What is the best shotgun in Fallout: New Vegas and where can you find it?

Hello again, my fellow Wastelanders. Today, we’re looking at shotguns in Fallout: New Vegas and ranking the top five. Even with the unique variations, there aren’t that many shotguns in the game, so this is a shorter list. How do my rankings stack up against your favorites?

If you plan to use shotguns as your main weapon while you wander through the Wasteland, you should make sure you take the And Stay Back and Shotgun Surgeon perks. If you need more ideas, check out this Shotgun Build guide to optimize your Courier. 

5. Lever-Action Shotgun (Best for Early Game)

Starting off, we have the Lever-Action Shotgun. This one is especially useful because 20 gauge shotgun shells are cheap and plentiful through the Wasteland. Knock them down with the shotgun and run in to finish the job with melee attacks. It’s not hard to find or hard to maintain and has a low strength requirement, making the lever-action shotgun a solid choice for early in the game.

What’s Good About the Lever-Action Shotgun:

• It is the only weapon to receive a boost from both the Cowboy and Shotgun Surgeon perks. 
• This gun will not jam, as there is no jam animation for lever-action weapons programmed into the game. Even in near-breaking conditions, the lever-action shotgun will not jam while reloading. 
• It can be interrupted while reloading and fired immediately if necessary. 
• It has the highest DPS for 20 gauge shotguns. 

How To Get The Lever-Action Shotgun:

• Buy it from the Gun Runners’ Vendotron. 
• It’s carried by guards for the Crimson Caravan and Followers, as well as Great Khan warriors and Prime legionaries at the Second Battle of Hoover Dam. 
• Located in the Atomic Wrangler Casino on top of the shelves behind the counter, in the back room of the Big Horn Saloon in Boulder City, on the corpse of a dead guard at Durable Dunn’s sacked caravan, and in the executive suite at the Sierra Madre Casino & Resort.

This shotgun has all-around value and is great for shotgun builds early in the game. 

Lever-Action Shotgun Full Details:

Check out all the details here.

• Skill: Guns 50
• Requirements: Strength 4
• Damage/Attack: 48
• Damage/Projectile: 6.9
• Damage Per Second (DPS): 84.9
• DPS (reload): 45.1
• Critical Damage: 7
• Critical Chance Multiplier: x1
• Attacks/Second: 1.8
• Action Point Cost: 25
• Projectiles: 7
• Spread: 1.9
• Ammo Type: 20 Gauge Shotgun Shell
• Weight: 3
• Value: 2000
• Item HP: 100

4. Hunting Shotgun (Best for Mid-Range Combat)

The Hunting Shotgun is the next option on our list. The upgraded version of this weapon can hold its own against most enemies in the Mojave and won’t eat ammo nearly as fast as some other shotguns. Beware the reloading glitch with this one, too. Those few seconds when you can’t aim or fire can be deadly. 

What’s Good About the Hunting Shotgun:

• You can interrupt mid-way through reloading to fire if necessary.
• It pairs very well with the Shotgun Surgeon perk and slug rounds, as well as the And Stay Back perk. 
• Alongside the choke modification, it becomes the most accurate shotgun in the game. 

How To Get the Hunting Shotgun:

• This is one of the more common weapons in the game and can be found in many locations, including the Dead Money, Old World Blues, and Honest Hearts DLCs. 
• Buy it from the Gun Runners’ Vendotron.
• Find the Hunting Shotgun in Bloodborne Cave, Bootjack Cavern, Charleston Cave, the Followers Safehouse, Horowitz Farmstead, Vault 34, and the Old Nuclear Test Site.

Be very quiet. I’m hunting Deathclaws. 

Hunting Shotgun Full Details:

Check out all the details here.

• Skill: Guns 75
• Requirements: Strength 5
• Damage/Attack: 70
• Damage/Projectile: 10
• Damage Per Second (DPS): 116.7
• DPS (reload): 65.6
• Critical Damage: 10
• Critical Chance Multiplier: x1
• Attacks/Second: 1.7
• Action Point Cost: 28
• Projectiles: 7
• Spread: 1.5
• Ammo Type: 12 Gauge Shotgun Shell
• Weight: 7.5
• Value: 3800
• Item HP: 200

3. Dinner Bell (Best for Accuracy and Power)

This unique variant of the hunting shotgun also makes the list. Compared to the standard version, it has higher HP, slightly more damage per pellet, higher DPS, and slightly more critical hit damage at the cost of a slightly smaller magazine and a little more spread.

