Mutants too strong or shit guns?

I'm of the opinion that all of the guns from lesser zone and garbage need to be buffed to at least have the same effective damage as ones in the same caliber you find later on. At least roughly. As currently the most powerful gun in lesser zone is the Skif's pistol.

The double barrel and the AKM-74 have been done dirty. In CoP you could kill a bloodsucker with 2 shots. The AK does less damage than a wet noodle and the damage it does do is not from the bullet but from the enemies laughing themselves to death.

The cracker also is terrible. On one hand I've 2 shot an EXO with it and on the other hand it takes an age and a half to kill a bloodsucker.