Assuming have the tech, I try and put short recon scopes for weapons I will use at typical urban assault ranges - short to medium. For actual CQC, a reflex sight shotgun is my switch.

But of all guns, the combat rifle has a particularly large and obnoxious design for the short recon scope. The scope itself is one thing, but when combined with the closer angle of the combat rifle, the recon scope makes visibility a hassle when looking around for things.

The .308 and .50 sniper rifle on other hand, with approx same size graphic for the short/long recon scope, has far less issue because the sniper is held at the ready at a down angle, placing the sightline of the scope in idle position away from your main view angle.

The combat rifle though, ugh - love the weapon, love having the advantages of the recon scope, but the positioning of gun and scope makes anything other than open field, long range moving around a hassle for my tastes.

I've resorted to just switching out and using a normal short scope - it is much sleeker and less sight line block, although not as functional given no night capacity, and night scope has limitation in use during well lit or fog conditions.

Anyone else find the sight angle blocking of just the combat rifle positioned recon scope a hassle?

I had a similar issue with just a pistol + recon sight. So much screen real estate taken up with the weapon that it was impossible to use in normal exploration. I began holstering it as a workaround, but it did make quick reaction to an attack a bit of a 'mare.

well i don't use the combat rifle but i know the problem you have, i use recon scopes on the sniper rifles and they work good, however the institute lazer rifle has the same problem with some scopes just being in the way and it makes it hard to see when just walking around, so its the same problem, i just use rifles that don't have that issue, i use pipe rifle both 308 with the short recon scope and 50 cal with the long recon scope and don't have that issue with those rifles.

Yea, fortunately it apppears limited to specific weapon models. I noticed it covering huge part of center view of screen on institute laser rifle with recon scopes but i dont use lasers much.

For me it's the combat rifle as my fav, but i can see how issue would be same if you like others affected. For example the .44 pistol also has a pretty blocked view with recon scope. If i had more carry weight i would bring 2 versions, one with recon and one with reflex or normal scope.

For now i just use another weapon to do my recon spotting and red tagging of enemies, and then switch to reg scope weapon.

I assume either before or after geck is released mods will offer plenty of weapon changes, including scopes

It's really annoying I tend to use just small pistols because I can't stand the guns taking 1/2 my screen.

Agreed, I wish you could put on a different sight other than iron sights for close to mid range, I would use scopes but they just take too long to zoom in unless someone makes a mod to CoD insta-zoom.

The combat rifle is a funny animal. I kinda want to put a scope on it for long range use, but it's not as good as a sniper rifle. And if it has a scope on then it svcks for close combat. So I tend to just have a reflex sight, which is great for mid range and then hip fire for close combat if I don't have time to switch weapons.

I took long range scoops off all my weapons besides my sniper(that I rarely use)

If you put a scope on it, it becomes a sniper rifle.

Also a .308 combat rifle does more damage than a .50 hunting rifle for some reason

Maybe that's what I'm doing wrong then. I've been trying to build my hunting rifle into a sniper instead of the combat rifle. The hunting rifle is a .308, but currently mu .50 pipe rifle does more damage and works better as a sniper rifle than the hunting rifle does.

I'm almost lvl 25, which is where all the lvl 3 mods become available, so I'll probably restructure my entire arsenal at that point since I have 3 perks saved up just for that =D

Its a DMR not a sniper, you can even put full auto on it if you love recoil (lol who would put full Auto on it?) But ya it does do more damage than the sniper on both the .308 and the .38 mods respectively so super powerful DMR in my book.

The game calls it a sniper rifle

I will call it a sniper rifle

Honestly, you should just use a scope instead, and if you want, you can put on lower magnification scopes.

So what's the basis of the best, actual, sniper rifle in the game if not the combat rifle? Hunting rifle? Pipe rifle?

Gauss

I have a legendary violent .50 sniper rifle which is really good (violent gives +25% damage and limb damage, at the cost of huge recoil, but since the sniper rifle is bolt action, the recoil doesn't mean anything anyways).

The best of course, would be two-shot .50 sniper rifle (two-shot is pretty much acknowledged as being the most broken legendary mod in the game).

The Gauss rifle doesn't feel "sniper-like" to me for some reason, but yeah, this is true.

Its the hardest hitting rifle in the game and it's suppressable to boot

I wanted to put a recon scope on my super sledge but I could not. The end.

I fixed this issue with mods. The recon scope also looks great now.

Right? All the other mods are like 50% damage against super mutants, or +15 fire damage than their is this "fire 2 shots per bullet" mod making it 200% against all enemies.
May as well be the debug mega pistol from New Vegas

Right, of course, but in terms of a basic mechanical rifle, would it be the hunting rifle or the combat rifle? There are so few basic weapons in this game that there isn't even an actual basic model of a sniper rifle (that I have found at least), they all start out as one thing and end up as something else. I'm not that far into the game that I've fully modded everything yet, but I need a good sniper rifle and currently a pipe rifle is my best option. Which is kinda sad, but it does 82 DMG, which is more than the best hunting rifle sniper I've made.

Combat does more damage and is semi-auto, so that one imo

I had the same issue and quickly switched back to a long scope with my CR. BTW, a CR chambered in 308 with all the relevant upgrades is a beast sniper rifle in DPS department.