I don't use snipers

.308 combat rifle semi auto advanced receiver,long ported barrel, sharpshooters stock, large quick change mag & a suppressor I use a short normal optics scope works better than my similar build on a .50 suppressed hunting rifle

Double shot Combat Rifle converted to .308. Much higher rate of fire than the .50 cal Hunter Rifle and also more damage. I still haven't found a double shot Hunter Rifle yet though.

Fully modded 50.Cal Sniper Rifle that has a legendary attribute of doing double damage if the target is at full health.

Riba II !

The Anti-Materi.....never mind.

I too am using the .50cal sniper rifle but have a .308 on whatever companion is following me. I typically am running with a .44 pistol or heavily combat shotgun as a primary though, depending in if I am outdoors or indoors. The Sniper is purely for sneak attacks or taking put a suicider.

Overall, I think the Sniper Rifle is drastically underpowered.

Yep...and remember when we actually had explosive rounds for the (nameless item) and could load them up when we wanted to, and didn't have to wait on a ridiculous RNG to drop some sort of magical capability...oh and we also had AP, Incendiary, and even Match Ammo...you know, more options as to how you wanted to play, or snipe.

I'm still not that far through the game, so I just modded up a supermute hunting rifle. Stuck on a long barrel, long scope and a decent receiver.

It does what I want. Drops most things from a sneak attack and lets me hit and run effectively.

I am looking forward to getting a decent base model to work with, however.

Currently using a Hunting rifle, with the long ported barrel, marksman stock, long recon scope, .50 cal receiver, large quick-change mag and suppressor.

Works superbly for long range stealth kills, with 1 hit kills on most enemies. I have the 40% perk modifier.

I have a Two-shot hunting rifle modded with long proted barrel, marksman stock, short recon scope, .50 caliber receiver and suppressor. I stopped using it only because I found something better:

An Instigating gauss rifle, modded with a shielded shielded barrel, recoil compensating stock, capacitor boosting coil, short recon scope and a suppressor.

I use the *Old Faithful legendary laser rifle, with maxed out sniper mods. Does 2x base damage to targets at full health, so sneak attacks do nearly 4x base dmg, accounting for wonky stat math. All that with a range of like 260 something.

One-shot-one kill headshots most enemies, and takes a pretty huge chunk of HP out of anything else tough enough to shrug off a beam like that off their 'dome.

As much as I would like a .50 more like a RW anti-material rifle, i haven't found or been able to mod anything even close to what that laser can do for me.

You could just use the legendary modifications mod and totally rid your game of the RNG aspect of legendary items.

I've been very tempted to just use a console command to add the legendary effect to my sniper rifle. I may end up doing this at some point if I don't find one on my own. It's kinda cheating, but meh. I don't consider it that much of a 'cheat.' More like an expansion of my weapon crafting station lol

I had a two shot laser musket with a six crank mod. That was some power.

since like 80% of the people posting here are all saying the last minute or some type of gauss rifle i thought id share my sniper, i actually have a laser musket with the recon long scope and six crank with a legendary modifier of doing more damage if the target is at full health and it is an absolute BEAST usually 1 shoting my enemies unless its something like a behemoth or something big like that in which case it still does a very respectable chunk of their health usually at least 2/3rds gone in one shot on a behemoth or mire lurk queen. i gotta test it with some psycho and other drugs maybe i can intact one shot a behemoth with the right perks lol

I have that piece, fully modded to snipe. The .50, with almost the same set up seems to hit a little harder, outside of the first shot of course.

Stabilized Scoped Missile Launcher

I was doing good with a fully upgraded combat rifle using .308 ammo, but then I found a plasma sniper that did an additional 50 points radiation damage. Used it a few times, but hated the slow bolt speed. I mean if the enemy tried they could easily dodge it, or if they happen to move a few seconds after I shoot. Finally just went back to the .308 combat rifle, but would like to find a nice legendary perk on a combat rifle for it.

The best sniping weapon is a good base weapon with a good legendary mod. Many of them are only going to be found by complete luck.

Base weapons:

Gause rifle is hands down the strongest base sniper weapon. Easily 2.5 times more base damage than the closest competetor when fully modded.

The .50 mod on a sniper rifle is the second highest single shot damage, but has several disadvantages to offset that, mitigated by vats usage. I still enjoyed carrying one around for a long time.

The .308 mod on a combat rifle is about 80-90%% of the damage of the .50 sniper, but fires a lot faster, which makes it a perfectly servicable sniping weapon, that you dont need to swap when that ghoul charges you.

Plasma/Laser weapons are decent damage wise, but you cant put surpressors on them, so they tend to be weaker for stealth sniping play, so I dont use them a lot. They dont outdamage the other options enough to make up for the lack.

Legendary mods:

Double shot is a strong mod, but actually debatable for sniping usage, as you will rarely hit with both at sniping distances, you are just making it twice as easy for enemys to hear you. A unique exists with this mod for a .308 combat rifle.

Vats accuracy one is handy for medium to long encounters, it costs more vats to shoot (but even on a .50, you can usually get a shot off), but makes a headshot more likely, extreme range will still miss in vats. A unique exists for this mod with a .50 sniper.

If you use Vats a lot, the one that increases crit generation and crit damage is quite strong. A unique exists for this mod on a laser rifle.

Normally crippling is a solid mod, but if you are sniping you should be going for the kill rather than a leg wound. A unique exists for this mod on a gause rifle.

There is a mod that gives double damage to full health targets. That would be nuts on a gause rifle, probably the best sniping mod, which is why I have never seen it on a rifle of any sort :/.

There is a mod that reduces vats cost, which can be nice, especially for the .50 sniper which mitigates a lot of its disadvantages when used in vats.

The various +damage mods are all solid on sniping weapons, such as plasma or bleed. +damage on certain mob types is more debatable, great sometimes, extra weight others.

I havent run into any other mods that really seem great for a sniping weapon.

I saw the "double damage on full health" mod on a pipe gun and considered making another pipe sniper to use it, but the pipe gun had other issues when compared to the .308 combat rifle so I didn't. But would love to find that mod on a combat rifle.

Thank you! Someone else that understands the laser musket is actually a sniper rifle! Undervalued and often forgotten because they're not often dropped, if at all for some people. 6 cranks on top of the stealth multiplier is a lot of damage. It only gets better with the instigating effect, but good luck finding that legally.

Plasma weapon would make a better shotgun than sniper. Though does it even have a "scatter" barrel mod?

Anyway, Laser Musket is the obvious early game choice for an energy sniper, with each "crank" multiplying it's damage. For late game there's no beating Gauss Rifle, though. Even without ability to mod it. And like i said, the Missile Launcher is surprisingly accurate, and of course powerful.

I dunno, for me its more of a measure for those of us with rotten luck. I have clocked in over a hundred hours on my first play through and can literally count on one hand, with three fingers the amount of useful weapons I have gotten from legendary enemies.

This is true. I've kept all of the legendary guns and armor that I've found, but I use almost none of it.