The Fallout series has had many familiar looking weapons over the years. Yet, these weapons are often a little off. Sometimes by only a little, but other times by a lot. This can partially be attributed to the series taking place in an alternate timeline. One where retro-futuristic 1950s culture and technology reigns supreme. Generally, this applies to most of the ballistic weapons.
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Some of the sci-fi weapons are also based on real life concepts but they don't have a counterpart per say. This goes back to even the first Fallout title released in 1997. Back then it was an Isometric, Turn-Based RPG. The weapons were more simplistic in design, but their influences can easily be traced, regardless of any graphical limitations.
10 14mm Pistol/Hammerli 280
The first Fallout game featured the 14mm Pistol as a mid game weapon with reasonable damage and accuracy. It is based on the Hammerli 280 pistol, which is a .22 caliber target pistol that hold 6 rounds. Fans will note the similar magazine well and grip, though the game version uses a completely different caliber. Curiously, the 14mm pistol beaten in damage by the .223 Pistol. 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.
9 Mauser M/96 9mm/Mauser C96
One of the first successful automatic handguns, the C96 makes its series debut in Fallout. It is simply named the Mauser M/96 9mm. It 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 in Fallout 2 under the same name, though is much easier to obtain. In Fallout 3, the gun is renamed to "Chinese Pistol" and is chambered in 10mm rather then the historically accurate 7.63 Mauser cartridge.
8 Tommy Gun/M1928 Thompson
The famous M1928 Thompson Submachine gun appears as the Tommy Gun in Fallout 2. Aside from using the weapon's real world namesake, its 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.
7 XL70E3/Enfield XL60
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. In Fallout 2, this rifle is chambered in 5mm while its real life counterpart is chambered in 4.85mm. This weapon was also strictly a prototype and was never mass produced for any military. In the Fallout world, this obviously cannot be the case as it is a rather ubiquitous weapon in the wasteland.
6 Assault Rifle/CETME-C
Fallout 3 is Bethesda's first entry in the series. The shift to a fully 3D FPS/RPG type of game allowed the weapons to be much more detailed than before. The Assault Rifle is one such weapon that benefitted from the higher level of detail. Though its name is essentially generic, it is based off of 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.
5 Chinese Assault Rifle/Kalashnikov Rifles
The the Chinese Assault Rifle in Fallout 3 is an interesting case because its an amalgamation of a few different rifles. It is generally based on various Kalashnikov Rifles such as the AK47, but it also borrows parts from the RPD belt fed machinegun 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 the The 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 games version is erroneously chambered in 5.56x45mm.
4 Service Rifle/AR15
In Fallout: New Vegas the New California Republic troops 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. It features a fixed carry handle and a triangular shaped handguard like the A1 but sports a heavy barrel and Brass deflector like the A2. The rifle has wood furniture on it unlike its real world counterpart's polymer. It also has a side mounted charging handle, distinct from the AR15's "T-shaped" charging handle at the back of the receiver. Both are chambered for 5.56x45mm ammunition.
3 Light Machinegun/M60 + FN Minimi
The Light Machinegun is clearly a combination of two different weapons. The back half is based off of 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 fire 7.62x51mm.
2 Radium Rifle/Volkssturmgewehr 1-5
Though the Radium Rifle in Fallout 4's Far Harbor DLC looks like a crude weapon with a bunch of junk thrown onto it, its crudeness is historically accurate. The rifle its 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 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 .45 caliber. Its real life counterpart, however, is chambered in 7.92x33mm and obviously does not do radiation damage.
1 Assault Rifle/M249 + Lewis Gun
Perhaps the most perplexing gun in Fallout 4 (which is saying a lot considering that there are plasma and laser weapons lying around), the Assault Rifle more closely resembles multiple different kinds of machine guns. It has a large barrel jacket like the Lewis Gun, though also features a nonsensical coolant line as if it's a water-cooled machine gun (the Lewis was air-cooled). The receiver also somewhat resembles an MG08/15 but has a handguard taken straight off of the m249 belt-fed LMG. It is a strange weapon to anyone who even remotely knows about firearms.