[UPDATE 4/11/2022]
This mod is deprecated. I have lost the original files due to moving computers. You can still use this, but I recommend using another overhaul instead, like Ammo Boxes - An Economy Fix.

I was always pretty annoyed at how bulk ammo boxes function. Every vendor that has them sells the same quantity in the same packaging: you buy one box and 50 rounds of .38 Special drops in your inventory. I also find it pretty exploitative with mods installed that allow you to break down surplus/bulk ammo. With those installed, it becomes a pretty easy affair to just buy up bulk ammo for cheap, remake it into your preferred kind, then be on your way.

I decided to put a stop that in my own way. I learned a little bit about scripting and rewrote the scripts for all ammo boxes in the vanilla game. Now instead of giving you a static number of rounds, you gain a randomized amount (always less than what you would've gained normally). Then I looked at the reloading ingredients you could buy at vendors. I almost never bought them, because they gave little in the way of meaningful numbers of ingredients (and were almost always only offered in quantities of one or two by vendors). Rather than mess with levelled lists, I decided to give reloading ingredients the same treatment as bulk amm- but this time, buffing them.

Using JIP LN NVSE, I managed to adjust ammo boxes to my personal liking.

Bulk Ammo Boxes Adjusted

The amount of ammunition you get is first randomly rolled, then you gain a bonus depending on your skill with that ammo type's weapon. Guns get bonus ammo from the Repair skill. Energy weapons get bonus ammo from the Science skill. If there were any bulk Explosives, I'd say you'd get bonus bombs from having high explosives. Regardless, the base amounts of ammo given by each box has been roughly cut down to between a quarter and a half of what it once was. Note that I've also implemented a feature that prevents you from getting consecutive bad rolls- the more ammo boxes you buy, the more likely you are to hit the "average amount" you should get.

Ammunition quantities were based on a simple formula: take the most common weapon that ammo uses, set the range to between one and four times that weapon's magazine size, and grant a scaled bonus depending on your Repair/Science skill.

Note that the Repair/Science bonus is granted per box. Ammo Box costs have been adjusted to reflect the lower amount of ammunition you gain, based on average rolls. Base values are as listed in the GECK, Base Range is assuming no bonus from repair/science skill. Base values were determined according to vanilla new vegas formula (bulk/surplus ammo being worth roughly 33% to 50% the base value of buying an equivalent amount of standard ammo of that type).

.22 LR Plinking
Ammo Box Base Value: 22 caps
Base Range: 10 to 50
Repair Bonus: 1 round/1 Repair

.38 Special
Ammo Box Base Value: 11 caps
Base Range: 6 to 24
Repair Bonus: 1 round/10 Repair

5.56mm Surplus
Ammo Box Base Value: 50 caps
Base Range: 20 to 80
Repair Bonus: 1 round/4 Repair

5mm Surplus
Ammo Box Base Value: 30 caps
Base Range: 24 to 96
Repair Bonus: 1 round/3 Repair

.223
Ammo Box Base Value: 9 caps
Base Range: 5 to 20
Repair Bonus: 1 round/5 Repair

Electron Charge Pack
Ammo Box Base Value: 37 caps
Base Range: 30 to 120
Science Bonus: 1 cell/3 Science

Microfusion Cell
Ammo Box Base Value: 83 caps
Base Range: 15 to 60
Science Bonus: 1 cell/4 science

Small Energy Cell
Ammo Box Base Value: 45 caps
Base Range: 12 to 48
Science Bonus: 1 cell/5 Science


You may notice that energy weapons overall give less ammo. I figure it's balanced owing to the commonality of energy weapons ammo, and the fact that many energy weapons have an effective -25% ammunition consumption mod available to them. 

How does your courier somehow get a random amount of ammo for each bulk box? Who knows. Maybe traders get junk ammo in all the time from scavengers, local ammo makers, bad batches they found. Maybe it's a scheme by traders to have some cheap ammo on hand to entice customers to buy- after all, what's the point of your shiny new laser toy if it doesn't have any batteries? Maybe it's your Courier getting a big lump of salvage, blemish, or junk ammo and having to pick through to get the good ones out. Higher repair and science skills means you're better able to salvage such ammo.

