My friend is playing through New Vegas and is encountering problems using the cowboy rifle in VATS. He reports that whenever he enters and activates the shooting his character does not fire and just stands there. He has tested this without the cowboy rifle and it works perfectly without it however the cowboy rifle is his most powerful weapon at the present moment and would not like to sacrifice it due to VATS issues.

He is currently using recon armour with a metal helmet and he has selected the trait that makes his character shoot slower but is more accurate. He currently does not own any DLC's so they are not an issue. He has engaged both Cazadores and Fiends with this issue happening. His game is also currently unpatched.

Any assisstance would be appreciated.

You have this bug?

This is one of the weapons affected by the round-by-round reloading bug. Sometimes all other actions will be locked out after reloading until the player attempts to fire the weapon. The attempt will have no result aside from unlocking the ability of the player to take actions. The player will still be able to move but will not be able to take any actions which are unavailable while reloading. If this bug occurs during a http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Vault-Tec_Assisted_Targeting_System reload, it may make it so that the player must reload an earlier save. ^[verified]

Reload an earlier save