Today I was testing a modified version of the powershot perk from the archery tree. It's identical to the original perk except for the fact that it staggers every time (as opposed to only 50% of the time). While I was testing the perk I noticed that I could reliably stagger opponents that were relatively close to me but, if they were a bit far away, I couldn't stagger them at all. All the opponents used in my tests were bandits.
Is powershot supposed to be ineffective at long range?