One thing about theFalloutseries that some may not know about is how so many of its weapons are significantly distorted representations of real-life weapons. Sometimes it’s not so bad, but other times these weapons almost seem like cartoony versions of the real thing. This can partially be attributed to the games taking place inan alternate timeline, one where retro-futuristic 1950s culture and technology reign supreme. Generally, this applies to most ballistic weapons, but there are a handful of energy weapons that also take their cues from real firearms.
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This goes back to even the firstFallouttitle released in 1997. Back then it was merely an Isometricturn-based RPGrather than a 3D FPS. The weapons were more simplistic in design for sure, but their influences can easily be traced regardless of any graphical limitations. Here is a list of someFalloutweapons and their real-life counterparts.
Updated on June 10, 2025, by Gregory Louis Gomez:Fallout has been kicking for over twenty-five years now, and as such has no shortage of weapons for the player to find while traveling the wasted lands of the old world. As the series progressed, its ability to translate real-life weapons into its retro-futuristic post-apocalypse setting has only gotten better, with the most recent games in the franchise featuring nearly one-to-one copies of them. That said, it’s still technically a sci-fi game, and an alternate-history one at that, so there are still plenty of weapons that had some interesting modifications to them to fit this style, to say the least. Bearing this in mind, we’ve added a few moreFallout guns that can also be found in real lifeto the list.
1314mm Pistol / Hammerli 280 Pistol
The firstFalloutgame featured the 14mm Pistol as amid-game weapon with reasonable damage and accuracy. It is based on the Hammerli 280 pistol, which is a .22 caliber target pistol that holds 6 rounds. Fans will note the similar magazine well and grip, though the game version uses a completely different caliber. Curiously, the 14mm pistol was beaten in damage by the .223 Pistol.
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This is somewhat interesting considering that .223 is a rifle caliber, and firing it out of a pistol would surely result in a significant loss of wounding potential. 14mm on the other hand is a very potent real-world pistol cartridge. One would expect these damage values to be flipped.
12Mauser C96 Pistol
One of the first successful semi-automatic handguns, the C96 makes its series debut inFallout. It is simply named the Mauser M/96 9mm and is a unique weapon which means there is only one in the whole game. The player obtains it by looting the corpse of Gizmo, a dirty casino owner in Junktown.
The C96 also appears inFallout 2under the same name, though is much easier to obtain. InFallout 3, the pistol returns once again but is renamed to the Chinese Pistol and is chambered for 10mm rather than the historically accurate 7.63 Mauser cartridge.
11Tommy Gun / M1928 Thompson SMG
The famous M1928 Thompson Submachine gun appears as the Tommy Gun inFallout 2. Aside from using the weapon’s real-world namesake, it portrayed its most famous configuration. This of course consists of the 50-round drum magazine and Cutts compensator on the front end of the barrel.
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The weapon is, unsurprisingly, wielded by mobsters in and around the New Reno area. The player can easily obtain it by killing these types of enemies or by simply buying one at a gun shop.
10XL70E3 / Enfield XL60 Prototype
Though this bullpup assault rifle is named after the British XL70E3, it resembles the earlier XL60 series of rifles more strongly. The term “bullpup” refers to the action of the weapon being placed behind the trigger, giving it a distinct profile.
InFallout 2, this rifle is chambered in 5mm while its real-life counterpart is chambered in 4.85mm, which is close enough. This weapon was also strictly a prototype and was never mass-produced for any military. In theFalloutworld, this obviously cannot be the case as it is a rather ubiquitous weapon in thewasteland.
9Assault Rifle / CETME-C Battle Rifle
Fallout 3is Bethesda’s first entry in the series. The shift to a fully 3D FPS/RPG type of gameallowed the weapons to bemuch more detailed than before. The Assault Rifle is one such weapon that benefited from the higher level of detail.
Though its name is essentially generic, it is based on the Spanish CETME-C rifle. Players will note that this weapon also resembles the German G3 rifle, however, these are virtually the same rifle. The game’s model uses the CETME’s Classic wood furniture but the G3’s iron sights. It is also chambered in 5.56 when in reality, both the Spanish and German rifles are chambered in 7.62x51 NATO.
8Chinese Assault Rifle / Kalashnikov Rifles
The Chinese Assault Rifle inFallout 3is an interesting case because it’s an amalgamation of a few different weapons. It is generally based on various Kalashnikov Rifles such as the AK47, but it also borrows parts from the RPD belt-fed machine gun and the VSS Vintorez (specifically the handguard and folding stock respectively). Having the Chinese Assault Rifle be a Kalashnikov-inspired rifle does make sense given that the Chinese actually copied the weapon in the form of Type 56.
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It was the standard-issue rifle of the People’s Liberation Army for almost 30 years. It is chambered in 7.62x39mm while the game’s version is erroneously chambered in 5.56x45mm.
7Gauss Rifle / Lahti L-39 Anti-Tank Rifle
One of the few energy weapons in theFalloutgames to have a visible link to a real-world firearm is Gauss Rifle fromFallout 3andNew Vegas.This particular weapon shares many aspects with the Finnish L-39 20mm semi-automatic anti-tank rifle, including a nearly identical butt stock, cheek rest, receiver, and rotating charging handle.
Fallout’sversion takes the top feeding magazine and moves it to the right side of the receiver (rendering it nonfunctional in the process) and adds a bunch of sci-fi junk to make it seem more like a gauss cannon thana WW2-eraanti-tank rifle. The Gauss Rifle is also fed with single microfusion cells rather than from a ten-round magazine of 20mm like the L-39 is. The real-life weapon bears the name of its creator, Aimo Lahti, and saw extensive use during the Winter War and WW2 (referred to as the Continuation War in Finland).
6Service Rifle / AR15 Rifles
InFallout: New VegastheNew California Republictroops are primarily armed with the Service Rifle, a weapon inspired by the AR15. It seems to primarily take inspiration from the M16a1 and A2 rifles, featuring a fixed carry handle and a triangular-shaped handguard like the A1 but sporting a heavy barrel and Brass deflector like the A2. The rifle also has wood furniture on it, unlike its real-world counterpart’s polymer.
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Distinct from the AR15’s “T-shaped” charging handle, in-game rifles have a side-mounted charging handle similar to that of the AK47. Both are chambered for 5.56x45mm ammunition.
5Light Machine gun / M60 + FN Minimi
The Light Machine gun is clearly a combination of two different weapons. The back half is based on the Minimi while the front end resembles an M60. What’s interesting is these two weapons occupy a different class of ordnance.
The FN Minimi is a Light Machine Gun or “Squad Automatic Weapon” while the M60 is known as a General Purpose Machine Gun. The two guns are designed for different roles and even fire different calibers.New Vegas’LMG fires 5.56x45mm just like the Minimi but unlike the M60 which fires 7.62x51mm.
4Radium Rifle / Volkssturmgewehr 1-5
Though the Radium Rifle inFallout 4’sFar HarborDLC looks like a crude weapon with a bunch of junk thrown onto it, its crudeness is historically accurate. The rifle it’s based on, the Volkssturmgewehr 1-5, is a so-called “last ditch” weapon created by the Germans during the final days of World War 2.
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The goal was to arm the militia’s home defense force with a weapon that could be produced as cheaply and quickly as possible. This explains its rather unflattering design. In the game, the rifle does radiation damage and is chambered in a .45 caliber. Its real-life counterpart, however, is chambered in 7.92x33mm and obviously does not do radiation damage.
