Ok, yeah. Pushing the Envelope stuff is entirely optional material that is there to either make the scene more difficult if the GM feels the party is tougher/better than average, or just as extra filler material to broaden/lengthen the adventure should you either be running ahead of schedule (at, say, a convention time slot) or for when you're not confined by schedules (like a home game version).
So my guess is either your GM didn't accurately assess the threat level the sniper posed, or he assumed that you could handle the sniper easily enough.
And 7 hits is about 3 hits more than average. The target should have gotten 4 hits, with a chance at a 5th hit, for the average.
Bull