I was playing normal level, city terror site against what looked like un-armored Caesians. He was armed with a regular ballistic rifle on both a one-story building and then a two story building. Did manage to suppress them, but no hits against three different targets. I only had the one suit of buzzard armor (just bought the game last week) and then restarted a campaign on the experimental branch after I lost SA.
oops, just saw Wizard_Hat's reply...
I will chalk it up to rng unless I see more evidence as my game progresses.