What this mod does NOT do is alter the effects of Bulk or Surplus ammo. I leave that up to your favorite ammunition overhaul.

Either way, this mod nerfs bulk ammo significantly. If you're like me and you don't like lugging around massive quantities of the stuff, this might be for you. Pair it with Unfound Loot to have a helluva time keeping your weapons fed.

New Bulk Ammo Types

Inspired by the More Surplus Ammo Types mod.

Adds in new ammunition types that can be purchased in bulk ( with the exact same stipulations as above).

Most new ammo types use the ammo effects for Bulk ammo (.85x Weapon COND, .85x Damage) or the generic Surplus ammo effets (1.15x damage, 1.2x weapon spread, 3x weapon condition).

All new ammos have proper scripting to appear without conflict in appropriate vendor inventories and ammo formlists, so you can use them in your fancy guns. I'm 99% sure if you use a mod like NAWEMO, JT's Ammo Use or Mojave Arsenal, then my new ammo types will also appear on enemies and loot. Further testing may be needed.

Ammunition is named according to vanilla naming schemes.


9mm, Surplus
Ammo Box Value: 18 caps
Effects: As Surplus Ammo
Base Range: 15 to 60
Repair Bonus: 1 round/3 Repair

10mm, Bulk
Ammo Box Value: 18
Effects: As Bulk Ammo
Base Range: 10 to 40
Repair Bonus: 1 round/4 Repair

.45 Auto, Surplus
Ammo Box Value: 25
Effects: As Surplus Ammo
Base Range: 7 to 28
Repair Bonus: 1 round/5 Repair

.44 Special
Ammo Box Value: 32
Base Range: 6 to 18
Repair Bonus: 1 Round/15 Repair

12Ga, Soft Recoil
Ammo Box Value: 18
Effects: As Bulk Ammo
Base Range: 5 to 20
Repair Bonus: 1 round/5 Repair

20Ga, Soft Recoil 
Ammo Box Value: 9
Effects: As Bulk Ammo
Base Range: 5 to 20
Repair Bonus: 1 round/5 Repair

.308, Surplus
Ammo Box Value: 36
Effects: As Surplus Ammo
Base Range: 12 to 24
Repair Bonus: 1 round/6 Repair

.45-70 Vintage 
Ammo Box Value: 36
Effects (Blackpowder): As Surplus ammo
Effects (Blackpowder, 2/0 Buck): As Surplus amo, fires six pellets, ala real life .410 bore ammunition. 
Base Range: 6 to 24 rounds 
Repair Bonus: 1 round/10 Repair

Note: .45-70 Vintage Ammo boxes grant a mix of Blackpowder and Forager ammunition. Each ammo type has its own repair bonus applied to it, as each box rolls twice to determine the ammunition granted.

.50MG, Surplus 
Ammo Box Value: 30 caps
Effects: As Surplus Ammo
Base Range: 4 to 16
Repair Bonus: 1 round/20 Repair

25mm Kinetic Payloads
Ammo Box Value: 180 caps
Effects (Shell): Damage 50, fires 8 pellets of shot, DT -5
Effects (Slug): Damage 50, fires 1 non-explosive slug
Effects (Kinetic Energy Penetrator): Damage 35, fires a highly accurate kinetic energy penetrator 
Base Range: 4 to 16 
Explosives Bonus: 1 round / 25 Explosives

40mm Kinetic Payloads
Ammo Box Value: 216 caps
Effects (Shell): Damage 75, fires 8 pellets of shot, DT -5
Effects (Slug): Damage 75, fires 1 non-explosive slug
Effects (Kinetic Energy Penetrator): Damage 50, fires a high accuracy kinetic energy penetrator  
Base Range: 4 to 12
Explosives Bonus: 1 round /33 Repair


Note: Kinetic Payload boxes grant a mix of all three ammo types when acquired. Each ammo type is rolled individually and the explosives bonus applied individually.

.308, 9mm, .50MG, and .45 Auto were selected as Surplus rounds to reflect their military usage. From a reasonable guess, in the Fallout universe, 10mm succeeded 9mm and .45 Auto in American military usage. .308 went from a main cartridge to a support round used by snipers, special operations and vehicle-mounted weapons- massive stocks of the old infantry standard ammunition got sold off or parceled out to National Guard and militias. Large quantities of dirty ammo can thus be found. These ammo types are thus available in surplus variants only.

