Hey guys, I'm lvl 9 or so and i'm having a hard time finding a good shotgun and a good sniper rifle. So far I've only found a single shotgun and a caravan shotgun. I sold them both (I want to defend myself, not leisurely hunt squirrels).

Also, where is a good long range weapon? This varmint rifle doesn't have near enough range OR power.

Thanks guys

Dinnerbell is my favorite weapon in the game, hands down. It wreaks anything within a couple shots.

There's a sniper rifle at the 1st recon tent in Camp McCarran, free for the taking. Sometimes it'll sink into the matress though, making it impossible to get without using the console.
You can steal the scoped repeater rifle that Corporal Sterling of the 1st Recon has. First steal his ammo, then exit the camp and reenter. Then you should be able to get his rifle.
The unique varmint rifle, Ratslayer, packs quite a punch. It can be found in a cave east of the Legion Raider Camp.
You can find a hunting rifle in poor condition at some train cars close to Boulder City. Look for a skeleton. With a bit of luck, you should be able to find a scope for it from the Gunrunners or the Crimson Caravan around your level.

The Caravan Shotgun isn't half bad, but you should be able to find a lever-action shotgun or two from the Fiends around Driver Nelphi.
There's a hunting shotgun at the Nuclear Test Side to the far south. Lots of nasty ghouls about though.

You're going to have to live with the caravan or sawed-off until later when you get access to Gun-Runners and what not, then the nice shotguns show up.
As for snipers, a hunting rifle with a scope mod is my preferred choice, because the sniper rifle does not do as much DAM. You can get hunting rifles pretty early in the game. You won't be able to get a nice Anti-Material Rifle until much later.

Thanks for the tips, keep em coming!

I happened upon the Gunrunners at 188 a few hours ago. There wasn't a good shotgun nor rifle but there was a hunting rifle scope. Should I pick that up and make the hunting rifle, once I find one, my sniper rifle of choice for now?

Sure, it's perfectly good weapon ^^

You can purchase a Lever Shotgun right from the start from Miguels Pawn shop. That gun is much better then the other two early shotfuns.

Brewer's Beer Bootlegging in the hills west of Sunset Sarsaparilla Factory is a good place to get good condition high level guns, including Hunting Shotgun adn Sniper Rifle. You just need to be able to deal with a swarm of Cazadors. The door and cabinet are locked, but key for both can be found in the shack. Save outside the shack and raid it until you get what you need

Hunting Shotgun in the Old Nuclear Test Site, good luck getting past the ghouls and radiation. (l advise you bring your best weapon and some Rad-X)

Just get Big Boomer by killing old lady gibson


NOTE:You will lose a merchant who gives weapons,weapon mods etc.

Maybe if something is sunk in - like the rifle in the matress - putting something down on the matress will shift it so it can be grabbed. Just an idea, never tried it, thought it might be something to try for those of us who cannot use console commands

alternatively, a stealth boy would do it, too

I never understood why they put this weapon in the game, because it's inferior to the Riot Shotgun and you can get the Riot Shotgun much earlier in the game. How is Dinner Bell better?

Hunting rifle and Hunting shotgun. Easy places to get them are: for the hunting rifle you could hunt fiends they tend to have them a lot. the hunting shotgun one of the easiest places to find it is at the horowitz farmstead, Its in the back of the truck. ( http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Horowitz_Farmstead ) It is usually broken so make some weapon repair kits. You might want to check some traders for the scope for the rifle and shotgun choke and the shotgun, Cause these mods are realy a must for these guns. I suggest both weapon dealers at the 188, the gun runners or blake at the crimson caravan company.

A grenade or something might blast it out.
It's never sunk into the mattress for me...this game can be so wonky.

Sorry to say this but that bit made me tetchy..if it aint working you're not doing it right.
Make slug ammo, a whole heap of it.. tag shotgun surgeon, tag rapid reload, pick up a caravan at level 6.. anything you face this early in game is dead in seconds.
I've killed every single giant rad scorpion, npc and even quarry junctions areas with this set up.

Enough about my lust over the caravan though..
To answer for shotguns do you want bought or free with blood spilt.
Free with blood: Head south of Nipton over some hills, you should first come to the legion safe house, then just past that is an area crawling with feral ghouls.
To the right is a nuclear test site which has a shack there, enter the shack there's a hunting shotgun there.
Bought: Head to the Gun Runners.

Hunting rifles:
Free: Head to Boulder City, if you look just north there's a bunch of sleeper trains, on the northside is a hunting rifle abandoned.
Stolen: Cliff Briscoe' house in Novac.
Earliest and bought with blood: Just down the road from the Mojave outpost to the south is a cave of nightstalkers.
Inside the cave there's a sack in it is a randomly spawned gun.. either a lever action shotgun, a .44 pistol or more commonly a hunting rifle.
The cave itself is an easy fight.

You can find a lever-action shotgun at Durable Dunn's sacked caravan, due east of the Gun Runners. This served me well for many levels. Also a Plasma Rifle and combat armour is here as well.

I love the AMR and The hunting Rifle with a scope. My favorite shotgun is of course the Dinner Bell.