i know about the history points, it says i need 5. i should have 7 worth with boone (mcarran spy, pow, booted, nelson quest, and vulpes dead) and i still cant get the quest. what else do i need to do?

Was Boone with you when you did all those things?

Make sure you've explored all his dialogue.

he was with me yes

doesnt want to let me edit my post ok, anyways yes i just checked and i have no further options for conversation with boone

I remember I had to dig pretty deep into the conversation tree to talk about his wife.

Then I went over to Nylson and rescued the troopers

Then a few days later I talked to him again and got the bitterwater option

Then walked around and continued the game and he talked to me about going to bitterwater.

i've hit every relevant option twice or more, he told me the tidbit about when the legion got his wife, that was after nelson. since then nothin

Try heading to Bitterwater directly, maybe it is an proxmity trigger issue.

talked to a 1st recon guy in mccarran and he was yappin about bitter springs and thats what gave me the option to talk to him