10mm, 12ga, and 20ga were selected as Bulk rounds to reflect common civilian availability. The shotgun shells are bulk ammunition designed for cheap target practice or recoil-sensitive shooters. 10mm, being adopted by police, government, and some military units, came into vogue as a civilian round, displacing 9mm in the market. Thus, these rounds had mass production started up even during the war- and even after, with how common the tooling was and how robust the guns were. These ammo types are thus available in bulk variants only.

25mm and 40mm Kinetic Payloads include the Shell and Slug, which are non-explosive, extremely close quarters combat options for grenade users. The Shell ammunition includes a DT -5 effect, as I imagine it uses higher velocity steel shot. The other reason is that I can't make Shotgun Surgeon effect a weapon based on what ammo type you're using without some extra scripting, which I feel is beyond the scope of this mod. 40mm shotshells have historical basis in the M576 40mm grenade used during  Mini-rockets can be seen as the precursor or companion of the Red Glare's small caliber rocket ammo, 

Bulk Reloading Components

Following the same principles as above, I decided to buff up bulk component boxes. This is a much simpler buff. Primer and Case boxes now grant 125-200% of their normal components when purchased.  With the breakdown recipes provided for much of the above new ammo types and an expanded amount of components, you should be able to craft more ammo by breaking down the junky surplus stuff.

All bulk ammo types (with the exception of Blackpowder and grenades) have breakdown recipes. Surplus ammo breaks down to 70% of what normal ammo breaks down to, or very roughly 63% of what it takes to make new ammo. Note that .38 and .44 Special allow you to retain lead, powder, and primers, but the cases cannot be reused. .45-70 blackpowder rounds also allow you to retain lead, case, and primer, but the powder cannot be reused.

I highly recommend Ammo Burst Case Count Fix in order to save up more ammo cases.

Compatibility and Requirements

This mod requires all official DLC and Gun Runner's Arsenal, along with JIP LN NVSE to function.

This mod edits the Ammo Boxes and the scripts activated when you purchase bulk ammo boxes. Any mod that edits those conflicts with these. The only other mod I can think of that would do that would be another bulk ammo quantity rebalance mod, which as far as I know doesn't exist (or is outdated). You can run this mod with any weapon or ammo mod, even ones that alter bulk ammos, and this should work perfectly. The only hard edits made have been to add new records and alter ammo boxes and ammo box scripts. If another mod edits the values of bulk ammo boxes, then load my mod after it.

Most of what this mod does is scripted. I have only touched the records related to scripts that run when you buy ammo boxes. I have a quest that runs at the start of the game that injects the new ammo into leveled lists where appropriate. Any new ammo uses only vanilla effects to maintain consistency. Any other changes are done by adding recipes. This mod should be 100% compatible with any leveled list edits your load order makes, as my changes go through a script.

If a mod, for some reason, places ammo boxes or relies on the player gaining ammo boxes, that may cause problems due to how this mod injects RNG into ammo acquisition. I don't know of any mod like that on the Nexus. It should work, since the script uses an OnAdd function, but if a mod is expecting you to have some amount of ammo and this one changes that amount, you may end up with problems. I left the names of base game bulk ammo scripts the same, so any mod that references those scripts should use my new implementation. If this causes problems, please let me know.

If another mod adds recipes to breakdown surplus ammo, it will be redundant with my mod.  There is an alternative version of this mod without redundant recipes available in the downloads section. There's not a lot of harm in having multiple breakdown recipes, but it can clutter up your crafting menu.

I recommend having this mod installed before you start a new game. 

If you install this mod in the middle of a game, best practice is to manually activate the ammo distribution quest. To do this, open your console, type in 'startquest xx00346b' without the quotation marks (XX being the position in your load order, check your mod organizer), and hit enter. This will add the ammo to the appropriate form and leveled lists. Wait long enough for vendors to reset and you will see my ammo boxes available to purchase.

You can copy this command in order to quickly get things started. Nothing SHOULD break, but caveat emptor when it comes to installing and uninstalling mods in the middle of games.

startquest xx00346b