What’s Good About Dinner Bell:

• It offers more damage than a fully-modified hunting shotgun, though it is less accurate and holds fewer rounds. 
• Unique weapons cannot be modified, but Dinner Bell already has the choke mod and a reduced spread, giving it greater range. 
• It can fire roughly 745 standard shells before breaking. 

How To Get Dinner Bell:

• The Dinner Bell is given as a quest reward for completing Bleed Me Dry for Red Lucy in the Thorn. 

Ding. Ding. Come ring the Dinner Bell. 

Dinner Bell Full Details:

Check out all the details here.

• Skill: Guns 75
• Requirements: Strength 5
• Damage/Attack: 75
• Damage/Projectile: 10.7
• Damage Per Second (DPS): 125
• DPS (reload): 70.3
• Critical Damage: 11
• Critical Chance Multiplier: x1
• Attacks/Second: 1.7
• Action Point Cost: 28
• Projectiles: 7
• Spread: 1.2
• Ammo Type: 12 Gauge Shotgun Shell
• Weight: 7.5
• Value: 4800
• Item HP: 150

2. Big Boomer (Best for Exploding Heads at Close Range)

If you’re willing to kill or rob an old woman, you can own the Big Boomer. It is a sawed-off monstrosity of a shotgun that shows no mercy to anyone on the unfortunate end. I like this gun for close-range destruction. It is basically useless at mid and long-range, but few of your foes will survive the first shot or two. 

What’s Good About Big Boomer:

• This sawed-off shotgun fires both shells at once, delivering twice as many pellets at once as other shotguns.
• Deals 20 more points of damage than the standard counterpart. 
• It fires slightly faster than the standard sawed-off shotgun, has a lower AP cost, and offers a tighter spread. 

How To Get Big Boomer:

• Steal it from Old Lady Gibson at the Gibson Scrap Yard or kill her and take it. 

Not much can survive two barrels to the face from the Big Boomer. 

Big Boomer Full Details:

Check out all the details here.

• Skill: Guns 50
• Requirements: Strength 4
• Damage/Attack: 120
• Damage/Projectile: 8.6
• Damage Per Second (DPS): 309.4
• DPS (reload): 342
• Critical Damage: 9
• Critical Chance Multiplier: x1
• Attacks/Second: 2.6
• Action Point Cost: 35
• Projectiles: 14
• Spread: 3.5
• Ammo Type: 12 Gauge Shotgun Shell
• Weight: 4
• Value: 2500
• Item HP: 80

1. Riot Shotgun (Best for Ruthless Destruction)

Widely considered the best shotgun in the game, you can’t go wrong with the Riot Shotgun and the above-mentioned shotgun-related perks. This top-tier shotgun will leave your enemies in pieces, and you covered in gore. The riot shotgun is not for those who like to do things at a bit of a distance. 

What’s Good About the Riot Shotgun:

• It reloads much faster than all the other shotguns in the game. 
• The Riot Shotgun has the lowest AP cost of any shotgun. 
• This gun offers high DPS and a larger ammo capacity. 

How To Get the Riot Shotgun:

• Buy it from the Gun Runners’ Vendotron.
• Take it from fiends near Camp McCarren, the Omerta thug guarding the Gomorrah bank, Vault 34, NCR Troopers in the Hoover Dam Visitor Center, and other locations. 
• A riot shotgun in nearly perfect condition can be found in a Very Hard locked locker at the Hopeville Armory in the Lonesome Road DLC.

Get up close and personal with the enemies. (I don’t know for sure which mod of mine changes the appearance of the riot shotgun, but it still has the standard stats.)

Riot Shotgun Full Details:

Check out all the details here.

• Skill: Guns 100
• Requirements: Strength 7
• Damage/Attack: 67
• Damage/Projectile: 9.6
• Damage Per Second (DPS): 268
• DPS (reload): 155.6
• Critical Damage: 10
• Critical Chance Multiplier: x1
• Attacks/Second: 4
• Action Point Cost: 17
• Projectiles: 7
• Spread: 2.5
• Ammo Type: 12 Gauge Shotgun Shell
• Weight: 5
• Value: 5500
• Item HP: 175

You may also be interested in:

• [Top 50] Best Post Apocalyptic Games of All Time (Ranked)
•  
• [Top 10] Fallout New Vegas Best Animation Mods
•  
• [Top 10] Fallout New Vegas Best Builds
•  
• [Top 10] Fallout New Vegas Best Armor Mods
•  
• [Top 15] Best Fallout New Vegas Mods For A Brand New Experience
•  
• [Top 10] Fallout New Vegas Best Weapons And How To Get Them