I've been out for a bit and just started playing again a Guns/Melee build...my question is how is the Service Rifle good now? A 10mm Submachine gun does more DPH and DPS then the Service rifle, so what makes it so attractive. My toon is at level 11 now so he may be too high to see the benefit of using the service rifle, but I am still curious.

It's a good second weapon. The ammo is common, maybe not as common as 9mm, but it's still pretty useful. Especially if you raid the Powder Ganger Prison and let the NCR troopers die, taking all their guns and repairing them together. I use it until I hit level 12 and can get This Machine.

It was always a pretty decent weapon until you get to Vegas. It can handle all the raiders and geckos and all that with ease. Even some radscorpions.

Two things:

1.) Accuracy. Service rifle is not a sniper weapon, but its MUCH more accurate than the 10mm SMG.

2.) Ammo selection. 5.56mm comes in several flavors that make it very attractive: .223 is only 90% damage, but it's only 1 cap per round and is a little cleaner to shoot. 5.56 armor piercing will put holes through almost anything. 5.56 hollow point will put serious pain on anything soft and dangerous like cazadors.

(Also consider the new "Grunt" perk, that adds 25% damage to the Service Rifle. It becomes fairly deadly with this.)

Not sure what the problem with it is, unmodded I loved it.
Only issue was the very glitchy rof it has and the silly glitch with ironsights it had.

I did mod it last time I played, but with ammo types and better range it's still a good gun unmodded.
The 10mm smg is a higher tier weapon, service rifle pops up quite early on, the smg can if you get lucky but really is not viable untill after Boulder City.

My favorite part of the Service Rifle is the way it looks, aesthetically it is a pleasing weapon for the eyes. I love the wooden stock, grip, and hand guard. It looks very much like the AR-10, only exception being that the AR-10 was in favor of firing 7.62x51mm NATO, its descendant the M16 later carried on the legacy, but this time was packing the 5.56x45mm NATO.

If you get all mods it's pretty kick ass. It will shoot as fast as you can press the triger and better range than the sub machine guns.

the new patch made it better...I've been using it for awhile..just put some .223 rounds it that svcker and it take down about anything....i remember when i wouldn't use it because it was a POS but now i cant stop using it.

even before the patch if you bought the faster firing mod it was sweet.

With ap rounds it is useful up until very near the end of the game. If you try to use it on a number of NCR vet rangers even with ap rounds you will be dead. ( unless you spam stims ) It also has little effect on bos soilders in pa even with ap rounds. In comparison the 10mm smg does next to nothing to NCR vet rangers or bos pa paladins.

The Service Rifle saves ammo compared to the 10mm smg, and it has a far greater effective range.

Put an upgraded spring in that svcka and it becomes a whole lot more powerful too.

Look beyond raw DPS. Would you take that SMG up against a Super Mutant Master, or a service rifle loaded with AP rounds?

I think I'd take my That Gun with AP rounds and accomplish this with more DPS.

I'm rolling a Pistol Shotgun build this go around (done with the sniper run, did the cowboy run, time for the Shotty).

But it is also about clip size. The service rifle can just pump out a lot of sustained dmg. Quickly.

It fires fast, is fairly accurate, durable, the ammo is everywhere and cheap. AP vs high DT, HP against Geckos, vipers and any one with low DT. Or use the 223 round. Plus a low skill requirement. Sure it is not a end game weapon, but at level 3-4 what else are you going to use that can waste giant radscorps with ease?

Rebar Club. Pushy. Incinerater.

But what are you going to do to Deathjaws?

The rebar club would have a though time taking a giant radscorp at level 4. I tried it. Without Super Slam it is very difficult. A service rifle with AP will chew them up in no time. Now once Super Slam comes along you can kick the crap out of a lot of things.

Can you score pushy by level 4? Anyways, that is some serious meta gaming!

The Incinerator can not take out a Giant Radscorp. Not without running around half the Mojave while the burn effect kicks in. The base attack will not pass DT.


The Service Rifle will not help you against Death Claw. That is what Sneak Attack Headshots from a Sniper Rifle are for!

Deathjaw man! not Deathclaws

I was fighting Giant Radscorpion with Slegdehammer at level 4, not easy, but not hard either.

Incinerator can easily take out Giant Radscorpion, as long as you know how to lob those fire ball on it. In fact, if you do it right the Giant Radscorpion would die in [Caution].

I give Boone a service rifle and needless to say he is a god with it.