Why the rush to Vegas? Not like it's going anywhere.

Not to piss on your parade, but that probably ain't happenin'

You're just going to end up disappointed and dead. Maybe not in that order.

I just stuck with a fully modified Varmint Rifle for the longest time.
I still keep it with me, in fact. I only use my Sniper Rifle on the big baddies.
Heck those .556 rounds did just fine for clearing the deck at the NCRCF. It was awesome being up in the cliffs across from the entrance and dropping mr. mouth by the door and the guys in the guard towers.
I got a good giggle out of that.

You don't need to kill the deathclaws in order to rush to Vegas quickly. Just saying.

Inside a locked room in a ruined building, to the east of Mole Rat Ranch

Ratslayer was actually kinda tough for me to get on hard/hardcoe.

Those rats in there are brutal at low level! Especially since you don't actually have any good weapons yet, since you're going in to get one. I don't think I died (almost did a few times) but ED-E died several times and I had to reload.

yeah, i went in there at level 6, on normal, hardcoe. decided to have ed-e waiting at the entrance after 2 failed attempts.
those rodents are really tough, but with some dynamite, psycho, med-x and some tactics, i finally prevailed.
and damn, how satisfying it was to hold the reward in my hands then

When in doubt, bring Boone with you.

Yeah.....Boone and ED-E working together lasts about 3 seconds against those rats. Most of the time the instant {CAUTION] happens they rush into the middle of the main chamber and get owned. Safe option is going solo with a SMG (9mm most likely) and loads of bullets. Leave the moron followers outside.

? Just stay sneak and use the barrels to block the path to the main chamber

If you want companion to stick with you, you should sneak. This prevents them from rushing forward.

Right....Go try that and lemme know how it works out. Don't waste your time as I'll give you a play-by-play on exactly how this goes down as I've seen it first hand too many times already.

-You sneak into a the cave at low level.
-One of these rats detects your presence in the cave and starts looking.
-Both Boone and ED-E will start counter hunting for this rat. Even on passive tactics.
-Those two twits moving around stir up the rest of the rats in the meantime. Now everyone is looking to fight.
-Boone, ED-E and allot of mean rats will meet up in the main chamber. The shooting starts.
-A few seconds later you get to click "OK" on four pop-ups.

Followers are just a liability here in with default equipment loadouts. Leave'em outside and do it solo. Hose down the 1-3 rats near Ratslayer with SMG fire. Grab your prizes and slink out if everything goes well. If it doesn't go well you have the luxury of a good defensive position and the rats will be easy to fend off with 300+ rounds of 9mm ammo. Recovered powder charges from around goodsprings helps, but not vital.

Ok, am I missing something here? I got the Ratslayer and the Sniper Rifle last night after reading these posts. I've read on this post a couple times about picking people off from a far distance. When I use the sniper rifles the accuracy is no better than my damn Cowboy Repeater! I mean I'm using the VAT system to determine the accuracy and percentage of the difference between my Cowboy Repeater and Sniper Rifle. Am I doing something wrong? Do I need to just right click and use the scope and shoot myself in order to get this crazy distance you people speak of? Please help! Because I'm trying to make my guy a sniper but I don't see any benefits when the distance with a SNIPER RIFLE is no better than a rifle with no scope....

Already have some characters going, not happy with how they are turning out, looking at restarting. Just don't want to have to go through the entire round about way to get to new vegas and the fort south of there. And finding stealth boys early is iffy. Need to get there to get caps early. I love how you don't lose rep if they don't see you kill their members or if there are no witnesses. I snipe the NCR members and those, cant remember name, the drugged up guys. The legion give 10 caps for each dog tag to the 2 caps you get from the NCR, is great way to get on their good side. Plus good weapons from the NCR, keep one and sell the rest. I don't remember if I use the varmint rifle or the sniper rifle to take them out, but need one to get past the deathclaws. Need caps for ammo, and especially C4. Love that, was how I took out an entire legion camp without rep loss. As long as you kill them all at once, nobody reports you. love that stuff

You don't use vats with a sniper rifle. You just use the scope and free aim it. patience is the snipers best tool, as long as you have a good supply of caps.

I find sniping a great cap saver....

As someone said earlier, just east of mole rat ranch is a broken building with the doors closed, front and back with a sniper rifle inside. Just be aware that both doors are booby trapped. Inside is a hard locked door so you need to be able to boost lock pick to 75. Mole rat ranch is just NE of the medical center with implants.

To the poster who wants stealth boys. Go to Novac and do the ‘Come fly with me’ quest. There are several in the building, but if you’re at a lower level stay out of the basemant.

A question: I saw somebody mention how they gave Boone a sniper rifle. I'd never thought of that. So does it make a big difference or is he best when he uses his own gun?

If you go to Jamestown you can get 2 sniper rifles by killing the mercenaries. I used a Stealthboy to insert a hot potato in each of their pants. Put companions on hold near Marcus.