How to get the Survivalist’s Rifle in Fallout: New Vegas

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The Survivalist’s Rifle is a unique service rifle that can be found in an unmarked location near a location called “The Red Gate” in the Honest Hearts DLC.

Tips before you set off to get the gun.

Honest Hearts DLC required. The weapon can only be acquired if you have the Honest Hearts DLC installed.
Acquire before you finish the DLC. Due to the weapon being in the open world space, it can be picked up by NPCs. If an NPC picks up the gun and you finish the DLC afterward, the gun will disappear forever.

Acquiring the gun

To acquire the gun, you’ll first have to get to a location called “The Red Gate”, located just beside the red rapids docks.

The Red Gate on the world map | Fallout: New Vegas — *The Red Gate on the world map*

First make your way through the red gate, away from the river.

The path through The Red Gate | Fallout: New Vegas — *The path through The Red Gate*

Walk to the right around the large hill.

The hill to walk around | Fallout: New Vegas — *The hill to walk around*

Eventually, you’ll see a place where you can climb up to get on top of the hill. Use it to get as high as you can.

The place where you can climb up | Fallout: New Vegas — *The place where you can climb up*

You’ll see a slightly overgrown area at the top of the hill. Go there.

The overgrown area on top of the hill | Fallout: New Vegas — *The overgrown area on top of the hill*

Once there, you should see a skeleton with a duffle bag next to it. The weapon is inside the duffle bag.

The duffle bag barely visible from a distance | Fallout: New Vegas — *The duffle bag barely visible from a distance*

The bag with the gun | Fallout: New Vegas — *The bag with the gun*

Comparison of the Service Rifle and the Survivalist’s Rifle

The Survivalist’s Rifle uses 12.7mm ammunition, instead of 5.56 like the Service Rifle.
The Survivalist’s Rifle deals a lot more damage (48 damage/shot vs 18 damage/shot).
The Survivalist’s Rifle fires slower than the Service Rifle (3.9 shots/second vs 4.2 shots/second).
The Survivalist’s Rifle costs more AP to fire in VATS (20 AP/Shot vs 15 AP/Shot).
The Survivalist’s Rifle is far more accurate (0.08 spread vs 0.55 spread).
The Survivalist’s Rifle has ½ the ammo capacity (10 rounds/magazine vs 20 rounds/magazine).
The Survivalist’s Rifle has a much higher durability (2495 shots before breaking vs 1995 shots before breaking).

Tips for using the Survivalist’s Rifle

The Survivalist’s Rifle’s iron sights are intentionally misaligned. Instead of using the central post of the front sight to aim, you have to use the right post.
This weapon benefits greatly from the Grunt perk, which increases the weapon’s already high damage by 25%.

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