How to get the La Longue Carabine in Fallout New Vegas

In this guide, let’s learn how to get the La Longue Carabine in Fallout New Vegas in a proper, pacifistic way without killing anyone. You can certainly kill Corporal Sterling, the owner of the gun. He’s a very skilled sniper and it’d be a shame to kill a good man like him to get the gun, but I’m against that method, so here are alternatives.

And of course, killing him in plain sight will anger the NCR and you will have to fight through an army to get out of Camp McCarran. So, yes, it’s not an ideal way to obtain it. We need finesse in order to get this weapon, cleanly and with no traces.

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First of all, let’s see the potential locations where you can find Corporal Sterling.

Camp McCarran

How to get the La Longue Carabine in Fallout New Vegas

Camp McCarran is an NCR Outpost located near the New Vegas strip. You really can’t miss it because it’s the biggest NCR base in the Mojave Wasteland. You will find Corporal Sterling around the camp and you can talk with him to learn more about him and his rifle. Being a veteran and hardened soldier, he has some interesting things to say. So, I highly encourage you to talk with the man.

Camp Forlorn Hope

How to get the La Longue Carabine in Fallout New Vegas

If you complete the bounty hunting quest that Major Dhatri gives you, Three-Card Bounty, Corporal Sterling and his Alpha team squad will move to Camp Forlorn Hope on the banks of the Colorado river, south of the Hoover Dam. There are a lot of great quests to complete in this location, just like in Camp McCarran. So, I recommend visiting the place even if you aren’t looking to get the La Longue Carabine.

How to steal the gun

This is a good old-fashioned way that many players use to steal items from NPCs in Bethesda games. First off, find Sterling. Wait until he’s alone in his tent in Camp Forlorn Hope or somewhere in Camp McCarran. Now you have to steal his ammunition. All of it that’s used by the rifle. Now exit out of the tent he was in, or exit out of the camp itself. This will make him unequip the La Longue Carabine because he no longer has the ammo to use it. Now re-enter the location of Corporal Sterling and now he will have the rifle unequipped because he does not possess the ammunition required to use the gun. Now you can pickpocket him and get the rifle. Easy, right? Well, wrong if you don’t have a lot of points in Sneaking.

Gaining levels in New Vegas is easy. Do quests and explore. Invest some points in the Sneak skill. The more points you have, the more successful pickpocketing will be. I also suggest finding a Stealth Boy and a Sneaking Skill Magazine in order to boost your sneaking ability.

Useful Items to boost your Sneaking ability in New Vegas

Above, I mentioned using a Stealth Boy and a Sneaking Skill Magazine when pickpocketing Corporal Sterling. You must use these items when you’re ready to pickpocket him because the skill boosts and effects of the items are temporary.

You can find a Stealth Boy in the Schoolhouse safe in Goodsprings, the town where you start the game. Meanwhile, you can find a sneaking skill magazine in one of the many mailboxes all over the Mojave Wasteland.

Agility is the skill that governs your Sneaking skill. So, raising that can be useful in this situation. Go to the El Dorado Dry Lake and search the Ant Mounds and Ant Refuse Piles to get Fire ant nectar which boosts your agility by 4 points for 2 minutes.

If you’re wearing metal/heavy armor, unequip them when you’re ready to pickpocket Sterling. Heavy armor makes a lot of noise and with it on, your chances of being detected are very high. You can also wear the Brahmin-skin outfit, wasteland settler outfit, or the Riot gear to boost your Agility by 1 point.

With all these consumables, your chance of successfully stealing the rifle from Sterling is very high.

The Features of the La Longue Carabine

This rifle has a unique design and it has a scope attached instead of the dreaded iron sights of the common variant, Cowboy Repeater. It’s more accurate, deals more damage, and has a slightly higher critical hit chance than the common variant.

This gun fits well with my Cowboy/Gunslinger build guide. Be sure to read it to learn the best ways to use this rifle.

Happy hunting, partner.

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