Equipping the sniper rifle may cause the game to slow down severely and most likely freeze.Crashes or very severe slowdowns are common when the player character reaches the top of a hill or ridge and the landscape and sky beyond become visible.Waiting 73 hours can fix this occasionally by resetting all cells except the one you are in. Crashes often when you near completion of the game.Turning the pip-boy radio off and leaving it off seems to help quite a bit.The Fallout Wikia has a long list of things that you can try, but here's just a few of the most relevant ones: As the game wears on, the chances of you encountering one or more crashing bugs becomes increasingly likely.