Is it a design feature (limited draw distance so I guess it would make sense to limit the range)? Or are there realistic factors I'm just not considering like bullet drop and wind? Or is it purely the mods I'm using and SMGs disguised as ARs and carbines?
Why? Am I just really bad? I like to think not, they're definitely in my sights and I have max guns skill and trigger discipline. I'm firing in short controlled bursts and missing everything but when I enter VATS I have a 60%+ chance to hit the head and insta-kill them. The weapons I've been using are awful at any sort of mid/long range firefights, I can't hit anything over about 300ft away, miss well over 50% of the time at the 200ft range (purely guessing the distance but still child's play for any sort of rifle) and only start to have any real effect in CQC.
I always used to end up with some kind of DMR or sniper rifle by the end of the game so I decided to switch it up a bit this time and now have an M4 Carbine I got from a mod I installed (basically an assault carbine with a red dot sight). Something that I've only really thought about recently is the effective range of most weapons (referring to guns).