We have a little 9mm submachine gun, it looks like a World War II grease gun, but sort of compacted. And that's a really cool distinctive little weapon.
”— J.E.Sawyer, Fallout: New Vegas video developer diary #2
The 9mm submachine gun is a small, yet capable weapon, able to empty a full magazine in under 3 seconds. The 9mm rounds don't deal as much damage as 10mm or 12.7mm rounds, but they're common and lightweight, making it even easier to spray-and-pray.
With the light bolt modification, this weapon deals an impressive 200 damage-per-second. However, it shares the common weakness of most automatic weapons in Fallout: New Vegas, in that much of its theoretical power is negated by the damage threshold system. In addition to losing much of its damage to the target's damage threshold, the high spread of the SMG requires the player to be at close range for all of the rounds fired to impact on the target.
The 9mm submachine gun can fire a total of about 2745 standard rounds, the equivalent of 92 reloads (or 46 reloads when modified with drum magazines) from full condition before breaking.
Lucky 38 - a fully repaired one can be found inside the basement next to an ammunition box on a table. (Note: the player can only access the Lucky 38's basement when taken there by Mr. House during The House Always Wins, I or by console commands.
As the 9mm SMG is a one-handed weapon, it can be equipped without reducing running speed.
The 9mm SMG is very effective when used by a companion because companions are much more accurate than players. It is also highly economical due to the low cost and high availability of 9mm ammunition.
The 9mm SMG shares its firing sound with the 9mm pistol.
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