How To Get The Dinner Bell Shotgun In Fallout: New Vegas

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The Dinner Bell is a unique shotgun that can be acquired by completing the Bleed Me Dry quest, given to you by Red Lucy in the Thorn.

Quick tips before you go get the weapon:

The weapon is not worth it. Don’t bother getting the gun unless you are a collector or a completionist. The shotgun is mostly a downgrade compared to a fully upgraded Hunting Shotgun. See the “Comparing the Dinner Bell to the Hunting Shotgun” chapter for more.
Difficult acquisition. Getting this weapon requires you to finish an incredibly long and challenging quest that involves hunting down the eggs of some of the most formidable creatures in the game.

Acquisition

Acquiring this weapon requires you to finish the Bleed Me Dry quest given to you by Red Lucy in The Thorn.

For a full walkthrough of the quest, see the dedicated guide here.

The Dinner Bell deals slightly more damage than the Hunting Shotgun (10.7 x 7 vs 10 x 7).
It deals more critical hit damage (11 x 7 vs 10 x 7).
It has a lower durability (745 shots before breaking vs 995 shots before breaking).
It has a lower spread than the base Hunting Shotgun, but more spread than a Hunting Shotgun with a choke weapon mod (1.2 spread vs 1.5 spread vs 0.9 spread).
It has a lower magazine size than a Hunting shotgun equipped with a long tube weapon mod (5 shells/magazine vs 8 shells/magazine).

Despite its slightly higher damage, the weapon is outclassed by both a fully upgraded Hunting Shotgun and a Riot Shotgun, which deals slightly less damage, but fires far faster and has a far larger magazine.
The weapon is mostly useful as a dubiously useful side-grade to a fully upgraded hunting shotgun, perhaps as a backup weapon.
Unless you are a collector, the best use of this weapon is selling it and buying the two Hunting Shotgun weapon mods, which are usually sold by Alexander at the 188 Trading Post, Blake inside the Crimson Caravan company, or the Gun Runners Vendortron.
As with all shotguns, using the “Shotgun Surgeon” and “And Stay Back!” perks greatly increases the effectiveness of this weapon.