My character is a gun nut, but me personally? My eyes go all blurry from staring at DPS values and trying to figure out what perks work with which weapons.

My character has the Cowboy and Shotgun Surgeon perks and a STR of only 5. (I can probably be talked into getting Intense Training or Weapon Handling to improve STR if there's a really sweet gun that reqs a 6 or 7. I already have the STR implant.)

What are your opinions on:

1) The best commonly available revolver;
2) The best commonly available rifle;
3) The best commonly available shotgun;

4) The best rare or unique revolver;
5) The best rare or unique rifle;
6) The best rare or unique shotgun

for my character (←important) to use?

Thanks in advance. Z

Lucky, unless you are not putting points in lockpick; Mysterious Magnum, you need 50 Barter or do some tricky stuff to get it, but supply of .44 ain't consistent;
Sniper Rifle
Riot Shotgun

Ranger Sequoia, but .45-70 Gov't is a b!tch to get.
Gobi campaign scout rifle, this time you need 100 lockpick
Dinner Bell

Note that since DT blocks individual pallet from shotguns, shotgun in NV is pretty meh choice.

Armored units get shot with the bullets, don't have to use buckshot for shotguns.

1) .44 Magnum

2) Cowboy Repeater (I personally hate the iron sights on this though)
Varmint Rifle/http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Ratslayerr (No benefit from cowboy, great headshot/sneak attack damage though)

3) http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Lever-action_Shotgun (Not extremely common, but the best for use with cowboy)

4) http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Lucky
http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Ranger_Sequoia (6 str, less common ammo)

5) http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Trail_Carbine
http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/All-American (No beneefit from cowboy)

6) http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Dinner_Bell
http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Riot_Shotgun (7str)

Dinner Bell, yay.

For pure shoot em up fun, the light machine gun with the modded magazine (extra 100 rounds) is plain awesome.

1. You want .357 with upgrades and custom ammo. Easy to find, easy to repair. Solid damage for first few hours especially if you get special ammo for it.
2. Cowboy Repeater is a very solid choice in the early game, easy to get off Vipers south of Primm, lots of ammo because it shares .357s. Get Hand Loader, make custom .357.
3. Caravan Shotgun is a good pick for early game but it's not affected by Cowboy perk. You can steal Lever-Action in Atomic wrangler.


1. Lucky in floor safe in the giftshop of Primm hotel, Mysterious Magnum is en route to Vegas, easy to grab off a guy near Sunset Sarsaparilla billboard north of Route 188 Trade Stop (steal ammo, then steal the gun). Ultimately you want Ranger Sequoia which you can either steal in Camp Golf or finish a long quest to get it. That Gun isn't affected by the Cowboy trait sadly, ignore it.
2. You want to steal Trail Carbine from Ranger Andy's room in Novac. Then there's Brush Gun which I think you are better off simply purchasing, best "Cowboy" rifle. La Longue Carbine is a unique scoped version of Cowboy Repeater and can be stolen in Camp McCarran.
3. No uniques here. Cowboy affects only one shotgun - Lever-Action. Another Lever-Action is on Dann's Sacked Caravan site south of Freeside East Gate. If you really want uniques, go to Westside Thorn and do the quest to receive unique Hunting Shotgun called Dinner Bell. It's not boosted by Cowboy perk - but it's one damn solid piece of equipment.

I checked in GECK and put a list of all "Cowboy" weapons in the Wiki a while back: http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Cowboy In general I was disappointed to read about lack of choices, especially among shotguns and axes. Best you can get here is Ranger Sequoia teamed up with Brush Gun which are more than enough for the entire game - with a small usage of Trail Carbine for sniping and Lever-Action in the face when up close. In addition to those Chance's Knife with insane crit rate it supports in VATS might be a decent idea for cheap kills of weaker opponents like Vault 22 for example. Throwing weapons are hard to restock, explosives choice is limited - so you should rather go Cowboy with medium Melee skill.

depends on your build, so far mine
Gauss Rifle
Anti Material Rifle
The Named Mini gun
Modded Laser Gatling gun
Modded Sniper Rifle
Posidian Energy Range Finger c gun or something like that a big beam comes down from the sky. Its not the best weapon but regardless it is fun=)

Some great answers, thanks to all. Especially delra, very informative post. Cheers.

Playing Cowboy weapons is like playing Energy Weapons. You don't have many choices - but you have more than enough to deal with all enemies if you do it properly. I'd advice Shotgun Surgeon here, will drop Deathclaw or Cazador from 15 to 5 DT when using a shotgun against them and with Dinner Bell (my shotgun of choice) or even lever-action giving a result similar to Multiplas spam you'd use on those if you went energy.

For companion I'd pick Raul or Cass, they are more cowboy-ish than anyone. Remember you CANNOT talk to Ranger Andy about NCR without Raul when stealing the Carbine from his house - or you won't be able to complete Raul's quest. Ranger Andy can be talked to only with Raul present.

Guns pair-up as far as ammo goes, .357 for Cowboy Repeater and La Longue Carbine + Lucky right at the beginning, .44 for Trail Carbine and Mysterious Magnum for mid-game game, .45-70 for Sequia and Brush Gun for late game. When you add Hunting Revolver to the third pair, you will always have a scoped weapon in each pair and a strong pistol. All three of those ammunitions have a much stronger custom type so I'd advice taking Hand-Loader to add even more edge. High base damage would allow you to give Dinner Bell to Cass and give up on Shotgun Surgeon focusing on revolvers and rifles instead.

If you use shotguns go to the reloading bench and make magnum rounds. I find the easiest way to do this is at gun runners. Go buy as many 12 gauge shot gun shells and he has and disassemble them. Buy any pistol powder and primers he has. You can make a bunch of magnum shells for not much money. They do a bit more dmg then normal rounds.

Dinner bell and riot shotgun are the best. The best rifles are probaly the brush gun, that machine and the AMR.

Brush Gun with Cowboy perk will put out more damage than the Anti-Material Rifle, but that 45-70 gvt ammo is soooo not easy to find. I liked the cowboy repeater, except for the sights, I didn't care too much for the iron sights on that one. I tend to stick with a scoped weapon to pick things off at a distance; Ratslayer(Varmint Rifle Unique), Sniper Rifle, AM Rifle, Scoped .44, pretty much anything I can put a scope on, I like. But early in the game, varmint rifles are pretty pentiful, so are hunting rifles.

Really like the Trail Carbine w/ scope right now. Has a little more punch than some of the cowboy / the long repeater and the ammo is a much easier to find than the 45-70 Govt' round. Very nice, well balanced gun. Down side being limited selection of custom .44 rounds.


For style and close quarters combat I just love the lever action shot w/ slugs. I know it is outclassed by other shotguns, basically took the cowboy and reload perks just to keep this weapon slightly viable.

I don't think these are the "best" guns just ones I like right now.