Effective range just means you can hit what you're aiming at at that range, says nothing about penetration or stopping power. Maybe civies have the same "armor" values as other units?
Point blank shot with SVD on rifleman takes him down with 1 shot. Still think it's ballistics at play.
* I'm dropping targets at 700m with 1 shot with the SVD. Not sure what the problem is.

**Was getting headshots

Yeah, torso hits at longer ranges take more hits, still think ballistics is a proper explanation though.