'Shotgun Surgeon' it's quite effective all the way to the end, and is accurate at medium range, unlike the Riot Shotgun. Usually, I carry a Sniper rifle, Hunting Shotgun and Lucky.....between them I can kill anything I run across. You can find a Hunting Shotgun sitting in the bed of a pickup truck outside one of the barns at the Horowitz farmstead.

I found the Horowitz shotgun at level 30 after getting Dinner Bell. I was getting the gun jam glitch with Dinner Bell so only used it a few times. On my new character with the Cowboy perk I just started using the lever action shotgun with slugs and it kicks ass. It knocks enemies to the ground.

I actually like the vanilla Hunting Shotgun + mods better than Dinner Bell...the lever action shotgun is good though.

So do you think the Cowboy perk + Shotgun Surgeon perk will make the level-action shotgun kickass (more than the riot shotgun)? I started a Cowboy character (with explosives skill tagged) recently and I already have got the Cowboy perk and am not sure to whether to choose the Heave Ho! or Shotgun Surgeon next.

It makes the Lever Action shotgun particularly effective, actually. If you like shotguns I'd take the perk. Shotguns in NV are effective beyond point-blank range, unlike shoguns in most FPSs. The first shotgun I used much was the Riot gun...bought it from the BoS.... liked the rate of fire and rapid reloading but the accuracy svcked. I dumped it shortly after I found a Hunting Shotgun. I wish they'd make a 12g lever action shotgun...that would rock.

Something like this?

[img]http://www.kidkaos.us/Charless_Daily_1887_Lever_Action_Shotgun_12ga.jpg[/img]

Hellyeah! It will rock! Very cowboy-ish, I like it.

NOTE: Dear DEVs, please include the gun in the link! Will be much appreciated! :flamethrower:

They did. The Lever-action Shotgun is modeled after the Browning designed Winchester 1887. Josh, for some reason made it in 20ga. IRL, the 1887 was chambered in 10 and 12 gauge, made from 1887 until 1901, then Winchester dropped the 12ga (didn't want it to compete with their new 12ga 1897 pump), and made it exclusively in 10ga from 1901 until finally production ended in 1920. You can purchase replicas today, though I have not seen one personally and can not attest to their quality.

Edit: I would seriously condsider using a mod that changes the gun to 10ga, adds some 10ga ammo to the game and ups the damage appropriately.

-Gunny out.

Can somebody explain why the Cowboy perk requires 45 unarmed skill?

It doesn't. It requires 45 Melee skill and boosts some melee weapons.

Cowboy + Chance's Knife = Sushi

'This Machine'. It is a .308 copy of the M1 Garand semiautomatic rifle of WWII. Semiautomatic: fires every time you pull the trigger.
Therefore, this weapon is not eligible for the cowboy perk.