I mainly ask this because, I noticed I never found anything better than a Service Rifle (I don't want to know where stuff is, just making a statement here), even while exploring alot of different area's. I found the Automatic Rifle in Dead Money, however as far as i' concerned, that DLC is crap and I refuse to subject myself to it for that gun. However, I never really did alot of damage via the regular guns (Cowboy Repeater, Service Rifle, etc) regardless of my guns skill. Granted, I didn't continue past level 12 because I just couldn't stand how weak my damage was in hardcoe mode when my enemies are taking me down faster, when 80% of their shots don't even hit me. I figure i'd eventually stumble across some decent guns through more exploring, but I know this isn't guarentee'd and I know it wouldn't be until a bit later in the game.
(For the record, on my EW character, I found 3 unique EW weapons through exploring, and they were lovely compared to anything else).
(Also, I do remember having "The Gun" from Novac but, I don't feel like running around with a hand-cannon as my only source of damage. Makes me feel like a [censored] when my handgun makes bad-guys explode.)