The melee attack on the rifle/cavalry musket are already slow as ****, if you end up being spammed by those then it by your own fault and not because of the weapon, a skirmisher with rifle would have no chance against someone of the same level charging on his horse, again if you manage to die in such a duel -> your own fault, don't blame the weapon, you should probably train more.
However I do agree that the trust and up animation on these rifle are a bit glitchy and random.
To compensate a nerf in damage (which is not really needed seing the stats) maybe adding knockdown to those blunt weapon would make sense.