I know there are console commands that can be tweaked to help with you dealing the hits, but I'm not sure if it would help at all when it comes to being on the receiving end.
Best thing I could find is
this
But keep in mind some hales have above average melee range and that range can increase as their health lowers, at least for Saxton. Headless Horseman has a big melee range by default
And even if your connection is perfect, if the person who is attacking you is lagging you'll be the victim of shitty hit detection. Kind of like going up against a laggy spy who face stabs you. On their screen your back was to them to some degree, on your screen you were facing them. Same concept carries over to laggy hales. On your screen you could be 5 feet away from hale, on their screen you could appear 2 feet away from them. No tweaking on your end will deal with their lagging, and so you'll be killed due to their lag compensation.