Favorite ranged: Sawed-off Shotgun
Favorite close-range: Boxing Tape

... because "favorite" doesn't always mean "most effective."

My beloved Maria 9mm

I have favorites but the gun I use all the time is the 10mm SMG. I carry a pile of ammo and with my bug killer perk and 80+ guns it's the bomb. Cazador special! You can travel faster too with it as your carry gun than anything except a pistol. I don't use pistols of shotguns much. Citizen weapons. I'm disappointed that there is no good assault rifle.

I love my Trail Carbine.

Small Arms--Maria Outstanding early game weapon
Melee--Figaro The Don't Ask Don't Tell weapon of the game in casinos. And it does hair very nicely.
Rifle-- Sniper with silencer
Energy-- Only Gauss will do, and legionaires absolutely hate the Gauss for some reason. Gauss is best Lanius killer I've found. 4 shots and that brother is a two-legged pop tart.
Misc-- Pulse gun. Indispensible when rampaging through the brotherhood or Lucky 38.

lead pipe

Forgot to mention, I also like the Shishkebab, but it's kind of hard to find in NV. Not like F3, where you can have one by the time you hit Level 4.

Ranged: Tie between This Machine, All-American, and a fully modded Cowboy Repeater
Melee: Liberator (Unique Machete from Nelson) - Lightweight but can dismember the [censored] out of most anything.

Ranged: RatSlayer Hands down. Picks off NCR troops so fast...
Melee: Gotta say Love & Hate. I can smuggle it into casinos and I can always take out the thugs if I wanna raid the casino.

I decided to kill in my game with Maria. Took his head clean off. Damn fine gun.

New one for me on this play..

The caravan shotgun, with rapid reload, shotgun surgeon, 10 agility, custom load out of slugs or magnum shot it'll destroy everything from multipule giant radscorpions to feral ghoul reavers very quickly even at low levels.
With having two barrals and high spread, against mini terrors like bark scorpions you can kill two with one shot then finish the third before reloading.

That and I love the wildsman, outdoor, survivor feel to it, with pre war spring wear, or wasteland outfits it just goes with how I like the character to feel.

While not my favorite, that rebar club worked pretty good. Came in handy to save ammo.

I don't like melee as much. I got the Shishkabob which was my favorite in Fallout 3. My favorite gun has been the Cowboy Repeater.

The Minigun - unfortunately I cannot use it as often as i'd like because I blow through 5mm bullets so fast. There needs to be a merchant in game that just sells 5mm bullets. Also, the mingun tends to damage quickly when firing so many bullets.

When I have no bullets for my minigun I use the All-American. The slower rate of fire conserves ammo and doesn't damage the weapon as quickly.

No melee for me.

1st playthrough, Sniper build - Fully modded Sniper Rifle. Silent death.
2nd playthrough, Explosives build - Modded Grenade Machinegun.
3rd playthrough (in progress), Melee build - Oh Baby!. Haven't got Knock Knock yet.

Future playthgoughs will be Cowboy, Energy and Unarmed. Probably have to wait for the patches before i try Cowboy or Energy.

-Gunny out.

My current "hobby" is using the Brush Gun to shoot .45-70 Gov't Hollow Point ammo purchased from the Gun Runners to start with, then hand loading the spent cases into .45-70 Gov't SWC Rounds which I save for more heavily armored opponents and the endgame.

Pushy in VATS. The slo mo flying bodies makes my side hurt. Sniper rifle for everthing else.

It may have an annoying reload bug but I LOVE the Cowboy Repeater. I also love the fully modded Hunting Shotgun and the Riot Shotgun. Sniper Rifle fully modded is a beaut too.