Are you looking for a more realistic implementation of firearms in Fallout 4? Tired of the shotgun being as unrealistically useless over longer ranges as any other game? Do you dislike the fact that random perks magically change your and your enemies' weapon damage? Then this mod might be for you.

What this mod changes:

• Updates any weapon that shoots bullets i.e. the hunting rifle, pipe guns, pistols etc. to be much closer to their real life counterparts using real world ballistics calculators. This includes weapons used by the player, their companions, turrets, Vertibird guns, all other enemy guns so the changed weapon stats is for you as well as for your enemies.
• Shoot "real" bullets with bullet drop and velocity. Bullets are modified to be projectiles in the game, instead of laser beams as in vanilla. Done with a simple change in the mod config from type "Beam" to "Missile" and set gravity and velocity. Then velocities are individually mapped per round to use the same velocity values used in all other calculations for the mod, adding another dimension of realism.
• The combat shotgun got a much more real to life update. It's shot spread is made more realistic and is now MUCH more useful over distance. It also received choke mods so that shot spread can be adjusted with these mods. Other factors such as sneaking, aiming over iron sights and some perks no longer magically change the shot spread.
• Bayonets, spikes, compensators and muzzle breaks barrel attachments do not affect damage and range anymore as they do not cause changes to the bullet path through the barrel. Porting still has an effect as they reduce the barrel's effective length
• Recoil removal and accuracy enhancements on laser weapons. Laser weapons should not have recoil and as a result, should also shoot more accurately
• Map in game bullet types to their closest real life counterparts as far as possible
• Weapon damage is primarily based on ammunition type used, barrel length, barrel porting and barrel attachments such as silencers
• Modifies perks and other sources of weapon damage or range alteration that is not true to life. The perks themselves are kept, but their affect on gun damage and range is either removed or greatly decreased
  

• I highly recommend any of the great damage multiplier mods to increase damage received and dealt as this mod does not do that. I use Advanced Needs 2 with incoming and outgoing damage set to 4X. This helps keep enemies and yourself from being "bullet sponges".
• There are no dependencies for this mod currently, you just need vanilla FO4 - for some reason I could not add this in the page's dependencies list. I will most likely add DLC weapons and other modded weapons in future, and off coarse you would then need those DLC's and gun mods that apply
  

NOTE:

• Mod version 0.4.0 is not compatible with other mods that change bullets into actual projectiles i.e. those that set bullet velocity and bullet drop as this version does that as well.
• Other weapon mods do not automatically follow the mechanics that this mod has, their barrel mods, receiver mods, ammo type etc. need to be mapped separately to behave the way this mod does. If there is a weapon mod you'd like to have mapped with the realistic changes in this mod, let me know and I might include it.
• Always keep a saved game ready to be able to reload your game before installing any mod. If this mod does not work for you, uninstall it, and reload said clean save you made prior to installing this mod
• Weapon receiver mods (other than automatic, rapid automatic, ammunition conversion, hair trigger) might be almost useless compared to vanilla BUT I still kept them there so that if you currently have some of these mods installed on your guns, it will not cause unexpected gun stat effects.
• This mod does not change to any game files and can be disabled/uninstalled easily by removing it from your load order. For the cleanest result, revert to a save prior to installing the mod as mentioned above.
  

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General Methodology Used:
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• Chose a base barrel for each weapon. This base barrel does not receive any damage or range changes, but the gun's base values are set for this barrel. Ideally, this would be a snub barrel or other type of fixed barrel that some weapons have, for others a standard barrel needs to be chosen
• Each weapon and associated barrel mods are exported to a 3D editing program and measured accurately. Each type of gun (rifle, revolver, pistol) is taken into account as to where the measurement is started using industry standard techniques. Each barrel mod is then added to the base guns and measured to get a set of measurements for each weapon and all it's possible barrel combinations.
• All these barrel measurements are then fed into an internal (inside the barrel) ballistics calculator along with the documented real world bullet characteristics such as bullet weight, bore diameter and cartridge pressure to calculate the muzzle energy, i.e. the damage. Once this is done, an external ballistics (once bullet left the barrel and are in flight) calculator is used along with the bullet weight, ballistics drag coefficient, muzzle velocity etc. to calculate at which distance the bullet reaches half of its energy i.e. the range of the weapon/barrel/ammo combo. The outcome of this process gives us very realistic numbers to base gun (especially barrel) mods on. The ballistics calculators used are the same ones used in real life to get good estimations on a weapon's power output, range and bullet flight characteristics.
  

