where is a good place to find them early on?

Define 'early on.'

Pretty sure I bought my first sniper rifle, along with it's suppressor and carbon fiber mods, at the 188 Trading Outpost... if it's available prior to that, I missed it unfortunately.

Varmit rifle & Cowboy Repeater are the common ones early on, before going further North where in Vegas you have a wide range of choices from the Gun runners. If i recall though, one of the Legion guys in Nelson has a Hunting rifle, but you have to kill for it.

gun runners is the first place that you can find that almost always carrys them. its right outside vegas.

its very expensive though (around 5,400 caps with low barter) but its at full condition

188 Trading Post or The Gun Runners next to Freeside.

The weapons and mods are randomly generated I believe.

Actually in Macarren(spelling?) base outside the Vegas walls you can find the $5000 sniper rifle on the top bunk , in where the 1st Recon guys hang out.

There's a boobie trapped crumpled house just south of NV that has a sniper rifle upstairs.

I found mine in......

Ratslayer.

I found Sniper Rifles appeared at the 188 (Gun Vendor not the shop) for me at level 14. It was a ton, 5K, but so very very worth it.

That rifle is nothing more than an amped up varmint rifle if you ask me, hardly qualifies as a real sniper rifle.

IN terms of early on in the quest line, your not gonna be very lucky. If you wanna get one early on, your gonna have to pour points into your lock picking skill, go to the Sniper nest that is located around Cottonwood cove ( the Legion Base by nelson) and lock pick a container and get a unique sniper rifle. Your best bet if you wanna get a fix for your smoking needs is to go and use the Varimant rifle + Nightscope. I got very lucky with one of my characters and when i went up to the shop keeper in goodsprings he had both the nightscope and extended mags for the varimant rifle. you could also go after the ratslayer weapon (which uses a ton of AP points when useing vats). Or if you cant find one by the time you get up to the New Vegas area, go to that one vault that has the All American Marksman carbine in it. Not only will you get that and a lot of other wepaons, but i believe there is a sniper rifle n the stash also.

Oh yeah, that's where I got that. Damn it, then where did I pick up my sniper rifle. *ponders* I can't remember. I know it was just sitting out and not considered stealing though.

If I remember I'll post back.

lvl 8

well as said before your either gonna want either a hunting rifle with scope OR you can spend about 4k caps in gun runners and get it at around 80% condition

Camp Macarren sitting on a top bunk. Then you need to make a good pile of "Weapon Repair Kits" to keep it fixed.

FYI Ratslayer, or even a Varmint rifle with all mods, does qualify as a sniper rifle. It'll one-hit kill alot of enemies in the game with precise head shots from a long range.

I found mine in...

I found mine in a locked cabinet in the basemant of Brewer's Beer Bootlegging. You have to go through a lot of Cazidores to get to it, though. They are sweet rifles though...far better than the FO3 version.

lockpick 100
snipers nest south east of map

i love my gobi
if it had a bigger bore i would have been arrested by now for violating it sixually

I got mine there too

I got mine at Vault 34 also. And my All-American

Well it's the most pathetic sniper rifle I've ever seen and used... it might one hit kill things when you're a lowbie, but I don't see it tearing the heads off of deathclaws or super mutants. :glare:

oh how I miss my early-game sniper rifle from FO:3 Seems like a much longer journey to one in new vegas, and the varmint rifle feels like a pellet gun even with mods

I used the varmint rifle til about level 20 and took the time to stock up on ammo for other guns. But the hunting is pretty good but I use the antimaterial rifle for a lot now.