Counterattack with Bows, Crossbows, and Atlatls does not use Bare-handed damage?

Here's my short experiment on Atlatls:
Bare Hands damage:242~342
Counterattack test subject : Mutant Rabbit
Damage dealt:
701 (highest observed)
573(lowest observed)
699
629
633
671

Average: 651

Bone Atlatl without Javelins equipped damage range: 96~225
Damage dealt:
759 (highest observed)
543 (lowest observed)
713
703
651
649

Average : 670

Bone Atlatl with Long Javelin LT equipped damage range : 106~260
Damage dealt:
819 (highest observed)
623 (lowest observed)
811
669
767
775

Average: 744

From what it seems, my Atlatl counterattack does much more than bare hands, but the odd thing is that my bare hands has a higher max than my Atlatl yet I've never observed higher than a 701 with bare hands. Not even the crits on Bare Hands ever did higher than 700 (perhaps it's because of the Rabbit's low ranked Critical Hit) Maybe I didn't do enough experiments but then it's still odd how a 342 Max damage on average does less than a 260 Max Atlatl damage range. Not to mention my Bare Hand's Minimum Damage exceeds my Atlatl's Maximum Damage. It's very odd.