Ok, new playthrough for me. The idea here is someone who can use a gun but is also good at fighting bare handed. Just humor me here.

So how can I set it up to switch from using a pistol, rifle, whatever, to using bare hands? Doesnt seem to be a way to map it to the quick keys that I have found.

Does it have to be completely bare-handed? Knuckles use your unarmed skill, and could be set to a keyboard shortcut.

Can't bind completely unarmed to a key. Gotta unselect weapon in Pip Boy to use bare hands.

Brass knuckles it'll have to be then. So much for my Kempo/Tae Kwon Do themed character. LOL. For the record. 15 minutes into the game and ghouls have taken me out 3 times. This will be a entertaining playthrough.

Yeah, I'm playing a melee / heavy weapon oriented character and even that is an uphill struggle. It does get better once the perks start pouring in, though.

Hopefully a mod will come along for you that'll make it possible to equip a glove or something that would give same stats as barefisted (no weapons).

What happens if you hit the quick key for the current equipped weapon? I have a feeling I did that and it unequipped the current weapon and left me with bare hands. I am not in a position to check it right at this moment in time, but it may be worth a try.

This is correct.

If you are playing on PC, if the equiped weapon is hotkeyed, just hit the hotkey, it will unselect the equiped weapon and give you knuckles.

That's how it worked in previous games, but not this one.

I could have sworn I've done this in F4, but just checked and you are correct.