Range calculation is a more intricate topic, but suffice it to say that this figure is calculated as the range at which the bullet is reduced to half of it's muzzle  energy/damage, while in flight. It was not calculated to the point where the bullet reached 0 energy as this would cause inaccurate calculations as the bullet moves from super sonic to sub sonic, to a near full stop in forward movement, and just keeps falling. Also, most bullets in the game diminishes to 50% damage at a point beyond what you would use that round and weapon for. With this mod, bullet energy stars falling off shortly after the bullet leaves the barrel and gradually loses energy until 50% loss, off in the distance

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Ammunition changes:
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Ammunition names were updated to the real world names used to base weapon damage and range off of:
10mm Round -> 10mm Auto Round
.308 Round -> .308 Winchester Round
.38 Round -> .38 Special Round
.44 Round -> .44 Magnum Round
.45 Round -> .45 ACP Round
.50 Round -> .50 BMG Round (Yes, you now have a VERY powerful sniper rifle)
5.56 Round -> 5.56x46mm Round
5mm Round -> Kept as the 5mm round, but uses 5.56x46mm damage and range characteristics

I took each bullet's stats (bullet weight, drag coefficient and muzzle velocity) into account to build the base damage and range for each weapon.

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Weapon changes:
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The following weapons had their base damage and damage falloff over distance changed to be much more in line with their real world counterparts. Base damage and range values here are set based on the ammunition type the gun uses as well as the length of the standard barrel used by the gun.

• 10mm based guns
• .44 base guns
• Assault rifle
• Combat rifle
• Combat shotgun (Now enjoy a more realistic shotgun, unlike what you've experienced in games in general). Shot spread and damage updated to make this shotgun more true to life and a much more useful tool. Also, things like aiming over iron sights, sneaking, and other unrealistic perks do not change the shot spread anymore. Shot spread is now only changed via the use of chokes
• Deliverer
• Double barrel shotgun - The same changes to the Combat Shotgun is applied here, except that chokes were not added
• Hunting rifle - Two extended barrel options were added as the .50 BMG round begs for a longer barrel to make better use of it's power. 
• Minigun
• Pipe Boltaction
• Pipe pistol (Pipe gun in the game)
• Pipe revolver
• Submachine gun
  

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Weapon mod changes:
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• Weapon receiver mods no longer affect range or damage. Player can switch to automatic receivers and not suffer a damage/range penalty
• Each barrel mod is exported to 3D editing software to measure the length of the barrel accurately, then it is fed into the ballistics calculators to get realistic numbers for the change it makes to damage and range.
• Damage and range is also now made to increase and decrease together as it would in real life. If the damage increases, so does the range in proportion
• Added choke mods for the Combat Shotgun so that pellet spread is mainly adjusted with these new mods, instead of receivers mods
  

TODO:
Update the descriptions of these weapon mods to reflect what they are actually changing. For now their effects can be viewed on the left
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Perks changes:
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My assumption here is that there should not be perks that affect gun damage or range. A gun is a mechanical system that can only perform better in terms of damage and range by using other mechanical systems such as gun mods. Improvements in player ability should not affect damage and range.

Removed affects on gun damage and bullet range on from Perks:

• Player's perks: Adrenaline, Lady Killer, all Gunslinger, all Rifleman, Bloody Mess, all Commando, Black Widow, all Heavy Gunner, Sneak attack bonus, Know Your enemy, all Astoundingly Awesome, Inspirational, Lone Wanderer, Grinder, Accuracy
• Enemy levelling perks: crDamage 75, 125, 15, 20, 25 and 30 (relating to weapon damage only, creature damage, hand to hand and melee will still level up as normal).
  

I still need some ideas as to how perks can adjust player performance with guns, in place of the removed damage and range stats

Finally, many changes went into putting this mod together, increasing the likelihood of minor glitches. If you find any problems or have any suggestions, let me know!