BTW, being such a poor shot with that bolt action pipe sniper rifle REALLY pisses me off!
I hope there’s more useful optics for recon and higher quality sniper rifles somewhere in this game. ;)
Are you holding your breath (ALT key) for the shots?
There are a couple steady aim perks also but you need your strength to be a certain level to even get access to them.
The Recon scopes help a lot as well. Larger field of view.